How to grow pineapple

Pick full-sun, gently sloping ground where water never stands. Pineapple roots are shallow and rot in wet soil, so keep away from low spots, hard clay pans, and anywhere puddles sit after rain.

Choose sour (acid) soil, about pH 4.5 to 5.5 — a sourness most crops dislike but pineapple loves. Sandy, sour soil is ideal; sweet or heavy soils give weak, sickly plants. Never add lime to pineapple ground — sweetening the soil starves the plant of iron and zinc and invites disease.

Make sure water drains away fast. If your only land is flat or heavy, plan now to plant on ridges or raised beds (see the next tasks) so the roots sit above standing water.

Keep the block well away from old, diseased pineapple and from big ant nests — both carry the mealybug and rot that ruin a young crop.

Choose one type of shoot for the whole block. Suckers (shoots from the base and stem of an old plant) fruit fastest, in about 14–17 months. Slips (shoots from just below a fruit) are in between. Crowns (the leafy top cut off a fruit) are slowest, about 22–28 months. Pick one type only, so they all reach flowering size at the same time.

Grade by size. Sort the shoots into big, medium and small, and plant each size in its own block or row. Mixed sizes flower at different times and split one harvest into several.

Throw out sick shoots. Reject any shoot with white, cottony patches (that is mealybug — a small waxy insect), a soft or rotten base, or one that came from a wilting, reddish plant. A single infested shoot can seed the whole field with pests.

Cure the base before planting. Strip a few of the lowest leaves, then lay the shoots in the shade, base upward, for a few days up to two weeks, until the cut base dries and heals over. 'Curing' just means letting the wound dry hard. A healed base resists butt rot — where the base goes soft and black and the shoot never roots.

On flat or heavy soil, hoe up ridges or raised beds — about knee-high (45 cm) on wet ground, lower where the soil is sandy and already drains well — so water runs off and away.

Run the ridges across the slope, not up-and-down, so they shed rain without washing the soil away.

Shape the beds for double (twin) rows of plants, with a clear path between each pair of rows to walk, weed and harvest.

Loosen the topsoil to a fine, crumbly tilth — pineapple's shallow roots spread sideways and need soft soil, not clods.

Plant your cured shoots two to three finger-joints deep (7–15 cm) — deep enough that each shoot stands on its own and will not rock in the wind, but not so deep that soil tips into the central heart.

Set the plants in double (twin) rows, close together — about a hand-span (20 cm) between plants in the row — with a clear path between each pair of rows. Pineapple is a crowded crop: aim for around 55,000 plants per hectare, far more than a grain field.

Firm the soil around each base so the shoot sits snug and its roots meet moist earth.

Keep the central cup — the funnel of young leaves at the plant's heart — clear and upright. Do not bury it, and do not let soil or water settle in it, or the heart rots.

Once a month, from planting through the first three months, walk the whole block in a big loop — all four corners and the middle, not just the edge by the path.

Mealybug: look in the leaf-bases and hearts for white, cottony, waxy clusters, like tiny blobs of cotton wool. Follow any ant trails — ants farm and carry the mealybug, so ants running up the plants are your earliest warning.

Heart rot: gently tug the centre leaves. If they pull out easily and the base is soft, brown and foul-smelling, that plant has heart rot — pull the whole plant and carry it out of the block.

Butt rot: check newly set shoots — any whose base has gone soft and black and that have not rooted are rotting; lift them and replace them.

Yellowing: note any plant whose young centre leaves are pale or yellow instead of deep green — that is hunger you will feed later.

Act on the first mealybug clusters and ant trails before they spread. If they are taking hold, open the mealybug guide.

Weed every month or so through the first three months, while the plants are small and slow.

Hoe shallowly — pineapple roots run just under the surface and spread sideways, so deep hoeing near the plants cuts them.

Pull weeds close to the plants by hand, to avoid wounding the roots or the base.

Lay the pulled weeds or dry grass between the rows as mulch — it smothers new weeds and holds moisture for the shallow roots.

Once a month, from about three months after planting until the plant is roughly a year old, walk the whole block and check plants in every part, not just the edge.

Mealybug wilt: look for plants whose leaves turn reddish or pink, with tips that dry back and curl inward, and the whole plant slowly wilting — dig one up and the roots have collapsed. Keep checking, too, for the white cottony mealybug and the ant trails that spread it.

Nematodes (soil worms too small to see): look for patches of stunted, pale plants that never pick up. Dig one — roots that are stubby, knotted or rotten instead of white and branching point to nematodes.

Yellowing (zinc or iron hunger): young centre leaves that are pale, yellow, or crooked and twisted — common where the soil is not sour enough. Note it and fix it with a leaf feed (see the feeding task).

Act on the first mealybug and ants before wilt spreads down the row. If it is taking hold, open the mealybug guide.

About once a month through the growing year, mix a weak solution of nitrogen (urea) and potassium fertiliser in water. Your recommendation gives the exact amount and mix for your block.

Spray or splash it over the leaves and into the leaf-bases, which catch and hold it. This is foliar feeding — feeding through the leaves. Keep the mix weak; a strong mix scorches the leaves.

Where you saw pale or crooked young leaves, add a zinc (and iron) leaf feed. On soil that is not sour enough the plant cannot pull these from the ground, so the leaves take them straight.

Feed in the cool of the day, not in hot sun, so the drops do not burn the leaf as they dry. Stand so any breeze carries the spray away from your face.

Weed every month or so through the growing year, whenever a new flush of weeds comes up.

Keep hoeing shallow — the roots are still near the surface and spread wide between the rows.

Top up the mulch between the rows with dry grass, to smother weeds and hold moisture.

Once neighbouring plants' leaves touch and shade the ground, weeds struggle on their own and you can ease off.

Wait until the plants have about 30–40 leaves — big, robust rosettes. Count the leaves on a few plants first; small plants respond poorly and flower unevenly, so do not rush. Plants usually reach this size many months after planting, not before.

Do the whole block within a day or two, in the cool of the morning or evening — forcing works best when it is not hot — so every plant flowers together.

The simple smallholder method: dissolve a pea-sized lump of calcium carbide (about 2–5 g) in about half a litre of water (a large mug), and pour a splash into each plant's central cup — the funnel of leaves at the heart. (Shops may instead sell ethephon or ethylene, used the same way — follow the label.)

Repeat once, about two days (48 hours) later, so every plant takes.

Then watch for the red flower bud in the heart in 4–6 weeks — that is your sign it worked.

Starting about 3–4 weeks after you force, check the hearts of the plants for a small reddish flower bud rising from the centre.

By 4–6 weeks after forcing, most plants should show one — this bud becomes the fruit.

Mark any plant that did not take, so you can re-force the odd straggler and keep the block even.

From the day the bud shows, count forward: the ripe fruit follows in about 5–6 months. Write the date down — the whole run to harvest is counted from flowering, not from planting.

If it fails → if barely any buds show 6 weeks after forcing (usually because you forced in hot weather, or on plants still too small), force those plants again in the cool of the day and check once more in 4–6 weeks.

From about a month after the flower bud appears, check for fruit that lean over and bare a shoulder to the afternoon sun.

Shade each exposed fruit: bend one of the plant's own long leaves over it, or lay dried grass, a handful of straw, paper, or a scrap of net over the sun-facing side.

Re-check every month or so as the fruit grows and shifts — a cover that slips leaves the shoulder bare again.

Shade, do not seal — let air move around the fruit so it does not sweat and rot under the cover.

From flowering through fruit growth, once a month, walk the block and look over the swelling fruit.

Fruitlet core rot: look for individual eyes on the fruit (each 'eye' is one of the little segments that make up the skin) that have gone brown or dark with a soft spot — the rot is inside those eyes. Badly affected fruit are best cut and used early.

Collapse or sunburn: look for fruit that are soft, weeping, or have a brown sunken shoulder — cut these out so they do not spread rot to their neighbours.

Check your sun covers are still in place as you go.

If rot is spreading, harvest the affected fruit early rather than lose them.

About 5–7 months after the flower bud showed, start checking ripeness. Look for the shell turning from green to golden-yellow, starting at the base and rising up the fruit.

Check the other signs together: the eyes flatten and the little bracts (the dry leaf-tips between the eyes) brown, the fruit gives off a sweet smell, and it sounds dull and solid — not hollow — when you tap it.

Cut the ripe fruit off with a sharp knife, leaving a short piece of stalk on the fruit. Do not pull or twist it off, which bruises it.

Pick in the cool of the morning, handle each fruit gently, and lay them in the shade — never drop or stack them hard.

Selling nearby? Let the fruit colour up a little more. Sending it far? Cut a touch earlier, while it is still firm and only just turning.

Keep the fruit in the shade from the moment you cut — never leave them heaped in the sun.

Handle them gently: do not drop, throw or over-stack them. Every knock becomes a soft, rotten spot within a day or two.

Get them cool as soon as you can — a shaded, airy store — and move them to market quickly; they do not keep long.

Keep them cool but not cold — not below about 7°C. Too cold gives 'chilling injury' — the inside browns and the fruit spoils — so never put pineapples in a very cold fridge or cold-room.

In the few weeks after harvest, look at the suckers (side-shoots) growing from the base and stem of the cut plant.

Choose one strong, well-placed, low sucker to keep — this becomes your ratoon crop.

Snap or cut off the other suckers, so the plant pours all its strength into the one you kept.

Grow the ratoon on as before — feed, weed and watch for pests — and force it to flower once it too reaches about 30–40 leaves. Expect its fruit about 12–15 months on, a little smaller than the first.