Tissue Cultured Versus Traditionally Grown Pineapples: Growth and Nutrient Profile

Background: Ananas comosus, commonly known as pineapple, is a fruit that is endorsed by the Ministry of Agriculture to be economically important to the island. Tissue culture maybe used as an additional method of propagation to supplement traditional methods to increase productivity. This study was therefore designed to assess the effectiveness of utilising tissue culture techniques to produce pineapple plants and compare their productivity, nutritional profile and maturation period with those grown using traditional cultivation practices. Methods: Explants were collected from local farms in Jamaica. After the explants were successfully established in vitro through tissue culture technique, they were then acclimatized in a shadehouse for two weeks and subsequently transferred to the field. Both physical and chemical profiles of plants and fruits were evaluated during the course of the study. Results: The results show that the tissue cultured (TC) pineapples had similar physical and chemical properties when compared to the traditionally grown (TG) plants. The plants produced fruits at the same time. The heights were also the same at the time of fruiting. There was no significant difference in fruit weight when TC (1.60 ± 0.17) pineapples were compared to TG (1.60 ± 0.17); this is consistent with work done by other researchers. The nutrient profile of TC and TG pineapples were statistically similar (p>0.05). Conclusion: The results indicates that tissue cultured pineapples and those propagated traditionally have similar chemical and nutrient profiles, maturation period and physical properties. This therefore suggest that tissue culture may be a suitable alternative for production of planting materials as they can survive under similar growing conditions as those propagated by traditional methods. This may prove beneficial to the agro industry as availability of clean planting materials has shown to be a major factor impacting on the productivity of the crop and by extension revenue generated from exportation.