PARTITIONING OF DRY MATTER IN FRUITING AND VEGETATIVE PINEAPPLE PLANTS OF HOMOGENEOUS AGE

‘Smooth Cayenne’ pineapple plants were propagated from suckers of uniform size and grown in containers. Natural flowering occurred on a portion of the plants at 13 months. When the fruits developed color, six fruiting and six vegetative plants were bare-rooted then partitioned into roots, leaves, stem, peduncle, slips, fruit, and crown. Leaves were counted and all tissue was dried to constant weight at 75°C. Total dry matter accumulation and the ratio of below to above ground dry weight were not different between the two groups. Plants that did not flower produced about twice as many leaves as did the plants that flowered, but individual leaf weight did not differ between the two groups. Although dry matter partitioning among various above-ground tissues has been studied, this is the first paper to report the relative proportion of above and below ground growth for vegetative and reproductive pineapple plants of the same age.