Pineapple Problems 
R. L. Goodwin, Ft. Pierce 
Pineapples have been successfully 
grown commercially on the East Coast of 
Florida during over 30 years. 
The industry brought about a million 
dollars annually into St. Lucie county, 
until 1915, at which time many fields had 
become old and unprofitable, and a large 
percentage of the fruit small and unmar¬ 
ketable. 
A dying off of plants appeared in many 
fields. This condition was recognized as 
“Wilt,” something that had always been 
known on a small scale but not feared up 
to that time by the growers in St. Lucie 
county. 
The industry had been wiped out grad¬ 
ually in the vicinity of West Palm Beach, 
but St. Lucie county growers felt that 
pineapples were exempt from pests or dis¬ 
ease and could be grown on the same 
piece of land indefinitely; that when a 
field needed replanting all that was neces¬ 
sary was either to remove the old plants 
and plow the land or grub the old plants 
under and replant. In some locations 
fields have been planted three times in 
25 years. One field was kept well fer¬ 
tilized and by filling in vacant places from 
time«to time was made to yield profit¬ 
able crops for 26 consecutive years. 
When the war broke out with Germany 
the shipments of potash were cut off and 
potash later disappeared from the pine¬ 
apple fertilizers. Consider for a moment 
that in Florida, in a sub-tropical climate, 
we have growing a tender tropical plant— 
the pineapple. We found by experiment 
that we could harden the pineapple plant 
by using a good percentage of potash in 
our fertilizer mixtures so that there was 
less liability to injury by cold waves. We 
had also learned that apply ingammoniates 
without potash made the plants tender 
and very susceptible to injury by cold. 
Potash not being available except at an 
exorbitant price, the grower applied only 
ammoniates and phosphates, such as 
blood and bone, tankage, etc. 
In February, 1917, a frost injured the 
plants; a year of droughty followed, and 
in December, 1917, another cold wave did 
damage. 1918 was another dry year and 
the pineapple grower threw up the sponge 
when fertilizers became as valuable as 
gold dust. 
In the meanwhile the United States 
Department of Agriculture at Washing¬ 
ton and the State Agricultural Experi¬ 
ment Station at Gainesville were con¬ 
ducting experiments on various planta¬ 
tions to develop a method of control for 
red spiders, mealy bugs, and nematodes 
(root knot); and were seeking for para¬ 
sites and other agencies that might be re¬ 
sponsible for pineapple troubles. Plant 
selection, fumigation, soil sterilization, 
