CookieCows

I bought a Kona Sugarloaf last night off of Wellsprings for $3.99 through their ebay store. You can go directly to their website though if you don't like ebay.

__________________

lorax

Shoot, down here they're all just called "Comida blanca" but I'll tool around the internets a bit and see what I can dredge up. Pernambuco is probably what we're growing here, as well as hybrids between the cultivars and the original bromeliads.

I should remind you that we have hummingbirds here, so we also have seedy pineapples.

Richard

Hummingbirds at 10,000 feet! Seeds are very interesting, I wonder if a cert is needed to mail them into California ... I'd better go find out!

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

lorax

Probably you do need a phyto to mail seeds. And yes, we have a number of different species of hummingbirds here; there are three species in my garden right now.

D_&_T

found this

PINEAPPLE Fruit Facts

list two with white flesh

__________________

Richard

Here's all the edible pineapple varieties I'm aware of to date. I'm hoping Lorax will discover some others in Quito!

--------------

Abacaxi: Tall, pyramidal fruits; weight 4 to 5 lbs.; fragrant; white or very pale yellow flesh, juicy, sweet, rich, nearly coreless. One of the most delicious pineapples. Erect, spiny plant; disease resistant, low yielding.

Eleuthera – see Pernambuco.

Hawaiian King: A lush deep-green, smooth leaved cultivar grown commercially in Hawaii. Plants grow 2-3 feet tall at maturity and are covered with large violet blooms on dense spiked heads from January to March.

Hilo: A compact 1–1.5 kg (2-3 lb) Hawaiian variant of Smooth Cayenne. The fruit is more cylindrical and produces many suckers but no slips.

Honey Gold: One of the largest pineapples, often reaching 15 pounds in weight. Has large base and narrow crown. Flesh yellow, juicy, moderately acidic, very aromatic, rich in flavor. Plant grows 3 feet tall and wide.

Kona Sugarloaf – see Sugarloaf.

Mongo: broader leafs, with green and red hues.

Natal Queen: 1–1.5 kg (2-3 lb), golden yellow flesh, crisp texture and delicate mild flavor. Well adapted to fresh consumption. Keeps well after ripening. Leaves spiny.

Pernambuco : 1–2 kg (2-4 lb) with pale yellow to white flesh. Sweet, melting and excellent for eating fresh. Poorly adapted for shipping. Leaves spiny.

Queen – see Natal Queen.

Red Spanish: 1–2 kg (2-4 lb), pale yellow flesh with pleasant aroma; squarish in shape. Well adapted for shipping as fresh fruit to distant markets. Leaves spiny.

Singapore Spanish: Leaves are about 3 ft long with some spines near the tip. Fruit weigh 3 1/2 to 5 lbs 1.6-2.3 kg) and have a golden yellow flesh.

Smooth Cayenne: 2.5–3 kg (5-6 lb), pale yellow to yellow flesh. One of the most widely grown varieties in the world. Cylindrical in shape and with high sugar and acid content. Well adapted to canning and processing. Leaves are about 3 ft long (0.9 m) with some spines at the base and top. This variety is from Hawaii, and the most easily obtainable in U.S. grocery stores.

Sugarloaf: 2.5–3 kg (5-6 lb), white flesh with an edible core. Cylindrical in shape, it has a high sugar content but no acid. An unusually sweet fruit.

Variegated Smooth Cayenne: a yellow-striped leaf version of Smooth Cayenne.

White Sugarloaf – see Sugarloaf.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

mskitty38583

i love pineapple. im they type who would hide in a field of pineapple at night, dressed in camo and the only thng i would take....a machette.( ok and wipes for my face and hands) yummy. im just glad i dont work at dole! they would fire me...i would eat a lot of the product. then fernie could have all the pineapple tops he could carry.

__________________
WELCOME TO THE GATOR NATION

lorax

I'm the same way, MsKitty (btw kudos on the Cat in the Hat!) and so as you can imagine I was thrilled when I bought my first pineapples here - 4 big Comida Blanca for $1 US.

I'll ask around at the west-slope growers next time I go to the beach; the sellers at the farmer's market are not the original growers, usually they're friends of the growers, and they don't know what cultivar the pineapples are. Oddly enough, for a country that produces and exports pineapple, it's possible to buy Hawaiianas (Comida Amarilla) here as well, but the flavour of the local ones is soooo much better.

mskitty38583

love the lorax. my fav is actually green eggs and ham. that is because...i am sam, sam i am. (no i dont eat green eggs and ham) dr. suess was the man! might eat a green nana but not the other. my 20 yr old daughter is 7 mo pregnant and she has been craving pineapple. fresh canned, on calzone, pizza, strombolis, and just plain. i like to let mine sit in the fridge and get really cold, then slice it open and eat it like you would a grapefruit. yummy, yummy. its almost time again for a pineapple upside down cake( w/out the cherries)

btw i loved that book w/ the lorax. it started at an early age being a tree hugger, might have just been that book that did it.

__________________
WELCOME TO THE GATOR NATION

lorax

Actually, part of the reason I moved here was to help save the cloud-forests, so I guess Lorax is pretty fitting....

My fave thing for the white pineapples is just to eat 'em fresh, but I've recently been given a recipe for soft-preserving them in spiced syrup with cinnamon, cloves, and sweet black pepper (Ecuadoran traditional dessert) that I'm itching to try out.

Richard

Here is The Lorax character enshrined at the Dr. Seuss national monument in Springfield.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

lorax

Wow, kinda makes me want to visit the States... But I think customs might frown on a tree-hugging Canadian Expat arriving from Ecuador - the two countries don't have the hottest diplomatic relationship right now, not since customs in Florida treated our Presidente like an Al-Quaeda member......

Thanks for posting that!

I'm trying out the spiced pineapple today, and I'll let y'all know how it turns out. If anyone's interested, I'll post the recipe. It looks deceptively simple!


Oh, and here's some of my white pineapples of unknown cultivar. I asked the seller of white pineapple at the farmer's market if I could take away the pile of 40 or so tops (it's the practice here to remove both stem and top leaves when a pineapple is purchased, and yea you shall know them in the marketplaces by the immense piles of tops they generate), and they said sure - take them away.

I'm waiting for them to get a bit bigger before I harvest.

wOoT to mee!

john_ny

Pineapples can be grown from seed.

Pineapples can be grown from seed, but it takes forever. Apparently, pineapples are pollinated by hummingbirds. There are no hummingbirds in Hawaii, and it is illegal to bring any in. They want to keep their pineapples (important crop) seedless.
However, most of the pineapples we get around here, New York area, come from the Caribbean, or Central America. (shorter shipping time) There are hummingbirds there and, occasionally, I find a few seeds. They are about the shape and size of sesame seeds, only darker, and are found right below the surface. Once, I decided to plant them. I placed them in a jar, barely covered with water, to keep them fresh, until I could plant them. Of course, I forgot about them and, when I rediscovered the jar, three months later, I noticed some green coming out of them.


I planted them and several weeks later, this is what I had:



After about three months, they looked like this:


Pineapples grown from TC.
After tissue culturing, the small plants are planted in a 72 cell tray to acclimate to soil/greenhouse conditions. After some time, when they are 1½ to 2 inches high, they are transplanted into 4" pots, and grown until they have to be transplanted again. Here are some, about four months after transplanting:


Here are some, several months later:


Growing pineapples from tops of store-bought fruit.
Pineapples are easily grown from the tops of store-bought fruit. The best way to remve the top is to twist it out, rather than cutting it. The top comes out clean, with no fruit attached. (nothing that needs to be cut off, or something that can rot.) Then, peel away several layers of the small lower leaves. (Sometimes, especially on the newer golden variety, from Del Monte, Dole, and others, you might find little ½ to ¾ roots, already there.) You can apply some rooting hormone or, in most cases, just stick them in a pot, after a day or two of callousing (drying).
They are remarkably resilient. Here is one that was thought too far dried up, and trashed, along with some gingers, that sprouted (see arrow, to left of pix) in the trash.

__________________
John