THE APPARENT DEGENERATION OF PINEAPPLE SLIPS IN PUERTO RICO

Abstract

Pineapple experiments were carried on using imported Cuban slips and native slips with the object of investigating the apparent "degeneration" of slips. The suggestion that this apparent "degeneration" of slips might result from a nutritional derangement produced by an unfavorable balance of iron and manganese that was more severe in the plants developed from native slips, and resulted in a more marked chlorosis than in the plants developed from Cuban slips, led to studies of iron-manganese relationships in the pineapple plant under field conditions as the initial point of attack on this problem. Cuban as well as native slips were planted in untreated soil and in soil which received calcium carbonate as ordinarily applied by pineapple growers to control manganese in the soil. In addition, the plants which developed from each group of slips received either 2 or 4 iron sprays; the purpose was to find out which spray procedure was best.