Habitat
Ananas comosus are a tropical plant, often grown between 30° North and South latitude. Depending on the growth environment, plant growth and fruit size vary greatly.
Soil: Pineapples have the ability to grow in many different soils as long as there is drainage and aeration. For best growth it is said to use soils with a slightly acidic pH of 4.5-5.
Rainfall: Since pineapples are a CAM plant and have a xerophytic characteristic, they can survive long periods of drought. That being said, they are produced over a variety of countries, with annual rainfalls ranging from 600 mm to 3500 mm. For optimum growth is it suggested that 1000 mm to 1500 mm of rainfall annually.
Temperature: Nakasone and Paull, who wrote the
book Tropical Fruits, suggest that temperature is probably the most
important factor in pineapple cultivation (Nakasone and Paull,
1998). They go on to say that growth and
development is positively correlated with temperatures up to 29°C.
The desirable range of maximum temperatures is about 25-32°C and
minimum temperatures of 15-20°C. They cannot tolerate frost.
Sunlight: Sunlight is a very important factor in pineapple growth. The weight of the fruit is directly related to the amount of sunlight it receives from planting to harvest.
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Now that we have a basic idea of where they are found, lets check out what adaptations they had to make in order to live in these conditions here or return to the home page here.