Delaying Natural Flowering in Pineapple

Abstract

Natural induction of flowering of pineapple (NI) is an important problem for growers, especially where cultivars of high sensitivity are grown at subtropical latitudes, e.g. Taiwan (22-267°N lat.). Aviglycine, an inhibitor of ethylene biosynthesis, was applied as a foliar spray to evaluate its potential to prevent NI in one-year-old pineapple. In the 2001/2002 season, 100 mg•L-1 of aviglycine applied on Nov. 9 and Dec. 1 had no effect on NI of ‘Tainon 18’ while 500 mg•L-1 aviglycine reduced it from 95.0% in the control to 51.3% on Feb. 25, 2002. In the 2002/2003 season, 500 mg•L-1 of aviglycine was applied on Nov. 10 and Dec. 1 and 20, 2002. On Mar. 28, 2003, there was 95.8% NI in the control, 64.6% at 250 and 375 mg•L-1 aviglycine, and 50% at 500 mg•L-1. For the 2003/2004 season, ‘Tainon 17’ was treated at 10, 15, or 20 day intervals with 500 mg•L-1 aviglycine between Nov. 10 and Dec. 25, 2003. On March 30, 2004, there was 82.5% NI in the control, 6.6% for the 10-day application interval (five applications), 18.3% for the 15-day interval (four applications), and 19.1% for the 20-day interval (three applications). Aviglycine provided good control of NI of pineapple for nearly three months after the last treatment was applied.