Correct name of the orchid is Vanilla planifolia. If happy it would tend to grow with a climbing habit all over the walls and roof of your room.

There are citrus trees in the backyard here that thrive and bear fruit. Out in the yard in those yard conditions a Vanilla would pine away and die.

Hopefully. some of experienced growers will give you advice re. Conditions.

Some plants do better with a daily rise and fall in temperature.

Sounds like fungus gnats, usually a sign that the potting mix is too wet. Spray won't get rid of them because a lot of them will be in the soil as larva or laying eggs.

There are a few things you can try, first let the soil dry out a bit, you probably don't need to water as much indoors as you did outdoors. When you do water you can add some soap to the water, soap will smother the larva. Mosquito dunks will help, BT will attack the larva same as it does for mosquitos. Yellow sticky traps work well and you can keep spraying for the adults. I've also heard drier sheets will drive them away.

It's hard to say what's going on with the plants each would be different. Vanilla is a tough one as a first orchid, and difficult to grow indoors. The banana should be easy but they get really big fast.

I keep some trees in my basement over winter under LED grow lights. I don't need to add heat, it is usually 60-70 degrees normally.

add some soap to the water

===>>> dish soap is usually a detergent ... and often harms leaves if sprayed on them ...

but i wonder if it makes a difference if you are just using it as a drench ...

ken

I'm pretty sure that the fungus gnats--while annoying--won't harm the plants. They can drive one bonkers, however!

I guess it would depend on what brand you use, I have used Dawn without problems, but I typically use shampoo or peppermint castile soap.

Jane, it is great that you have some good replies!

My point in the first post is that you cannot grow everything in the one set of conditions.

The vanilla I observed growing everywhere was in a glass-house with settings set mainly for Phalaenopsis orchids.

Apart from the Citrus in my back yard there was a huge (hated) banana herb growing next door. Had fruit every year but always looked like a "straggy" mess.

Thank you everyone for replying! I'll try to figure out how to post pictures. Yes I did use dawn soap with the neem oil, I thought it was those fungus knats also. (Thousands of them ugh) I also had 3 strips of yellow sticky tape and they were coated with them. I haven't tried the dryer sheets, so I will definitely try that. The guava got about 4" of new growth on it over the last week and a half and yesterday that new growth was going limp. Yes, my apology on misspelling the vanilla proper name, I couldn't sleep and wrote that around 1 am. Our weather for the next 8 days is surprisingly good enough that I can toss the citrus and the 2 surviving bananas back outside (I'll keep an eye on night temps) hopefully this will give them the boost they need to put the fight back in them. Hopefully it will help rid the bugs?? So one mentions that vanilla may need different climate than citrus? I tried to make a happy medium between them all, so maybe that's not possible?

Oh sorry, with the fungus gnats, I've only got 8 days to get rid of them to get these plants back in the house. Should I completely repot them? I may end up putting them back in my dining room (20 foot ceilings with lots of natural light) since they were so happy there, but I don't want bugs.

Oh!!! And yes I did dry the dirt as much as I could without killing them😉

It doesn't matter about the name, the problem is that although it is an orchid, it is not widely grown. The blooms are interesting but certainly not beautiful and you will have to hand pollinate them to get the seed pods (Vanilla beans).

The real growers in the frozen north should be able to tell you how to run your plant room and I suspect that you might need to try and emulate day and night and some seasonal temperature and lighting variations.

For example. In one of my glass-houses I would run the heater from 4.00am to 7.00am when power cost was low to lift the day temp and not worry too much about night temps. But here is zone 10b. No horrible snow ever and the house is not down in a frost hollow and I only grow orchids in the outdoor shade and glass-houses.

Thank you! I will look at varying temperatures, maybe they didn't like the constant temperature.

Good day everyone! Well my fight against the fungus gnats continues. We've had an unusual week of warm weather with a breeze this week so I decided to take all of the plants out of the greenhouse, put on back deck and give them a hydrogen peroxide soil bath (1/4 ratio, ), and put sticky cards above surface. They are resilient little buggers. I was curious what you all thought of, Entomopathogenic nematodes. Being my greenhouse is in my basement (completely wrapped in plastic), I'm just not good with the gnats flying around in it.

Never tried nematodes before but I don’t see why they wouldn’t work. I guess it’s the same idea as the BT mosquito dunks.

I was also going to suggest trying diatomaceous earth, sprinkler a layer on top of the soil.

Ooooo thank you!! I do have D.E. I use for my honey bees with ants. Didn't think of that. I will try that first

If you used a very good porous mix you could rid them for good and your plants would further thrive. A two for one deal. I would get rid of the cause and not band aid the problem. As long as you are using a very poor mix, you will battle them for ever.

Thank you for your advice! I believe your right. I had to repot a plant and believe i found the source of my problem. I usually buy miracle grow putting soil and they didn't have any at the time so I purchased a different brand. I saw them immediately when I put the potting soil in the pot. Ugh.