Response of four pineapple hybrids to early flower induction

Y.K. Chan and H.K. Lee

Abstract

Four pineapple hybrids selected for early fruiting i.e. Josapine, A04–16, A12–45 and C17–33 were induced to flower at 6, 7 and 8 months after planting. In general, fruit and plant fresh weights increased with later periods of induction, but the rate of increase in fruit weight was slower than plant weight. This led to a decrease in fruit:plant ratio from 0.52 at 6-month induction to 0.45 and 0.40 at 7 and 8-month induction respectively. A04–16 had the heaviest mean fruit weight (1.76 kg) but the lightest plant weight (2.52 kg) implying its efficient partitioning of photosynthate to the economic part of the plant. This is reflected in its highest fruit:plant ratio of 0.74 compared with 0.31–0.41 for the rest of the hybrids. Over the three periods of flower induction, A04–16 showed a remarkable fruit:plant ratio of 0.6 to 0.89, which were 1.5–2 times higher than the next best hybrid. At 6-month induction, A04–16 developed economic-sized fruits of 1.5 kg while other hybrids yielded only small fruits of around 1 kg.

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