Pineapple is a tropical plant known for its juicy, fragrant fruit. It probably received its name because the fruit looks like a large pine cone. Many people enjoy drinking the juice of the pineapple and eating the fruit as a dessert or in salads. Thailand and the Philippines lead the world in the processing of pineapples.
The pineapple plant
grows from 2 to 3 feet (60 to 90 centimeters) tall, and the fruit weighs from 4 to 8 pounds (2 to 4 kilograms). The ripe fruit has a greenish-orange, yellowish-green, or dark green shell (skin). At the top of the fruit is a group of small leaves called the crown. The flesh of the fruit, the part that people eat, is firm and pale yellow, though it may be white. The most widely grown kind of pineapple, Smooth Cayenne, is seedless, but some varieties have small brown seeds beneath the shell.
A pineapple plant has blue-green, sword-shaped leaves that grow around a thick stem. The edges of the leaves of most varieties of pineapples have sharp spines. But the leaves of the Smooth Cayenne have spines only at the tips and bases. The pineapple plant has underground roots and small roots that grow aboveground.
When the plant is from 14 to 16 months old, an inflorescence (flower stalk with tiny flowers attached) resembling a small pink-red cone appears in the center. After the inflorescence has grown about 2 inches (5 centimeters) high, blue-violet flowers begin to open. Each flower blooms for one day. All the flowers open within 20 to 30 days. Each flower becomes a fruitlet. The fleshy parts of the fruitlets unite with the stalk to which they were attached. This combination of fruitlets is called a multiple fruit. The multiple fruit and the stalk form the yellow center of the pineapple. The pineapple’s shell develops from thick, hard, leaflike structures called floral bracts.
Cultivation and production.
Pineapple plants need a warm climate, from 64 to 113 °F (18 to 45 °C), and well-drained soil. Too much water can harm them, but irrigation is necessary in some dry regions. Before planting, pineapple growers plow the land deeply and break it up well. In some regions, they use a machine to put certain chemicals into the soil to kill harmful roundworms called nematodes. The same machine also deposits fertilizer and lays wide strips of plastic on the ground. The plastic strips keep the chemicals from escaping from the soil, conserve moisture, keep the soil warm, and discourage the growth of weeds.
Pineapples are grown from any of four parts of a pineapple plant: (1) shoots, (2) slips, (3) crowns, and (4) suckers. Shoots grow from the main stem. Slips grow from the flower stalk just below the fruit. Crowns are the groups of leaves at the top of the pineapple. Suckers arise from the roots below ground. Growers use seeds primarily in breeding programs. They generally produce these seeds through controlled pollination.
Workers insert the shoots, slips, crowns, or suckers through the plastic strips by hand. They punch holes in the plastic with a planting tool. The plants then require careful cultivation. Growers may use hormonelike chemicals, such as alpha-naphthaleneacetic acid, to make the plants flower and produce fruit faster than they naturally would. Machines do most of the weeding, spraying, and fertilizing that used to be done by hand. About 20 months after planting, the fruits are ready to be picked. A pineapple plant bears one fruit for the first harvest and may bear two fruits for the second or third harvest. Most planters replant fields after every two or three harvests.
In most countries, pineapples are harvested by hand. The pineapple pickers grab the fruit by the crown and twist it from the stalk. They put the pineapples in baskets strapped to their backs or in canvas bags carried over the shoulder. Some pineapple growers use a harvester-conveyor to simplify the fruit-picking. This machine consists of a long boom (metal arm) with a conveyor belt built into it. A truck moves the boom through the pineapple field, with the boom extending over many rows of plants. Pineapple pickers walk behind the boom. They pick the pineapples and drop them onto the conveyor belt, which carries them to the truck.
At the cannery, the pineapples are washed and sorted by size. A machine called a Ginaca removes the shells, punches out the cores, and cuts off the ends of the pineapples. Next, the fruit is cut into slices or pieces. Then it is put in cans, syrup or pineapple juice is added, and the cans are sealed. The unsweetened juice from the pineapple cores is also canned. Finally, the cans are heated to kill any microorganisms that might cause spoilage.
Pineapple plants also have several other uses. Various parts of the plant are used to make cattle feed, meat tenderizers, and medicines. Manufacturers use enzymes obtained from the plant stems in stabilizing latex paints and in the leather tanning process. In the Philippines, people weave the fibers of the plant into a cloth called piña.
History.
Many scientists believe that pineapples originated in Brazil. Other possible areas of origin include Colombia, Paraguay, and Venezuela. Christopher Columbus and his crew, who explored the Caribbean region in 1493, were probably the first Europeans to taste the fruit. Europeans later found pineapples throughout most of South and Central America and the Caribbean. They took the fruit to Europe and planted it in hothouses. It became a favorite fruit of royalty and the wealthy.
Commercial pineapple production began in the mid-1800’s in Australia, the Azores, and South Africa. Today, chief pineapple producers include Brazil, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, and Thailand.
