Summer time is the prime season for many fruits, like the pineapple. Recently our greenhouse experts grew a rare Royal Hawaiian pineapple. After a previous failed attempt due to insects, our Royal Hawaiian plant has flowered and produced its first fruit. This fruit is also known as the pink pineapple for its pink petals and reddish bracts. The Royal Hawaiian is not considered a true pineapple, but a fingerprint of the fruit family. This fruit will be smaller and sweeter than the traditional pineapple; it typically weighs 1 to 3 pounds when fully grown.
Like all fruit the pink pineapple has many health benefits. These benefits include containing high levels of bromelain, an enzyme that helps to prevent cancer. While the plant’s colorful foliage can be harvested and made into a fine silk-like cloth, along with ropes and fishing lines.
This fruit is known for being rare and hard to grow. Pineapples typically do not do well in frost and soggy, waterlogged soils. To successfully grow this plant soil conditions must be perfect and insect control is even more important than with typical plants. Pineapples are especially sensitive to fertilizers and pesticides. Applying these products to these plants can burn their leaves and impact growth. This has proven to be true for our pink pineapple, finding the correct mixture of fertilizers and pesticides has been a difficult and tricky task.
Getting the fruit to the producing stage was challenging enough for our greenhouse experts now there are still obstacles to come when maturing the fruit to the harvesting stage. Growing any type of pineapple is a long term investment. They can take anywhere from 18 to 24 months to fruit. Then another 6 months for that fruit to mature.
Growing this type of fruit has already been a learning experience and we look forward to gaining more experience with the rare pink pineapple. Updates on our progress to follow.