Kauai White

[FloridaGrower69]

With all the talk of the high hanging fruit (read exclusive) - props go out to the Hubers at Hole in the Mountain Farm. 

If you haven't tried their pineapple, you owe it to yourself to indulge.  Google Kauai White.  I put in my order last week for 2 and it will ship out end of February.  Stoked. It really is that good.  They’ve put a lot of sweat equity into the breeding and its paid off.

…and you get the crown to propagate more if you choose.  For good reason though - my Kauai White, while tasty, just isn't as full of flavor as the fruit grown in that climate and soil.
 

[Jaboticaba45]

Have a link on where you can order?
Than ks

[mbmango]

https://kauaisugarloaf.com/

When you can pick good ones in person in Kauai, they're just amazing. We also tried cheaping out with some other white sugarloafs from other farmers at markets there, and those were just crap. I ordered a couple online, and they weren't as amazing, but still better than I can grow personally.

[Jaboticaba45]

Thanks! Looks really cool but idk if I’m down to pay couple hundred for a few fruits :'(
But it’s great you get the crown!

[Coconut Cream]

I can hear my grandfather's voice in my head saying that he paid less for his first car than this pack of 3 pineapples! 

[fruitmonger]

Seems like a fair price to me....a Chilean imported cherimoya flat would cost me near the same and I have never been too impressed with those.  I have paid more for Mexican mangosteen and had over half of them arrive with internal decay or under-ripe and gross.

These folks are selling something they grew and they seem to have lots of labor and time invested and if I liked rare pineapple as much as some folks on this forum I would buy a 3 pack.

Best of luck to these folks.

PS....you couldn't pay me enough for some of the fruit that I grow to get me to ship it to anybody....nice to see folks investing their time and effort into the hope that someone else will appreciate what they love as much as they do....farmers really are a crazy bunch

[mbmango]

It does seem crazy, but the description says about 4 lbs per fruit, so it is similar to the other crazy fruit boxes on FB, for those of us with limited access to cheaper options.

[561MangoFanatic]

I bought some of these a few years ago, they’re delicious!! 🤤 Highly addictive but delicious and worth it… though now, it’s just so expensive I’ll stick to growing my own for now

[pineflatwoods]

Tempting, but I can't justify the purchase. I wish them all the luck though.

Pineapple collectors are the most stingy people with sharing cultivars, so this might be your best bet to get the real thing.

[murahilin]

Tempting, but I can't justify the purchase. I wish them all the luck though.

Pineapple collectors are the most stingy people with sharing cultivars, so this might be your best bet to get the real thing.

I wouldn’t say that pineapple collectors are stingy. It’s just that there’s not much material to share per plant.

[FloridaGrower69]

I try to share as much as I can.

To Murahilin’s point - the plants take a long time to produce offspring- and unless you have a good sized farm, there’s not much material to share.

But some of us make an effort 😊

[FloridaGrower69]

Some quick follow up on my purchase of Kauai White. These folks are always consistent. Not in any way bashing Melissa’s or Maui Gold, but I’ve had bad fruit show up from them on occasion.  Hole in the Mountain Farms is consistently well packed and because they dont use ethylene to accelerate ripening, the fruit is PERFECT.  I’ve recieved pineapple from other outfits that were just as pricey, but the fruit was foaming!!  Ethylene is not wonderful.

In this case, the box is opened and you get an amazing blast of pineapple smell. Seriously good stuff here. I know some have said its pricey, but honestly - if you dont eat this but seasonally, its worth every penny to treat yourself. Get some.  😊

[happyhana]

Wow, those look great! They must induce flowering for year round production. Most of my M-1 have just now started pushing flowers.

You mentioned the growers did breeding to develop Kauai white; is it distinctive enough from the other sugar loafs to merit collecting? Must admit in the past I’ve loaded a cart and then balked at the pricing.

Yeah, by the time I’ve replanted and maybe expanded the field I may have a few extra slips for friends. Tissue culture is the only way to make rare pineapples widely available.

[ben mango]

I wondered if they are spraying something to force flower them to get pineapples this early in the season. I think this is how larger operations do it, with mango as well for year round production. Anyone with knowledge on this im generally curious. When I worked with pineapple at Frankie’s we  would get a few fruits in the winter time but the main  season came in the summer months unless you are spraying to get an early crop, which really does make sense from an economical standpoint because the local market gets flooded with whites in the summer.

[Coconut Cream]

I've actually got one of the crowns from these pineapples in a pot, it has barely grown in the 6 months or so that I've had it. Is this a slower growing variety or is it just winter dormancy?

[sc4001992]

How does Kauai White taste compare to Frankie's Meli Kalima ?

[FloridaGrower69]

From what I understand all pineapple growers utilize an ethylene based program to induce. It’s a must for timing harvesting. Whats spooky is when big operators use ethylene AFTER breaking fruit to moderate/control ripening before they ship fruit. Weird things can and …occasionally do happen. Lol

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jzjBAAv9nxc&pp=ygUcRXRoeWxlbmUgaW4gYmFnIHdpdGggYmFuYW5hcw%3D%3D

On the breeding, it’s always a concern to keep plant stock consistent. I had a conversation with Chester Skotak, (Godfather of Bromeliads) who was a breeder at Dole I believe - about the point at which a cultivar begins to lose the good traits bred into it. For instance if MD2 started losing ascorbic acid. And crops can over generations lose some of their key attributes.  How many generations of plants utilizing the same offspring does it take before crops go feral? So growers have to keep an eye on their plant stock to ensure taste, appearance, color, crown size, acid, disease resistance, etc.  The Hubers have done an amazing job keeping Kauai White consistent. Just about 30 years of consistently great fruit - impressive 😊👍. I’d say the Hole in the Mountain plants are very distinctive and worth keeping if you like white pineapple. Again, the plants I grow here from their crowns provide tasty fruit, but whatever they do on that island…makes their fruit much more fragrant and sweet.

In Florida - the Kauai crowns I have move slowly until about April - then they move at a typical clip with proper fert and water. They tend to go dormant once evening temps drop into the 50’s - about November. 

[Galatians522]

I wondered if they are spraying something to force flower them to get pineapples this early in the season. I think this is how larger operations do it, with mango as well for year round production. Anyone with knowledge on this im generally curious. When I worked with pineapple at Frankie’s we  would get a few fruits in the winter time but the main  season came in the summer months unless you are spraying to get an early crop, which really does make sense from an economical standpoint because the local market gets flooded with whites in the summer.

When I was a kid my Dad would force our pineapples with calcium carbide crystals. He'd place one crystal (about the size of a small pea) in each bud and then fill it up with water. It would bubble and foam and the pineapple would begin blooming in a few weeks. Acetylene is the gas that is released. So, absolutely no smoking or sparks around this operation. Eventually, we quit doing it because it got really hard to purchase the calcium carbide crystals due to terrorism concerns.