About 5 years.

I kid. Mostly daily watering, which is did by hand until recently. Would take about an hour. Some very minor vine management every couple a weeks so they don’t get away from you.

Vanilla are very apically dominant. They do not branch (they do under some specific conditions), and they do not grow sideways. Their preference is to grow straight up and only up. They also need something to attach to with their tendrils, so they need a structure like a tree or similar support like vineyard wire.

They don’t require very much soil, but they aren’t an epiphyte like most orchids. They sink their tendrils roots into the soil and behave more like terrestrial plants after that. If you try and grow them like an epiphyte, they’d likely die or just not grow much. If things are going well, I’ll get 1 new leaf per week per vine.

Now I said they don’t like to grow sideways, however they also don’t flower if they are in the vertical orientation. The vines have to be inverted to flower (growing tip pointing down). It’s a firm of stress that indicates to the vine “hey you fell off the support you were on, time to reproduce in case you die”. So for vine management you are constantly looping the vines in about 1.5-2 meter loops over your support system letting them grow up and over, then bringing them back down near the ground. This does two things. First, they are more likely to root again closer to the ground. Second, it maximizes the inverted section of the vine, to create lots of opportunities for flowers.

I fertilize one every three months with chicken manure and citrus fertilizer… other than that it’s mostly keeping an eye out for disease and looking to make sure the vines haven’t lost attachment to the ground. If they do you have to reset the vine in the soil or start over