Today, we visited an organic pineapple plantation. Massive fields covered the ground as far as the eye could see. The overall process of growing and farming pineapple plants differs greatly from farming coffee, though there are some similarities. The growth process of pineapples is much less complex than that of coffee. In general, the process includes planting the pineapple and letting it grow with some help; there are many fewer steps in the process as opposed to farming coffee. However, there are some similarities in the growth process and ensuring quality yield. In the organic farm, the farmers look for the green pineapples for the highest quality, similarly, the coffee pickers look for the bright red coffee cherries. One significant difference I noticed was the lack of diversity in farming pineapples. With coffee, farmers often use intercropping to both provide a healthy, diverse soil and to deter bugs and birds from eating the coffee plants. In the pineapple farms, the plants were in wide, uniform fields with plastic covering the ground to ensure no grass grows and to cover the soil from sunlight, erosion, and protection from other threats.

Pineapple farms do face many threats, one in particular is the threat of moths laying eggs inside the pineapples and the resulting caterpillars eating through the pineapple. This is a serious threat as moths and other bugs could very easily eat through many of the pineapples on the farm. To combat the moths and other threats, the plants are covered in chili and garlic, which deters rats, raccoons, ants, and moths. I find it interesting that they find ways to use biofertilizers with animals’ blood and pesticides with garlic and chili to help the plants grow and to protect them from threats. This is also similar to what we learned about at life Monteverde where they used biofertilizers and natural fungicide to help the plants grow and thrive.

It was insightful to learn about how the organic pineapple plantation worked and how it differed from the coffee and strawberry farms we had seen so far. I look forward to comparing all of the farms against each other at the end of the trip.