A Detailed Guide to Pineapple Planting Methods and Care Precautions

The pineapple is a tropical fruit, cultivated in Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi and Yunnan in China. The pineapple has strong shade tolerance, prefers diffused light and avoids direct light, but abundant, high-quality yields still require sufficient sunlight.How do you grow pineapples? A detailed guide to pineapple planting methods and care precautions.

1. The planting time for pineapples

Pineapples are best planted in autumn, because young pineapple plants need sunlight but are afraid of strong sunlight, and autumn planting can avoid summer.

2. Pineapple planting methods

(1) Growing pineapples in pots

1. This is the most crucial step, which is to find a suitable pineapple. Its leaf rosette should be well developed and intact as a whole. Pay special attention to the small leaves in the core; they should not come off with a gentle pull. The leaf surface should have no yellow spots and no scale insects.

2. Cut at the junction between the leaf rosette and the pineapple, without any fruit flesh.

3. Starting from the small green leaves at the bottom, peel off the outer green leaves layer by layer, keeping 5-10 large leaves depending on the size of the leaf rosette. Note that only the outer green leaves should be peeled off. Some small leaves may be hidden among the green leaves; these should be kept. In this way, 1.5 cm to 2.5 cm of the white stem will be exposed at the bottom.

4. After leaving it in a cool place to dry for a few days, put it in a glass or a suitable bottle for water propagation; the water level should be higher than half of the white stem but lower than the base of the leaves.

5. Plant it in slightly acidic, well-draining potting soil. Pineapples have fibrous roots and are afraid of waterlogging in the soil. The potting soil does not need to be fertile, and no base fertilizer is added. Because the pineapple's root system is not well developed, the flower pot does not need to be very large; when repotting the following year, change to a larger pot (>10 liters).

6. After one week, give it 6 hours of sunlight. Keep the potting soil moist. The way of watering is a little special. Pour a small cup of water onto the leaf rosette and leaves, letting the water run down the plant into the pot.

Start fertilizing when new leaves begin to grow in the center. If using a compound fertilizer, choose a type that does not contain copper or boron. At 1/4 of the concentration stated in the instructions, 7. prepare a small cup of fertilizer water and, just like watering, pour it into the center of the leaf rosette and onto the leaves.

8. When the root system is not yet sound, the pineapple mainly absorbs the water and nutrients retained in the leaf rosette through its leaves. This is very similar to ornamental bromeliads. Two months after planting, the root system is fully developed, and it can be cared for like other long-day flowering plants. Note that pineapples are relatively drought-tolerant, so do not water too much.

(2) Open-field planting

1. Site selection

For pineapples, they like loose, well-aerated acidic soil with a pH between 4.0 and 5.5; note that neutral and alkaline soils are not suitable for growing pineapples.

2. Pineapple field planting

Pineapple planting density. Determining planting density according to different varieties, natural conditions, planting management conditions and slope size is an important part of increasing yield per unit area. Proper density, increasing the number of plants per unit area, and increasing photosynthesis to raise the leaf area index, thereby increase pineapple yield.

Planting method. In terms of planting method, single-row planting is used on sections with relatively large slopes, with a density of 22,500-27,000 plants/hm2, a plant spacing of 30-35 cm and a row spacing of 120 cm; the wide-row narrow double-row planting method is usually used, generally with a large row of 100-120 cm and a small row of 30-50 cm. Double-row planting can ensure the number of seedlings per unit area, and can also allow the orchard to be ventilated and let light through, making operation and management convenient. Under the same number of plants and the same management, double-row planting gives higher yields than single-row and triple-row planting.

Using plastic film mulching for planting can also achieve relatively high yields. The plastic film is 2 m wide, so the beds are made 2 m wide; when planting, dig small holes and set the pineapple seedlings at the planned spacing of 30 cm×30 cm.

3. Apply sufficient fertilizer

Applying base fertilizer costs little and gives good results. Plots without base fertilizer need one extra topdressing, and even then the yield is not as high as with base fertilizer. Generally, 15,000 kg/hm2 of farmyard manure plus 750-1,500 kg/hm2 of superphosphate are mixed and composted before application, applied when making the beds.

4. Field planting

The principle of field planting pineapples is deep plowing and shallow planting; when covering with soil, it should not bury the part where the bud seedling opens. Seedlings can be planted by category, planted in separate plots according to variety, bud type and seedling size, so that they grow uniformly and are easy to manage. In plots with underground pests, while applying base fertilizer, add 45 kg/hm2 of methyl-isothiophos agent or carbofuran per seedling and apply mixed. After planting, replant missing seedlings promptly within 15-20 d to ensure a full stand and achieve high yields.

5. Pest and disease control

The common diseases in pineapple cultivation are wilt disease and heart rot. The symptoms of wilt disease are leaves becoming soft and drooping, with leaf color changing from pale green to red. For chemical control, a 500-fold dimethoate solution can be used to spray and drench diseased plants and the soil; severely diseased plants should be completely dug out and burned. Heart rot is mainly caused by seedling heart rot and death, or by heating during piling and waterlogging. The main control method is to spread the seedlings out and turn and sun-dry them for 7 d before planting. For this disease, which is mainly caused by pathogens, the chemical control method is: use 25% carbendazim or 70% thiophanate-methyl at 1,000 times diluted with water for spray control. Under strong sunlight, grass or newspaper can be used to cover the pineapples to prevent the sun from damaging the pineapple fruit.

3. Pineapple care precautions

1. Fertilization

Pineapples need a great deal of potassium, so appropriately increasing potassium fertilizer is quite good. In terms of specific requirements, nitrogen fertilizer is applied heavily first and then lightly, potassium fertilizer is applied lightly first and then heavily, and phosphorus fertilizer is applied as a base fertilizer.

2. Orchard weeding

Newly planted pineapple orchards are weeded 3-5 times a year; manual weeding requires a lot of labor, whereas chemical weeding can greatly improve work efficiency.

3. Removing buds and keeping buds

After a pineapple sends up its flower stalk, the crown buds, axillary buds, suckers and slips on the plant emerge one after another. If all are kept, they will affect fruit growth, affect yield and the growth of the buds that will bear fruit the following year, so the excess buds should be removed, and appropriate buds should be selected and kept as the fruiting plants for the next year.