Climate:

Pineapple is tropical fruit. It requires moderate temperature and high humidity. The optimum temperate range is 210C to 230C. At low temperature, no fruit bud differentiation takes place. A well-distributed rainfall of 150 c. m. per year is adequate.

Soil Requirement:

Crop is grown on light to medium soils. Soils should be well drained. Sandy loams, laterites and slightly acidic soils with pH 5.5 to 6.00 are suitable for crop cultivation. Propagation: - Pineapple is propagated by vegetative method; suckers, slips; crown and disc are used for its multiplication. Slips are best for planting.

PLANTING:

For planting rainy season is the best, planting is done at beginning of monsoon in dry region and at the end of the monsoon in high rainfall area. Planting is done either in flat beds or in shallow trenches. The planting distance in the single row system should be 25 x 60 x 90 cm and in double row system 25 x 30 x 90cm.

Usage

Growing moringa plants may not require watering except during hot weather when they may be irrigated once a week. Annual moringa responds well to irrigation and the yield can be doubled (vegetable moringa fruit) by drip irrigation as compared to rain-fed crops, Drip irriga-tion at the rate of 4 lit/day can enhance yields by 57 per cent as compared to rain-fed crop.

Manuring

Pineapple is heavy feeder. It requires 600 kg N, 400 kg P and 400kg K per ha. Nitrogen is given in two split doses, first at beginning of monsoon and second in the month of February.

Harvesting And Yield

It matures in both 15 to 20 months after planting. Usually flowering takes place from February to April and fruits are ready from July to September. The fruits are harvested when they just become yellow. An average yield is 10 to15 tonnes per hectare.

Varieties

1. Gaint kew or kew:- It is one of the most important cultivars of Pineapple . It is ideal for canning industry. Flesh of the fruit is yellow, fibreless and juicy. The fruit is cylin-drical in shape with average weight 1.9 kg. It is a late maturing variety.
2. Queen: - It is the second important cultivar which is grown in our country. It is an ear-ly maturing variety, used as table variety. It is mostly grown in Bengal region. The fruits are small cylindrical, with average weight 1.2 kg. Fruit colour is golden yellow while the flesh is deep golden yellow.
3. Mauritius: - It is a mid season variety. Fruits of this variety are medium sized with yel-low and red skin.
4. Typhone No.1 andNo.3
5. Red Spanish

Fruit Culture

Fruit Culture: India has a wide variety of climate and soil on which a wide range of Tropical, Sub-tropical, Temperature and arid zone fruit crops can be grown in different regions.

The important advantages of fruit culture are:

1. From a unit of land comparatively more income is realized by growing fruits than grow-ing any agronomic crop like wheat, rice, maize, etc.
2. Calorific value of food from an area of fruit is more than cereals e.g. banana is 16 times more than wheat
3. Fruit farming is the bad rock of several industries like extracting of essential oil, pectin, production of spices, fruit preservation industries, etc.
4. Fruit culture provides employment to the rural people throughout the year.
5. Cultivation of fruit crops helps in maintaining ecological balance and checks the pollu-tion.
6. Being rich in minerals and vitamins fruit crops assume great importance as nutritional security of the masses.

Based on the temperature requirements and response to different climatic conditions, fruit crops have been classified into three broad groups:

1. Tropical
2. Sub-Tropical and
3. Temperate fruits.
4. Tropical Fruits – are those which do not endure severe cold but can tolerate warm temperatures of about 40 deg. Cent. These plants need strong sunshine, moderate warmth, fair degree of humidity and a very mild winter. They cannot stand frost or snow. Papaya, banana, pineapple, sapota and cashew belong to this group.
5. Sub-tropical Fruits – like oranges, guava, mango, litchi, pomegranate, fig and Amla are intermediate in character. They need warmth and moderate humidity and can also tolerate mild winters. These plants are versatile in their ability to stand extremes of rainfall, humidity, sunshine and mildly tolerant of winter upto frost stage.
6. Temperate Zone Fruits: are commonly found in cold regions enjoying a mild and tem-perature climate. These fruit trees endure cold and go to rest or dormancy by shed-ding off all their leaves during winter, apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, Cherry, and grapes are examples of such fruits.

EXPENDITURE

Economics Of One Acre Pineapple Cultivation:

Income

SERVICES

1. This includes Supervision, consultancy, guidance, Transportation cost first year.
2. First production starts after 1th year.
3. Buy back agreement of pineapple.
4. The income expenditure indicated by the company is an approximated figure, as it also depends on the nature and hard work of the farmer.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF COMPANY

1. For 1 Acre plantation the cost of Plants is Rs. 50,000/-, out of which 50% i.e. Rs. 25,000/- has to be paid before the cultivation and the remaining half after the planting is done.
2. The Buy Back Agreement Stamp paper of Rs.100/- has to be stamped by District Court of your area.
3. For 10 Acre or more yield the buy Back Agreement Stamp Paper will be of Rs.500/-.