Your plant is nice looking but I fear too dark looking. You should have it in an east facing window where it will get morning sun or it can be kept outside hanging from a branch of a tree where it is partially shaded but only during the day when nights drop below 55 degrees F. The media it was growing in was perfect for it and indicates the type of culture it was receiving. This commercial grower culture was probably watering this plant every other day with the room it was kept in with high humidity which I would suspect to be at least 65% relative humidity though up to 85% with fans running 24/7. To your questions: 1: if you use coconut chips mix in at 1 to 1 pumice as little stones or gravel. Keep in mind that even though this is a hybrid this plant is genetically designed to live on branches which may be soaking wet during some time every day but is exposed to constant air movement. 2. I would recommend Miracle Gro. They have an orchid food that you can apply every 2 weeks when the plant is in active growth. When new growths have stopped growing stop the feeding. The link is below. Follow the instructions. 3. This plant should get some direct sunlight sometime during the day. Most likely early morning or very late afternoon BUT because your plant has been so shaded giving it any direct sun will probably burn it, especially the new growth. So see my comments above on the light. If using it in an east window just leave it in the window during early morning when sun hits it and remove after an hour and place in partial shade, outside if possible. Monitoring it when adapting to a change in light exposure is needed throughout the period of increased exposure. While a lot of folk swear by hydroponics such is not suitable for this type of orchid unless the orchid is suspended above the water and not in direct contact with it except whenever you water it. So I would not soak the potted plant at all but rather water every other day. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: Miracle Gro Orchid food

Mine is in just plain dirt! The strange thing is the original trunk and roots rotted off from where they were planted. Now it's just into the dirt under my pergola with long trailing roots running down the Tithonia tree and wooden posts of the pergola to the ground. When something does this good on it's own...I don't mess with Mother Nature! For those of you that got cuttings from me at Rickys, toss it in a pot with soil, give a little time release fert and tuck it in the shade somewhere for winter. Come spring/summer you should have roots. Just ask Kate(solstice) these babies take a while to root. Best when left ignored.

Kristi, It is not easy to get a bloom for indoor growers. The vine has to achieve mamoth proportions and needs to have some form of support. Once it gets to blooming size it oftem will grow downwards and bloom. Each bloom will last one day and you have to pollinate by hand at a specific time that the orchid flower will recieve the pollin. If your succesfull, a bean will begin to grow which can take 8-9, months to mature. I got all this info from a demonstartion at the Botanical gardens in Buffalo. This was directed to indoor growers so it may varyfor outdoor growers. Even after you get a pod, you still have to cure the bean to get usable vanilla. Has anyone here been able to grow there own beans and if yes, dod you have any pictures? Mine is still small but about 4 ft tall now. What Harry says about neglect is true. I do that with mine and I can see how this vine could take over. I guess I still hope that someday it will bloom. I don't have much hope that I will get a bean but who knows! Andrew

The stems are brittle, so be careful to not bend them too tightly. Although, if they do break you'll have another plant. Some of mine are up over 20 metres in trees and it took a while before I found out they were flowering up there. Later I planted some on a much smaller tree stump (about 3 metres tall) . They sprawled around the top a bit and flowered at that height. Some I've got on a 1.5 metre stump haven't flowered at all. Whatever height they need, they also need to sprawl and hang down a bit. If they've still got room to go up they'll keep climbing and not flower. I did see a comment on a forum once (and only once) of there being dwarf varieties, but I don't know how accurate it was. Or maybe they were thinking of a different species of vanilla.