Pineapple Growing my Own

Breakfast! Everything on my plate this morning was grown on our farm. Free range eggs, avocado, mango and pineapple. The only thing we did not grow was the rice.

Organic farming is more healthy for the environment and for the consumer of the food.

We grow these two varieties of Pineapples. Both are grown from pineapples 🍍 we purchased in the market. The top is cut off and saved. The top is then planted in the ground with the leaves facing upward. The first photo is the same pineapple that the famous company and brand Dole tm grows for the purpose of sale. I can attest, as I just ate some, that the ones we grow are every bit as good as the best you can buy in the store or farmer’s market.

Etymology by Wikipedia

The word "pineapple" in English was first recorded to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now termed pine cones). When European explorers encountered this tropical fruit in the Americas, they called them "pineapples" (first referenced in 1664, for resemblance to pine cones).[9][10]

In the scientific binomial Ananas comosus, ananas, the original name of the fruit, comes from the Tupi word nanas, meaning "excellent fruit",[11] as recorded by André Thevet in 1555, and comosus, "tufted", refers to the stem of the fruit. Other members of the genus Ananas are often called pine, as well, in other languages. In Spanish, pineapples are called piña ("pine cone"), or ananá (ananás) (for example, the piña colada drink).[citation needed]

Raising for personal consumption? Yes! To sell and use proceeds for ministry? Perhaps!

The soil here in Mindanao is very fertile. We are able to grow pineapple, equal to those in the market without the need for fertilizer. The plants seem to be pretty resistant to insects. So the cost would be in:
Planting stock
Labor for planting
Land
Labor for harvesting and bringing to market

The negative side to pineapple as a farming product are:
Competition from large companies
The process of growing to planting to bearing fruit is very long.
Gestation time according to homeguides.com

Once rooted and planted, suckers will flower and produce fruit in 12 months. Rooted crowns will take 18 months to form fruit. For Hawaiian pineapples, the main fruiting season is from April to May. Pineapples grown in the Caribbean have two fruiting seasons, December through February and August through September.

From initial planting to the first harvest could be over 18 months. 24 months from planting tops to having ripe fruit is our experience. After this, the fruiting is more frequent.

Sale price

The average pineapple weighs around 3.5 pounds The sale price for 1 average pineapple in the local market is $2.10 US dollars or 110 Philippines pesos. This is farmer’s market retail. Wholesale pricing would be less.

The high volume wholesale market’s going price is about $192 USD per ton according to tridge.com
At the maximum 28 tons per acre x $192 per ton equals $5,376 per harvest gross income.

Note: This fruit is not readily consumed by the local poor population as it is too expensive for a mean income of $4-6 USD per day.

According to businessdiary.com.ph 1 acre could produce 18,000 plants.

Double-rowing has been standard practice for many years, the plantlets set 10 to 12 in (25 30 cm) apart and staggered, not opposite, in the common rows, and with 2 ft (60 cm) between the two rows. An alley 3, 5 1/2 or 6 ft (.9, 1.6 or 1.8 m) wide is maintained between the pairs, allowing for plant populations of 17,400, 15,800 or 14,500 per acre (42,700, 37,920 or 33,800 per ha) respectively. Close spacing gives highest total crop weight—e.g.. 18,000 plants/acre = 28.8 tons (43,200 plants/ha = 69.12 tons). However, various trials have shown that overcrowding has a negative effect, reducing fruit size and elongating the form undesirably, and it reduces the number of slips and suckers per plant.

Read more at BusinessDiary.com.ph: http://businessdiary.com.ph/4473/pineapple-production-guide/#ixzz5G5itmAXv

This my assessment submitted for information. If the Steem Church Farms have any interest in Pineapple farming I am willing to do more research.

Thank you!
Daddy William