White Jade Pineapple

[Evildeadguy]

Here's the latest update. There are seven slips coming from the stalk. I can see more of the flower petals sticking out of the bracts and slowly moving up the pineapple. I'm also starting to see a bit of green which makes me think that the fruit is starting to form now.




Simon

they are doing great can't wait to see how they turn out

[fyliu]

That looks great Simon. Do you still have it in a 3 gal pot? I find that I don't get much suckers or slips in my pineapples. I wonder if I should've used larger pots. The fruits are fine though.

I just got some of those calcium carbide pebbles to force my white jades. Winter fruits may not be as good but I've waited so long already.

[simon_grow]

I'm terrible with pot sizes and these are special MicroKote treated pots from the manufacturer. I believe they are either in 5 or 7 gallon pots. Only a few of my White Jades have produced suckers and they are mostly the damaged plants. The plant where I got the most suckers is from a mother plant that completely died back and threw about 8-12 suckers. It seems like damaging a main plant gets me the most suckers. I accidentally threw too much pelleted fertilizer in the middle of the crown to kill back the mother plant.

My fruiting plant is throwing off tons of slips so I guess fruiting can be another way to get baby plants. I read that even if the plant doesn't produce slips, after you harvest the fruit, there is a good chance the plant will produce suckers or ratoons or whatever you call it.

Jimmy, I can't wait to see how they turn out as well. The slips are growing fast and may overgrow the fruit in time.

Simon

[fyliu]

Haha, I also did the Jim Neitzel thing of using osmocote in the center and it didn't really force it to fruit. The first time I tried it it burned the center and I had to wait for it to grow a new center. Later times it only burned a couple of leaves.

[ben mango]

Here is possibly the worlds smallest, non tissue cultured, White Jade. I was removing some small White Jade suckers a while back and accidentally knocked off a tiny 1.5 Inch sucker. It didn't really have any roots but I stuck it in a pot anyways. Well, it appears the original sucker is dead or at least almost dead but now I just noticed that the plant produced a tiny baby which must have formed from the roots which eventually developed.

Simon

another way you can do this form of 'micropropagation' and increase your plant numbers is by sectioning the slips into quarters or 3rds. then planting the inner core in the soil, keep moist and new growth should occur in a matter of weeks, which you can later twist off and replant these baby plants.  theoretically its easy to get 3-6 plants from 1 slip. we used this technique at frankies using a paper cutter, you don't have to use one but it was good for making straight and precise cuts.

[Mark in Texas]

I use an encapsulated 12 mo. food in the pots and fertilize the top of the leaves and cup with 1/2 tsp./gal. of Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro as often as I can remember, at least once a week.

[Evildeadguy]

Pineapple planting material

[simon_grow]

My White Jade pineapple finally opened up its first flower so I guess this is stage 3. The petals are sticking out really far on many of the other flowers and I think they will open very soon.

The other side, flower not opened yet

Top view, pic taken couple days ago

Simon

[Evildeadguy]

your best bet to getting the biggest pineapple growth would be to drill out the center of the crown
so it doesn't grow that big the crown that is and than you can just leave the suckers and slips on to
keep growing i always take the suckers and slips off once there around 12 Inchs or so than repot them
so they can grow

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the info Jimmy, I decided I'm just going to let this one grow out naturally instead of trying to grow the largest fruit possible in my yard and circumstances. I'll probably try for a large fruit size with my next flowering White Jade.

Simon

[simon_grow]

This White Jade plant keeps on surprising me. I was checking out the plant this morning and noticed it had a baby ratoon coming out of the ground next to the much older ratoon and it also has multiple suckers coming out from in between the leaves. All this is on top of the multiple slips coming off the peduncle!

That would have been enough surprising for the day but as I inspected the baby pineapple, I noticed some flecks of green growing from the uppermost portion of the baby pineapple, adjacent to the crown of the baby pineapple. Does anyone know what this is? Is the pineapple adding additional bracts or flowers? I was thinking the pineapple has a set number of flower sections as soon as it emerges?
Side view of flowering White Jade and her larger ratoon

Small ratoon

Suckers

What's this green growth?



Current state of the fruit


Simon

[Evildeadguy]

This White Jade plant keeps on surprising me. I was checking out the plant this morning and noticed it had a baby ratoon coming out of the ground next to the much older ratoon and it also has multiple suckers coming out from in between the leaves. All this is on top of the multiple slips coming off the peduncle!

That would have been enough surprising for the day but as I inspected the baby pineapple, I noticed some flecks of green growing from the uppermost portion of the baby pineapple, adjacent to the crown of the baby pineapple. Does anyone know what this is? Is the pineapple adding additional bracts or flowers? I was thinking the pineapple has a set number of flower sections as soon as it emerges?
Side view of flowering White Jade and her larger ratoon

Small ratoon

Suckers

What's this green growth?



Current state of the fruit


Simon

if its growing close to the crown than it could be a slip starting to grow sometimes slips can grow on some pineapple plants
under the crown just keep track of it let us know how it turns out. if you check the photo below you will see that it has
slips growing below the crown

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the picture Jimmy! After seeing that picture, I bet it's more slips. I just can't believe how many daughter plants this pineapple has.

Simon

[apresser]

planted a bed of white jade pineapples. a few have fruited but this one monster seems to be sucking up all the nutrients. still no fruit from it yet.

[simon_grow]

Beautiful plants apresser! How does the White Jade taste compared to a White Sugarloaf? Are they pretty much the same except for the spines?

In my opinion, the larger the plant, the better. The larger the plant, the larger the fruit. Hopefully it will bloom for you soon. If it doesn't fruit for you soon, you can use calcium carbide to induce blooms.

Simon

[apresser]

Beautiful plants apresser! How does the White Jade taste compared to a White Sugarloaf? Are they pretty much the same except for the spines?

In my opinion, the larger the plant, the better. The larger the plant, the larger the fruit. Hopefully it will bloom for you soon. If it doesn't fruit for you soon, you can use calcium carbide to induce blooms.

Simon

The Kona Sugarloaf which I think is the same as White Sugarloaf is sweeter than the White Jade. But both are excellent quality.. although neither of them compare to the sweetness of Mele Kalima which was developed by Frankie's Nursery. They have that one patented and I've collected a few seeds from some fruits so (hopefully) will find out in a few years how those seedlings compare to the parent. Have you had a chance to try "Mele Kalima"? 

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the info appresser! I have not had a chance to try the Meli Kalima yet. Too bad it is patented. If you ever find extra Meli Kalima seeds that you would like to sell, please let me know because I would be very interested in getting my hands on its genetics even if it's from seeds.

I am growing White Sugarloaf and White Jade but I've only tasted White Sugarloaf and it is the best tasting pineapple Ive ever tried. I hope the White Jade will taste similar.

Simon

[apresser]

will definitely keep you in mind, the pineapples run about $15-20/each and I think they somehow keep them from getting pollinated because there are very few seeds. But if one day I ever hit the motherload and get a bunch of seeds ill send some to you for sure! Otherwise we just have to wait until the few seeds I've collected eventually fruit.... its gonna be a while.

Thanks for the info appresser! I have not had a chance to try the Meli Kalima yet. Too bad it is patented. If you ever find extra Meli Kalima seeds that you would like to sell, please let me know because I would be very interested in getting my hands on its genetics even if it's from seeds.

I am growing White Sugarloaf and White Jade but I've only tasted White Sugarloaf and it is the best tasting pineapple Ive ever tried. I hope the White Jade will taste similar.

Simon

[vanman]

will definitely keep you in mind, the pineapples run about $15-20/each and I think they somehow keep them from getting pollinated because there are very few seeds. But if one day I ever hit the motherload and get a bunch of seeds ill send some to you for sure! Otherwise we just have to wait until the few seeds I've collected eventually fruit.... its gonna be a while.

Thanks for the info appresser! I have not had a chance to try the Meli Kalima yet. Too bad it is patented. If you ever find extra Meli Kalima seeds that you would like to sell, please let me know because I would be very interested in getting my hands on its genetics even if it's from seeds.

I am growing White Sugarloaf and White Jade but I've only tasted White Sugarloaf and it is the best tasting pineapple Ive ever tried. I hope the White Jade will taste similar.

Simon

Do the Meli Kalima not come with a crown when purchased?  I thought you could propagate a patented variety and maybe even give them away as long as you didn't sell it?  I bought 10 patented thornless blackberry plants a few years ago and now their like a weed all over the place.  I give the cuttings to whoever wants them.  Maybe I'm not suppose to? 

[apresser]

It comes with the crown removed and a special tag on it that says "vegetative propagation is prohibited" in addition to a patent number. If I had some of the crowns I would definitely grow them for personal use at home since its the best pineapple I've ever tasted by far.

will definitely keep you in mind, the pineapples run about $15-20/each and I think they somehow keep them from getting pollinated because there are very few seeds. But if one day I ever hit the motherload and get a bunch of seeds ill send some to you for sure! Otherwise we just have to wait until the few seeds I've collected eventually fruit.... its gonna be a while.

Thanks for the info appresser! I have not had a chance to try the Meli Kalima yet. Too bad it is patented. If you ever find extra Meli Kalima seeds that you would like to sell, please let me know because I would be very interested in getting my hands on its genetics even if it's from seeds.

I am growing White Sugarloaf and White Jade but I've only tasted White Sugarloaf and it is the best tasting pineapple Ive ever tried. I hope the White Jade will taste similar.

Simon

Do the Meli Kalima not come with a crown when purchased?  I thought you could propagate a patented variety and maybe even give them away as long as you didn't sell it?  I bought 10 patented thornless blackberry plants a few years ago and now their like a weed all over the place.  I give the cuttings to whoever wants them.  Maybe I'm not suppose to?

[vanman]

I wonder if you can tissue culture from near the crown.  I've read that it is not that hard to TC pineapples.  Again, I don't think it's illegal to propagate for your personal use.  Don't tell anybody but I took some scion off of my parents gold nugget mandarin. 

[simon_grow]

You can not clone it because of the patent. There are hormones you can use to induce roots and shoots, I've used them many times in my previous job. I wouldn't do it to Frankie's patented pineapple however as he must have spent a lot of time and money to develop and patent this variety.

Simon

[apresser]

Yea I agree if they went out of the way to patent it, not going to make any effort to clone it, even for personal use. But who knows, maybe can win the genetic lottery on seeds collected from this plant and end up with something great for the home garden. Otherwise the White Jade is a really high quality pineapple, and although its not as sweet as the Meli Kalima-- its more complex in flavor.

You can not clone it because of the patent. There are hormones you can use to induce roots and shoots, I've used them many times in my previous job. I wouldn't do it to Frankie's patented pineapple however as he must have spent a lot of time and money to develop and patent this variety.

Simon

[simon_grow]

So far I've got two ratoons, two suckers, seven slips and seven of those green thingies that I'm still not sure what they are yet. One of the green thingies is fattening up a bit and shape is similar to the flowers but the color is green instead of purple.





Simon

[simon_grow]

This White Jade plant keeps on surprising me. I was checking out the plant this morning and noticed it had a baby ratoon coming out of the ground next to the much older ratoon and it also has multiple suckers coming out from in between the leaves. All this is on top of the multiple slips coming off the peduncle!

That would have been enough surprising for the day but as I inspected the baby pineapple, I noticed some flecks of green growing from the uppermost portion of the baby pineapple, adjacent to the crown of the baby pineapple. Does anyone know what this is? Is the pineapple adding additional bracts or flowers? I was thinking the pineapple has a set number of flower sections as soon as it emerges?
Side view of flowering White Jade and her larger ratoon

Small ratoon

Suckers

What's this green growth?



Current state of the fruit


Simon

if its growing close to the crown than it could be a slip starting to grow sometimes slips can grow on some pineapple plants
under the crown just keep track of it let us know how it turns out. if you check the photo below you will see that it has
slips growing below the crown

Jimmy, you were right, the green growth is an under the crown slip. I counted 10 of them so far. I read that too many slips, suckers or ratoons can sometimes be considered detrimental to commercial growers but I don't mind it as I'm trying to increase the number of plants I have.

After all the planting material is harvested from this single plant I will probably remove all but one or two clones on each remaining plant so that more energy can go into the growth of the pineapple and the fewer number of clones.

I'm going to stick with my original intent to let this plant grow undisturbed. Seems like it's going to be super bushy with all the clones.




Simon