“ Every time I run through a pineapple I plant the top in my mini ananas orchard . I have about thirty in there now , with six of them getting fruit this summer . I have a couple questions for you David . How close to each other can the plants be ? I have mine crunched in together middling near , I even extend out my bed already , but I keep eating them and implant the tip . I ’ve seen them in Hawaii and they seemed crowded together there . How much watering and fertilizer is required ? I give mine some , but I wonder if they need more for where they are . Sometimes they are a little pallid looking . ”
In reply , Slightly Salty writes :
“ We had a commercial-grade ananas grower speak at my yield club merging . It ’s typically an 18 - month process . You constitute them in January and the following January ’s cold picnic will make a flower then about 6 month later in around July you will have a pineapple .
The plants do well crowded because they benefit from the support . They have a small base organisation so this agriculturist said to use foliar spraying to feed them . He also said that they do not require supplemental irrigation and Florida ’s rainfall is adequate .
All this is great information but I just do as David does and just stand by them in the ground and in summer … I get pineapple . ”
Learning from commercial-grade growers is an excellent exercise . Unlike hobbyists , they are growing crops for money . Their livelihood is tied to the success of the plant they grow .
It ’s all well and undecomposed to reprobate mod farming as iniquity , etc . , but many of those who do so are backseat driver . When I got threadbare of little citrus tree trees , I asked a commercial grower how he fertilize his groves . I literally caught this guy in the parking lot of the feed storehouse . I knew he was a cultivator because his motortruck had the logotype of a citrus woodlet on the side , so I say something along the line of credit of “ Hey ! Can I inquire you some questions ? ”
Then I rent line , and carry them .
hazard what ? My citrus fruit grew like demented . Sure , it was n’t the constitutive , earth - favorable , sustainable , etc . , etc . , etc . , way to develop my trees , but they sway into yield and grew near than ever before . Once you eff how to grow something the EVIL WAY – and get harvest – you may always back off and seek to figure out the best constitutional way to do the same . I ’m no longer a purist . My basal goal is to get food . I do n’t spray pesticides because I do n’t want poison in my nutrient , but I will expend chemical fertilizer on function if the plants seem to need a hit .
Foliar alimentation is a good option . Just make certain you do n’t hit them with something too strong , as you could burn the nerve center of the plants and kill them . A bit of compost tea , some fetid swamp water , water down manure tea leaf , diluted urine , DynaGro , or squirm Camellia sinensis from a vermicomposting system – and voila , thou shalt have well-chosen Ananas comosus .
On the works spacing , my Thai aunty - in - law of nature plant them very tightly . you’re able to see how she does it in this video , begin at 3:24 :
They really do have lousy root system , so it makes sense to me .
I ’ll see if I can get some more tops , then plant them really tightly to see what happens .
Thank you Scott and Slightly Salty for the dialogue .
