KAU Agri Infotech Portal

Pineapple (Ananas comosus)

Prepare the land for planting by ploughing or digging followed by levelling.
Depending on the nature of land, prepare trenches of convenient length and about 90 cm width and 15-30 cm depth.
The trenches are to be aligned at a distance of 165 cm from centre to centre.

Prepare the land by digging the area to be planted at 90 cm width in rows/ strips, leaving the interspaces undisturbed.
However, ploughing can be adopted in level land.
Planting is done in paired rows of 45 cm distance between rows and 30 cm between suckers.
Suckers may be planted in triangular method in the paired rows.
Interspace between the paired rows is kept at 150 cm.
Contour planting may be adopted in sloppy areas.
Mauritius can be grown as a pure crop in garden land, reclaimed lowlands and wetlands
As an intercrop in coconut and newly planted rubber plantations.
In rubber plantation, it can be grown for the first 3-4 years only.

Select healthy suckers of uniform size weighing 500-1000 g.
Keep suckers in open space under shade in a single layer for about 7 days for drying.
Strip off a few lower old dried leaves.
Allow the suckers to dry and cure for another 7 days.
Dip the cured suckers in 1per cent Bordeaux mixture at the time of planting.

Suckers are selected from disease and pest free healthy plants.
Suckers are to be graded into those having 500-750 g and 750-1000 g.
The graded suckers are planted in different blocks or plots, to get uniformity in growth and flowering.
Bigger suckers give early yield.
Dipping in 1 per cent Bordeaux mixture and 0.05 per cent quinalphos will protect the suckers against diseases and pests.

Rake the soil and plant the suckers in double rows at spacing of 45 cm x 30 cm.
Limit the depth of planting to 7.5 to 10 cm.
Adopt triangular method of planting in each trench so that the plants in two adjacent rows are not opposite to each other (plant population 40400 / ha).

After preliminary land preparations, planting is done in small pits of 10-15 cm depth at a spacing of 45 cm between rows and 30 cm between plants in the rows.
There is no need to plant the suckers in trenches.