The different modes of cultivating the pine-apple: From its first introduction into Europe to the late improvements of T.A. Knight, esq.Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius)
History
The different modes of cultivating the pine-apple: From its first introduction into Europe to the late improvements of T.A. Knight, esq.
Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius)
Pineapple
_Fruit produced._ The green, and some other sorts of Pine, Mr. M’Phail
“ripened in a shorter period of time than two years after planting,”
(_Gard. Rem._ 87.) but some large kinds he found required three seasons,
as the black Antigua, Jamaica, and Ripley. His object was to have his
fruit come in for use between May and October, for he very justly
remarks, that “the fruit of the Pine Apple, if it happen to appear ripe
in winter, will have its flavour insipid.” He therefore recommends, that
such plants as show fruit in September or October, had better be cast
away, unless there be plenty of room for them in the hot-house; in that
case they may be retained by way of experiment, and to obtain young
plants from them. (_Gard. Rem._ 98.)
SECT. VIII.
_Culture of the Pine Apple in Fifeshire, by Mr. Walter Nicol._
Mr. Nicol was from 1790 to 1800, the best grower of the Pine Apple in
Scotland; he had afterwards much experience as a constructor of
hot-houses; and extensive observation of the practice of the best
gardeners of the north.
_Form of House._ “Pineries,” he says, “are, and may be, very differently
constructed; and we find plants thriving, and plants not thriving, in
all kinds of stoves, pits, &c. The culture of Pine Apples is attended
with a heavier expense than that of any other fruit under glass;
especially if they be grown in lofty stoves, the erection of which is
very expensive, and the keeping up proportionally more so, than that of
humbler stoves, or flued pits.
“But, independently of all considerations of expense (which may not be
valued by some, provided they can obtain good fruit), Pine Apples may
certainly be produced in as great perfection, if not greater, and with
infinitely less trouble and risk, in flued pits, if properly
constructed, than in any other way. I would therefore have the Pinery
detached from the other forcing-houses, and to consist of three pits in
a range; one for crowns and suckers, one for succession, and one for
fruiting plants. The fruiting-pit to be placed in the centre, and the
other two, right and left; forming a range of a hundred feet in length;
which would give Pine Apples enough for a large family.
“The fruiting-pit to be forty feet long, and ten feet wide, over walls;
and each of the others to be thirty feet long, and nine feet wide, also
over walls. The breast-wall of the whole to be on a line, and to be
eighteen inches above ground. The back-wall of the centre one to be five
feet, and of the others, to be four and a half feet higher than the
front. The front and end flues to be separated from the bark-bed by a
three-inch cavity, and the back flues to be raised above its level.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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