Organic Pineapple Working Group

[Organic Pineapple Working Group <opwg AT lists.ibiblio.org>]

Dear Shanthi:

Many years ago flowering of pineapple was forced by smudging in Puerto Rico and that certainly would meet any organic standard.  I believe the practice involved bulding fires along the edge of fields, adding green material and then covering the smoking field and fire with a tarp.  I am not aware that the practice has been used since it was discovered that the active component in smoke was ethylene.

It was reported casually at one of the pineapple symposiums that modest success in forcing pineapple had been achieved using cold (5 c) water.  I have heard from others who have tried the technique and either were unable to reproduce it or had poor success.  In theory, the cold shock would increase natural ethylene synthesis, which would then force the plant.  I recall a later report that the plants must be somewhat stressed, e.g. by withholding nutrition, for the technique to work at all.

At http://www.imo.ch/imo_news_en,1216,998.html, I found the following discussion of ethylene and calcium carbide for flower induction of pineapple.
German authorities allow Calcium Carbide for flower induction in pineapple
Upon our request, the German authorities of import BLE has informed IMO , that they consider Calcium Carbide as equivalent to Ethylene, meaning that it can be approved for flower induction in organic pineapple production. However, please note that this is a specific position by the German authorities – and we can NOT guarantee that other European authorities of import will rule in the same way. The German authorities in their statement however point out, that they have also discussed the issue with the French authorities. However, since Calcium Carbide is not listed in Annex II of EEC 2092/92 (the European Regulation) please contact IMO before starting to use Calcium Carbide for flower induction in pineapple so that we can check the question also with other countries of import – and other (private) standards if necessary .

Also see "Forcing in Pineapples: What is New ?" in Pineapple News No. 13, page 27.  The article by Alain Soler, Claude Teisson and Bernard Dole discuss the EU regulations and also give techniques for the use of ethylene on small farms.  This of course assumes that ethylene is available in pressurized bottles.

I hope the above is of some help.

With best regards,

Duane

Organic Pineapple Working Group wrote:

 

Dear Members of the OPWG,

 

In most pineapple producing countries commercial  plantations use products such as ethrel to induce flowering. I would like to know if there is an organic alternative to this.

 

Shanthi Wilson Wijeratnam

 

shanthi AT iti.lk

 

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-- 
Duane P. Bartholomew, Ph.D., Agronomist emeritus
Dept. of Tropical Plant and Soil Science, University of Hawaii at Manoa
1910 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96822
Pineapple News on the web at http://www.ishs-horticulture.org/workinggroups/pineapple/.