Luis Morales Ibarra, one of our vanilla producers, talks to us about retention walls used in vanilla plantations:
“We build these walls on account of the heavy rains that are common to the Husteca Potosina. The heavy rains cause soil and nutrients to erode. As such, we build these stone retention walls to counter erosion; the walls maintain the soil and its nutrients in place. You can see organic material that covers the ground and, as it decays, produces nutrients that feed our vanilla vines.
The walls also aid in retaining water at each tier. This way, the ground stays moist, creating an ideal, natural growing environment for our vanilla vines. Without humidity and nutrient retention, the vines began to lose their color, they become ashy and opaque, and they die.
Another benefit of the retaining walls is that it provides a place for us to walk as we tend to the vanilla vines; that is, we can walk through the plantation without stepping on and damaging the vines' roots. As you can see, we can walk on the walls deep into the plantation. So, the retaining walls aid us with retaining humidity, nutrients, and to walk upon.
I want to stress the importance of not walking on and damaging the vanilla vine roots: if one damages the roots, the vine begins to get sick, the root and vine then become susceptible to fungus, and the vine dies.
We truly love and care for our vanilla vines because we are able to make a living through them; they give us and our families sustenance and the opportunity to grow and educate our children; and they allow us to make an honest living and live with dignity.”