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Re: Pineapple Plants

Re: Pineapples and Coconuts

When I lived on a small island in the pacific we had problems with Coconut
crabs and Pineapple crabs.  They were just two of the many pests with which
we had to contend on a daily basis.  Mowing our lawns was like driving
through a mine field.  The crabs would climb the trees late a night, cut the
coconuts and pineapples loose from their trees, and litter the lawns.  It
was even worse trying to go on a moonlight stroll.  She or I were always
falling after tripping over one or the other of them.  A coconut isn't bad,
but those darn barbs on the pineapple can give you some very nasty
scratches, and if you happened to step on one of those crabs...well, you can
see my point.

One of my neighbors down the street had fifty of the crabs which he trained
to harvest his crops.  He tried housetraining one of the crabs to retrieve
cans of beer from the frig, but I don't think he ever really succeeded.  I
can still see him out trying to walk his crab. He also tried to cross the
two trees.  He thought the two tastes in the same fruit would be a big
seller on the mainland, but, and I'm not sure about this, I don't think he
ever got the trees to cross-pollinate.  But, if it weren't for him, we would
be eating a pineapple with a huge seed.  He is the man who figured out how
to grow pineapples without the big seed in the center of the fruit.  You
don't see many of the original pineapples anymore.  I think he did it out of
exasperation.  From what I understand, his wife bit into a pineapple one day
and broke her front tooth.  She raised so much hell he had to do something.

Also, make sure you grow the miniature pineapples.  The larger ones grow on
trees which can reach 50 feet in the first year, and the fruit which comes
around during the second year growth can weigh up to 500 pounds.  I think
those are the ones used by the big hotel chains in Hawaii, but they have to
feed so many more people.

Happy growing,
Depau S. Depau

>You know, guys, I don't think I've ever seen a photo of a wild pineapple,
>and I have no idea what it looks like (except what I see in the grocery).
>Is that the way they grow in the wild?  And, is the fruit, therefore like
>a tuber?
>Julia Redman
>UMBI-CAB
>*********************
>
>I think they grow like a coconut.
>
>
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