One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla • Hacker News Board

Re: One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla

#141

Post by spc476 » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 3:08 AM UTC

sov wrote: post #51

rch wrote: post #6

Growing your own vanilla isn't difficult, but it requires more greenhouse space than you might imagine. The plant grows like a vine, and it'll need to reach about 20' with multiple points of ground contact before producing pods. (as explained to me by an orchid enthusiast)

AS someone with vanilla, I'm gonna disagree with you a bit here. Growing your own vanilla is very difficult ( assuming you're not in a place where it grows outside naturally). Not only do you need a significant amount of greenhouse space (you're right--20' minimum to flower, but the vines can grow up to 120'), you also need all the very specific orchid growing conditions--low water/nutrient, high drainage soil (or ba…

Florida has a few native species of the vanilla orchid: https://www.fairchildgarden.org/Events-Community-Outreach/Ev...

If it weren't for the pollination issue, I would suspect that Florida might have been a natural place to produce vanilla beans.

Re: One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla

#142

Post by chii » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 3:23 AM UTC

spc476 wrote: post #141

sov wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AS someone with vanilla, I'm gonna disagree with you a bit here. Growing your own vanilla is very difficult ( assuming you're not in a place where it grows outside naturally). Not only do you need a significant amount of greenhouse space (you're right--20' minimum to flower, but the vines can grow up to 120'), you also need all the very specific orchid growing conditions--low water/nutrient, high drainage soil (or ba…

Florida has a few native species of the vanilla orchid: https://www.fairchildgarden.org/Events-Community-Outreach/Ev... If it weren't for the pollination issue, I would suspect that Florida might have been a natural place to produce vanilla beans.

i wonder if pollination can be achieved by autonomous drones specifically designed for it?

Re: One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla

#143

Post by dghughes » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 3:27 AM UTC

It's quite delicate work to hand pollinate vanilla orchids this guy tried it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Pguwl9c1Q

Re: One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla

#144

Post by alphakappa » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 3:43 AM UTC

jlewis7272 wrote: post #106

thx11389793 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OT, but why are immigrants called expats when they're from anglophone nations?

Immigrant is the English word that denotes someone moving permanently to a new country. Emigrant means someone going to another country permanently. That is to say, moving to Canada from the US one would be considered an immigrant in Canada and an emigrant in the US. An EXPATRIATE(expat for short) is someone working or living in a country not of their origin, and still consider themselves to be whatever nationality t…

That may be technically correct, but that is unfortunately not the common usage. Regardless of how long you intend to stay in a country, people from the non white countries are almost always called immigrants. I've almost never heard an H1B worker called an expat instead of an immigrant.

Re: One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla

#145

Post by mc32 » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 3:47 AM UTC

AKifer wrote: post #8

And it's even grown only in 2 very specific regions in the north of the island (where most of the cocoa production also come from). There's still huge opportunities if you have enough money and appetite for adventure to start a trading or setting up a plantation. 1ha yields on average 300-400 kg of dried vanilla, a process that takes on average 6-8 months from manual pollination to end of drying. Madagascar is quite…

Apparently Indonesia produces slightly more Vanilla than Madagascar --but maybe the political situation where the beans are grown is not conducive to foreign investment.

Re: One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla

#146

Post by mc32 » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 3:50 AM UTC

quadrangle wrote: post #119

0xcafecafe wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One a side note, I thought of a joke where his "vanilla startup" would be far from a "vanilla" startup. And that got me curious as to why the adjective vanilla refers to anything plain. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vanilla "For lexicographers, vanilla has more flavor than chocolate, because it adds a tasty synonym for plain to the English menu. The noun vanilla was first served up in 1662, but it took a…

FWIW, I think it's fair to push back on bad use of language even as I'm not prescriptive in general. Using "vanilla" to mean "plain" is just wrong and bad. It's possible to make plain, unflavored ice-cream. Vanilla is obviously a real flavor.

Yes and no. I mean, a "regular" pizza is understood to be a cheese pizza, the default or base pizza. I think vanilla ice-cream is the regular pizza of the ice-cream world.

Re: One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla

#147

Post by Dylan16807 » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 4:00 AM UTC

thechao wrote: post #130

ams6110 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that ship has sailed, since the meaning has been in use for almost 50 years now. As someone who can't stand the use of "they" as a singular pronoun, I also understand fights against the evolution of language are battles that I won't win.

“They” as a singular, gender neutral, pronoun dates back to the 14th c. Practically every word you use postdates its use that way. The use of “literally” to mean “figuratively” is nearly as old.

> The use of “literally” to mean “figuratively” is nearly as old.

Please please don't say that. It is not being used to mean that. It is being used in a figurative way to mean "very". This is an ironic but relatively minor shift. It's in no danger of becoming its own opposite.

Re: One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla

#148

Post by parrellel » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 5:16 AM UTC

Is any one else going to call bull on Madagascar being described as "One Island" It's the size of the entire North East. It's twice the size of Britain.

The rest of the article's fine, but, really, click-bait much.

Re: One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla

#149

Post by tbabb » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 5:24 AM UTC

sov wrote: post #51

rch wrote: post #6

Growing your own vanilla isn't difficult, but it requires more greenhouse space than you might imagine. The plant grows like a vine, and it'll need to reach about 20' with multiple points of ground contact before producing pods. (as explained to me by an orchid enthusiast)

AS someone with vanilla, I'm gonna disagree with you a bit here. Growing your own vanilla is very difficult ( assuming you're not in a place where it grows outside naturally). Not only do you need a significant amount of greenhouse space (you're right--20' minimum to flower, but the vines can grow up to 120'), you also need all the very specific orchid growing conditions--low water/nutrient, high drainage soil (or ba…

Why can't the bees be cultivated/bred?

Re: One Island Grows 80% of the World’s Vanilla

#150

Post by jmd1 » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 6:13 AM UTC

AKifer wrote: post #8

And it's even grown only in 2 very specific regions in the north of the island (where most of the cocoa production also come from). There's still huge opportunities if you have enough money and appetite for adventure to start a trading or setting up a plantation. 1ha yields on average 300-400 kg of dried vanilla, a process that takes on average 6-8 months from manual pollination to end of drying. Madagascar is quite…

Ive known friends in the South Indian state of Kerala (where the climate is very suited for vanilla cultivation) whose families are struggling to raise Vanilla as an intercrop in their existing plantations due to labour shortfall. As the article states, the main ingredient required here is cheap manual labour without which this venture is doomed to fail.