Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology

At the summit of a mountain close to Papantla, was the temple of Tonacayohua, the goddess of food and planting crops. During the reign of King Teniztli III, one of his wives gave birth to a daughter whose beauty was so great that she was named Tzacopontziza (“Bright Star at Sunrise”), and was consecrated to the cult of Tonacayohua.

As time passed, a young prince named Zkatan-Oxga (“Young Deer”) and Tzaco-pontziza fell in love, knowing that this sacrilege was condemned by death.

One day, Bright Star at Sunrise left the temple to look for tortillas to offer to Tonacayohua, and fled with the young prince to the jagged mountains in the distance. Not before long, a monster appeared and surrounded them by a wall of flames, and ordered them to return.

When the couple returned to the temple, a group of irate priests had been waiting for them, and before Zkatan-Oxga could say anything, the young lovers were shot with darts, and their bodies were brought to a temple where their hearts were removed, and their carcasses were thrown down into a canyon.

In the place where the bodies landed there was a herb, and its leaves started to wilt as if the scattered blood of the victims had scorched the plant like a curse. Sometime later a new tree began to grow, and within days its vigorous growth covered all the ground around it with its brilliant foliage.

When finally it stopped growing, next to its trunk began to grow an orchid that climbed and also was amazingly vigorous. Within a short amount of time, it had branched and covered the trunk of the tree with its fragile and elegant leaves, and protected by the tree, the orchid grew more until finally it took the form a woman lying in the embrace of her lover.

One day the orchid became covered with small flowers and the whole area was filled with an exquisite aroma. Attracted to the pleasant smell, the priests and the pueblo came to observe, and no one doubted that the blood of the young lovers had transformed into the tree and the climbing orchid.

To their surprise, the beautiful little flowers also transformed into large, thin fruits. When the fruits matured, they released a sweet, subtle perfume whose essence invoked the innocent soul of Bright Star at Sunrise and the most exotic fragrances.

This is how the vanilla was born, the one that is called “Caxixanath” (Recondite Flower), which is a sacred plant and a divine offering in Totonac temples.

1.2 CULTIVATION METHODS

Vanilla is a hemi-epiphytic orchid that in cultivation needs a tree to provide physical support, shade, and organic material.

In Mexico, vanilla is cultivated in different settings:

• in environments similar to the natural habitat, i.e. a forest composed of mostly secondary vegetation (“acahual”), which is the “traditional” style;

• intercropped with other crops such as coffee or orange;

• “intensively”, with Erythrina sp. or Gliricidia sepium as support trees; and

• “intensively”, in shade houses.

1.2.1 ”Traditional”/Acahual

Acahual refers to a secondary forest or fallow that is regenerating, in many cases following maize cultivation. These sites are where vanilla is primarily cultivated, and are very similar to the natural habitat of the species. Over 90% of vanilla growers, mostly from indigenous groups, use this setting, which is almost always less than 1 ha.

Species commonly encountered in acahual are used as support trees for vanilla. They include: “laurel” (Litcea glaucescens), “patadevaca” (Bahuiniadivaricata), “coj(Sndegato” (Tabernaemontana sp.), “cacahuapaxtle” or “balletilla” (Hamelia erecta), and “capulin” (Eugenia capuli), among others (Curti-Diaz 1995). A relatively low density of vanilla plants is cultivated without irrigation and with minimal overseeing. Consequently, yields are low, varying between 50 and 500 kg of green vanilla/ha, with an average yield of 200 kg/ha.

This “traditional'' style of cultivation is also used where vanilla is intercropped with coffee, where the vanilla benefits from the abundant organic matter and shade typical of such cafetales. Support trees in this setting are trees that are used to provide shade to the coffee, such as Inga sp., or are species introduced to the site, such as Erythrina sp.

The advantage of the coffee-vanilla production system is that the grower diversifies his/her economic activities, obtaining two products from one site.

Establishing a “traditional” vainillal requires an initial investment of around $2,000 USD/ ha, with maintenance costs typically totaling $1,500 USD per year.

1.2.2 Intensive system (monoculture)