1684 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



Soil and Its Preparation 



In Florida most of the pineapple soils 

 consist of over 99.5 per cent insoluble sili- 

 ca or sand of rather coarse texture. Pines 

 can be produced on soils of widely differ- 

 ent character, although the best quality 

 of fruit is produced on soils somewhat 

 resembling those of Florida. 



The three requirements of the pineapple 

 plant are that the roots must have a 

 limited amount of water, the necessary 

 supply of plant food, and an unlimited 

 amount of air. It will be understood that 

 a well-drained sandy soil in which the in- 

 dividual soil particles are coarse fills some 

 of the requirements. It will need frequent 

 stirring of the top soil until the plants 

 become large enough to shade and pro- 

 tect it from evaporation. The plant food, 

 of course, will have to be supplied. 



In clay soil and in loam and even in 

 fine sand the conditions are not so readily 

 controlled. A heavy rain will pack the 

 surface, excluding the air from the roots, 

 and, unless the land is bedded, the water 

 is likely to remain in the soil long enough 

 to cause serious injury to the roots. 



Aeration is really the underlying prin- 

 ciple of pineapple cultivation. The pine- 

 apple plant is not adverse to water, but 

 the water, when filling up the soil, ex- 

 cludes the air. 



Methods of Planting 



The methods of planting now followed 

 range from single rows, six feet apart, 

 planted on a ridge, to 20 or more rows, 

 15 to 18 inches apart, planted on level 

 ground. All of the methods have strong 

 advocates, and it is simply a question of 

 which method is best adapted to certain 

 fields, considering all of the factors that 

 can enter into the discussion. Let us 

 first consider a sandy soil, well drained 

 and free from joint grasses. If the sand 

 is comparatively coarse, the ground water 

 not within two feet of the surface, and the 

 lay of the land such that the surface 

 water can drain off quickly, the problem 

 is very simple. Such land should with- 

 out question be planted in wide, level 

 beds. 



If the sand is fine and the drainage not 

 perfect, the soil should be bedded up. The 



height and width of the beds will depend 

 entirely on local conditions. If there are 

 no noxious weeds to combat, the beds 

 should be as wide as it would be possible 

 to make them and not higher than abso- 

 lutely necessary to insure good drainage. 

 In loam and clay soils the considera- 

 tions are To keep the soil aerated, to 

 get rid of an overabundance of water in 

 the shortest possible time, to be able to 

 keep the soil free from weeds, and to pre- 

 vent the fruit as well as the plants and 

 suckers from falling over. 



Preparing the Plants 



The young plants, whether suckers, 

 slips, or crowns, are covered with leaves 

 to the very tip of the base. In stripping 

 these leaves ofP and exposing the stem a 

 number of excrescences will be seen, which 

 are the root buds, some of which may be 

 already developed into roots of consider- 

 able length. Many planters maintain that 

 it is necessary to trim the plants, that 

 is, to cut the tip of the base and to strip 

 the leaves off for a distance of one to two 

 inches. Other planters maintain that this 

 process is not at all necessary. Why is 

 this? 



The reason is simply the difference in 

 local conditions under which the plants 

 are grown. If a slip is planted without 

 trimming in a dry, sandy soil, the roots 

 will form, but instead of spreading out 

 in the normal fashion, they will wind 

 around the stem under the leaves. 

 There are two reasons for this; one 

 is that on account of the dry soil the 

 leaves covering the stem remain hard and 

 dry and the roots would have to overcome 

 great resistance in order to penetrate 

 them; they therefore follow the course of 

 least resistance and develop under the 

 leaves. The other reason is that the plant 

 catches a great deal of dew and water 

 from light rains, which is retained in the 

 heart and leaf axils, from which it 

 trickles down around the base and makes 

 the condition there favorable for root 

 formation, while at a distance of an inch 

 or more from the stem the soil is drier. 



This growing of the roots around the 

 stem is called in Florida "tangleroot," 



