Farmers’ Guide With Joseph Mugenyi: Tips On Pineapple Growing

By Joseph Mugenyi

Kibiito: The Ananas comosus is a tropical plant with an edible fruit, also called a pineapple and the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae

Pineapples may be cultivated from the offset produced at the top of the fruit, possibly flowering in five to ten months and fruiting in the following six months.

Pineapples do not ripen significantly after harvest. In 2016, Costa Rica, Brazil, and the Philippines accounted for nearly one-third of the world’s production of pineapples.

Many people have seen pineapples sold but with little or no knowledge about their growth. Let’s start with the different pineapple cultivars mostly grown.

1. Smooth cayenne:-  mostly grown in tropics and big in size
2. Queens pineapple :- small and sweet
3. Red Spanish: – moderate size.

Pineapple propagation is done using 3 parts namely;-

1. Slips: – When planted takes 1 year to flower and more 6months to form a mature fruit.
2. Suckers:-Take 1 and a half year to form flowers and 6 more months to form a mature fruit.
3. Crown: – Take 2 and half years to flower and more 6months to form a mature fruit.

Steps taken in growing pineapples

1. Clear up the land for planting by deep cultivation.
2. Treat the crowns (crowns are mostly used by farmers) before planting using fungicide or insecticide.
3. Space the plants using 2cm by 1cm
4. Place the crown 3cm deep and cover it with soil gently.
5. Water them for proper growth.
6. Do weeding
7. Spray the plant with foliage fungicides and insecticides.
8. Fertilizers e.g. NPK can be used.

Pineapple Harvesting

 A pineapple is mature in 15-24months after being planted.
The period varies due to the different propagative parts used in planting.
Each plant yields once and for all.
When harvesting, it’s better to cut rather than to break the fruit from the stalk.

Market

Pineapples have a wide market both locally and internationally.
Sometimes, juice is extracted from pineapples and sold. pineapple juice is among the expensive juice and nutritious.

Get all the agricultural information here bi-weekly.Mugenyi Joseph (MJ Farmer) is a practicing Agribusiness entrepreneur based in Kibiito and a software Engineering student at Makerere University.

He can be reached on 0701-443309, Email:mugenyijosemj@gmail.com