Pineapple (Ananas comosus)

Family: Bromeliaceae which embraces about 2,000

species
 Origin and geographic distribution
Origin:
• Its origin is in South America where it was domesticated
before the time of Columbus.
Distribution:
• In the 16th Century, the Spaniards took the pineapple to
the Philippines and Malaysia, and possibly also Indonesia.
• The crop is now widely grown throughout the tropics and
into the subtropics.
• Large plantations in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia
and northern Sumatra as well as in Hawaii (USA), Brazil,
Taiwan, South Africa, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, Mexico and
Puerto Rico.
 Compositions and Uses
 It is consumed as a fresh fruit
 With the development of the processing industry, the fruit is
now prepared and consumed in various forms such as
pineapple chunks, slices, juices, syrups, jams, crushed
pineapple, diced pineapple etc.
 The wastes from processing the fruit are now further
processed into sugar, wines, vinegar, animal feed, etc.
 High quality fibers, ideal for the manufacture of luxury
clothing, are produced from the leaves of pineapple
 In Brazil, fibers of the wild species are used for making rope
and fishing nets.
 The fiber is also used for making pulp in the paper industry
 Pineapple also contains bromelain, a protein-digesting
enzyme.
 Botany and morphology
 The pineapple plant is a herb 0.5-1.5 m high
 It has narrow, tapering, pointed leaves up to 1m
long arranged in a spiral rosette.
 The leaf margins may be spiny or smooth.
 The leaves may be all green or variously striped
with red, yellow or ivory down the middle or near
the margins.
 The root system of pineapple is shallow and
limited and do not go deeper than 50cm.
 Botany cont…
Flower
 Perfect
 Three fleshy sepals and petals
 Six stamens
 Inferior ovary
Fruit
 The fruit is made up of 100-200 berry-like fruitlets
or “eyes” fused together on a central axis or core
and is borne on a stem or stalk which is an
elongation of the apical meristem
 Ecological requirement
 The temperature range of growing areas is 23-32°C, it
can be grown in areas where temp. drops as low as
10°C.
 The plant does not tolerate frost
 Crop duration increases substantially further away
from the equator and at higher altitudes.
 At higher altitudes fruits become too acidic.
 The plants are tolerant to drought and a wide range of
rainfall; 1000-1500 mm per annum is optimal.
 A well-drained sandy loam is preferred, with a high
organic matter content and pH 4.5-6.5.
 Drainage should be perfect, because waterlogged
plants quickly leads to root rot.
 CAM photosynthesis
• The pineapple has a special photosynthetic pathway called
CAM (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism).
• This is a feature that certain plants including cacti have
evolved to conserve moisture.
• CAM plants have the unique ability to store carbon
dioxide within the plant (as malic acid),
• this allows them to keep their stomata closed during the
day but to open them at night
• At day the stomata close but carbon dioxide is released
into the plant cells from the stored malic acid allowing
photosynthesis to take place.
 Water storage tissue
• The cross-section of a mature ‘Smooth Cayenne’ leaf
can be up to 4mm thick with approximately half the
volume occupied by water-storage tissue.
• When moisture levels are good, up to half of the 4mm
cross-sectional thickness of a mature leaf is made up of
specialized water storage tissue.
• This tissue serves as a reservoir and is drawn upon to
maintain plant growth, and even fruit development,
during periods of inadequate moisture.
• After extended dry periods this tissue decreases to near
nil – a sign of drought.
 Trichomes (“leaf hairs”)
• Trichomes are “fine outgrowths from the epidermis (skin) of the
leaf”.
• In pineapple trichomes are multi-cellular, mushroom-shaped
scaly hairs that surround the stomata and help reduce water loss
Leaf shape and arrangement
• Pineapple leaves - long, trough-shaped, tapered from base to tip,
and approaching horizontal are arranged spirally around the
stump.
• This shape allows maximum sunlight interception, and highly
efficient gathering and movement of rain to the plant’s stem and
root system.
• Most of the leaves – especially the leaves at the top of the plant
most exposed to the sun are oriented at an angle to the sun (i.e.
relatively erect) and this helps reduce leaf temperature and
moisture loss.
 Cont...
• because of their long, tapered shape do not shade
leaves of neighbouring plants until they are large and
mature.
Axillary root system
• In the cup-like leaf axils are rudimentary (partially
developed) roots called axillary roots that can absorb
moisture and dissolved nutrients directly.
Basal white tissue
• This white tissue can absorb water and dissolved
nutrients directly.
• It changes to green tissue as leaves grow and mature.
 Stomata
• There are relatively few stomata per unit of leaf
area,
• plus they are small and situated mainly on the
underside of the leaves in depressed channels.
• Because they are small, deep and protected by a
heavy coat of waxy trichomes,
• the plant has a very low rate of transpiration
(water loss).
 botanical and physiological adaptations
• Pineapple is a tropical plant and grows best in a
moderately warm climate (16° to 33°C) with low, but
regular rainfall.
• It is estimated that Smooth Cayenne requires only
50mm of rainfall per month for optimum growth.
 It has some important limitations:
• It cannot tolerate frost
• It is intolerant of high temperatures (in excess of
40°C), and sunburn damage to plants and fruit can be
severe
• It has a fragile root system that needs well-drained
conditions
 General characteristics to survive low rainfall conditions:
• Leaf shape and orientation that maximizes capture of moisture
and sunlight most efficiently
• The ability to absorb nutrients through axillary roots in the leaf
bases, and directly through the leaf surfaces especially the basal
white tissue
• Low numbers of stomata, and leaves that are insulated to reduce
water loss
• Water storage tissue that can make up to half the leaf thickness,
and is used during periods of low rainfall to help maintain
growth
• A specialized metabolic system (CAM) for capturing carbon
dioxide at night for use during the day that greatly reduces water
loss
 Varieties
 Many pineapple cultivars exist, differing in plant
and fruit size, in the colour and flavour of the
fruit, and in the spinyness leaf margin.
 In Ethiopia there are only two varieties used for
production Smooth Cayanne and Red Spanish.
 Now a days some varieties are introduced from
abroad; (MD2, Sugar Loaf, and Queen)
 Nearly all cultivars for commercial production can
be grouped as follows
 Varieties Cont…
1. Cayanne group
Smooth and larger leaves
Cylindrical fruit
Shallow eye on fruit
Yellow flesh
Mild acid
High yielder and dual purpose (fresh and
canning)
Eg. Smooth cayanne: 70% of pineapple production
Smooth Cayanne
Smooth leaf margin

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 Varieties Cont…
2. Queen group
Leaves are very spiny
Smaller plants and fruits
Conical fruit shape
Golden flesh color
Fruits are not suitable for processing due to
deep eye
Very sweet fruit
 Varieties Cont…
3. Red Spanish group
Have intermediate fruit & plant size
Semi-spineless leaves
Round shaped fruit
White flesh color
For fresh consumption and canning
Fibrous flesh
Cayenne Queen Spanish
 Propagation
 The pineapple is propagated vegetatively
 Planting materials are obtained from various parts
of the plant and are identified according to the
part of the plant on which they are found
 Propagation cont…
Ratoon Suckers:
 are shoots produced from ground level and, when
used, will produce fruit in 12-14 months after
planting.
Side Shoots or suckers:
 are shoots produced above ground level and, when
used, bear within 18-20 months after planting.
 Propagation cont…
Basal suckers known as “slips”:
 are located at the base of the fruit.
 They produce fruit within 14-16 months after planting
and are the preferred type of planting material
 Have greater chances of success
Crowns:
 are situated at the apex of the fruit.
 is not commonly used by farmers, and even when
used, they take as long as 24 months after planting to
produce fruit.
 used for few variety because of its shy suckering habit.
Stems-used some times
 Propagation cont…
 Tissue culture: seedlings can be prepared in TC labs
 Explants are selected from slips and suckers from
original mother plant
 The most important contribution of TCS would be
To reduce virus build-up in vegetative material
To resolve the problems of planting material
storage.
Ease to transport for long distance
 Selection of explants
Identification of healthy
plants
 Selection of planting materials
 The planting materials must be selected from
healthy, disease and pest-free mother plant.
 The length of planting materials must have 15-20
cm for better growth and developments.
 The selected materials must be treated and dried
by chemicals before planting
Treatment of planting material
 The slips with leaflets pointing upwards, should be
packed in a container, layer after layer.
 When the container is filled, add a solution of
Malathion or Diazinon 0.1 % - 5 ml in 4.5 L water
until the slips are fully covered, in order to ensure all
pests are killed.
 Submerge slips for 20 minutes then drain off the
solution into another container and store for re-use.
 Using gloves, remove suckers from the container and
pack on ground under shade in an up-right position
for 7 days
 This treatment is essential for the control and spread
of pineapple mealy bug
 Grading
 Prior to planting, suckers should be graded
according to size.
 Large and small ones are to be planted separately:
Large suckers (slips): 15 -20 cm
Small suckers (slips): below 15 cm.
 For better and faster growth, large suckers are
preferred.
 Planting
 Pineapple is planted either the
 Single or
 Double-row system
 Each planting system have its own merits
 However, for a more cost-effective land use and
to have the largest number of plants per unit area,
double row system is recommended.
 Single Row Planting
 The rows are spaced 150 cm apart and plants
spaced 60 cm within the row.
 This allows for a population of 11,000 plants/ha

31
 Double Row Planting
 Two rows are spaced 60 cm apart.
 The suckers should be planted staggered 30 cm within the
rows.
 The distance between the double rows or every two rows
should be 90 cm This arrangement will give 44,000
plants/ha

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 Fertilizer application
 The fertilizer recommendations are based on a
plant density in the double-row system of 44,000
plants/ha.
 It is important to have the soil analyzed to obtain
recommended levels of fertilizers
 The pineapple plant requires high levels of
fertilizers for satisfactory production.
 Fertilizer application cont…
 In the absence of a precise soil analysis, the
following general recommendations will suffice.
 Sandy soils are infertile and require a complete
fertilizer with added trace or minor nutrients.
 At Jimma 5g Urea in three-split application and 5
g DAP/plant is applied as a blanket application.
 But nitrogen fertilizer must be stopped about two
months before flower induction.
 Pineapple removes 123Kg of N, 33kg of P and 308kg of
K from one hectare of land yielding a crop of 40 tones.
 Weed control
 Pineapple plants are slow growing and do not
cover the ground well enough to suppress weeds
 Weeds can be controlled manually or mechanically
 Where chemical control is preferred, they are
usually applied at three different stages of the plant
cycle:
During land preparation
At planting
During the growing period
 Artificial Flower Induction
• It is a procedure that utilizes synthetic hormones to
induce plants to flower.
• It permits better scheduling of the harvest as it
takes five months from the time of induction to full
maturity of the fruits.
• The plants in the field to be treated should be
homogeneous in size and not less than 12 months
old or possess less than 25 leaves.
 Artificial Flower-Induction cont…
 The main products used to induce flowering are
Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) and Ethrel
(ethylene).
 The NAA is available in tablet form and treatment
is achieved by placing one or one-half a tablet into
the whorl of each suitable plant.
 Ethrel is a liquid and is used as a 0.1-0.2 % spray
solution.
 To enhance its performance, Urea can be added to
the solution to the level of 2%
 Pollination system
• Pineapples are “self incompatible” so rarely produce
seed in a field of only one variety.
• However, if two varieties are grown close together
(Smooth Cayenne and a hybrid and they are in
flower at the same time, insects can cause
crosspollination.
• Seedy fruit is not acceptable for either fresh or
processing outlets.
• Cross-pollination between varieties is practiced by
plant breeders to produce new hybrid clones like the
“Golds”, the seed is germinated under laboratory
conditions.
 Harvesting
 Harvesting should be done with a sharp knife
severing a fruit stalk with a clean cut and
retaining 5-7cm of the stalk.
 Great care should be taken to avoid damage on
the fruit and the crown.

39
 Harvesting cont…
 Fruit maturity evaluation is based on the extent of
fruit ‘eye’ flatness and skin yellowing and a minimum
reading of 12% total soluble solids are required for
fresh fruit.
 A sugar acid ratio of 0.9-1.3 is recommended.

95% eyes is yellow All green eyes 20-40% eyes is 40-80% eyes is
5-20%redish brown yellow yellow
40
 Harvesting cont…
 The time of harvest for pineapple vary depending
on the type of planting materials used

Sucker
Crown
 Harvesting cont…
 The size and the quality of fruit is decreased
when it increases the number of cycle
 The time of maturity also decreased

1st Ratoon Crop 2nd Ratoon Crop

Planted Crop
 Post harvest
 The harvested produce of pineapple must be
stored:
Temperature ranges of 7.5-12oc
Relative humidity range of 70-90 %.
 Pineapple pests
1. Mealy bug
 caused by viruses transmitted by mealy bugs
with the pink mealy bug (Dysmicoccus brevipes)
 Mealy bug which causes wilt disease is the
leading cause of economic loss in pineapple.
Symptoms
 Loss of turgidity in the leaves resulting to
reddish coloring
 Wilting and drying of the affected leaf portions
 Stunted growth and poor root development
 Control
• Use of chemicals such as malathion and
diazinon
Thank You!!!!