"Eat pineapples, grouse chew!" - branded at one time Mayakovsky representatives of the bourgeois class, indicating a very high standard of living. After all, pineapple in pre-revolutionary Russia could appear on the table only for those people whose finances significantly exceeded the average cost of living.
Today, pineapple is not so rare in the homes of Russian citizens. Even a middle-class family can afford to put this marvelous delicacy on its table, albeit in small quantities, and not every day.
Another question: is it worth eating pineapple at all - a fruit that does not grow in our climate zone and may not meet the requirements of our body?
The science of dietetics answers unequivocally: pineapples are extremely useful! You can eat them, and even very necessary. No wonder pineapples as components are part of baby food, starting with the very first feeding.
This, more recently, exotic fruit is also advised for a wide variety of diseases. After all, it, thanks to a complex of biologically active substances contained in the pulp of the fruit, promotes bowel sanitation, has a stimulating effect on digestion, breaks down fats and reduces blood viscosity in humans.
The beneficial properties of this product are known today to many. But far from everyone knows about how pineapple grows . Although everyone knows for certain that this plant is thermophilic. And in fact, Paraguay and the south of Brazil are considered his homeland. But today, pineapples have also been grown in Southeast Asia. The original specific method of CAM photosynthesis of this plant allows it to adapt in places of increased drought. After all, carbon dioxide has the ability to stock up on leaves at night, so during the day the stomata of the leaves are closed, which reduces the evaporation of moisture. Also, the absorption of rainwater entering the leaf sinuses is an excellent tool for drought survival.
Speaking about how pineapple grows, one should clarify the fact that such tasty and healthy fruits do not appear on palm trees at all, as many ignoramuses consider. The plant called “pineapple” is rather a perennial grass, but not a tree at all.
First, the plant forms a rosette of lower long spiny leaves, then a peduncle appears from its middle, on which bisexual flowers form. In nature, hummingbirds are engaged in their pollination. As a result, under the “scales” of the fruit (and the pineapple “bump” is nothing but fruit, and not the only fruit!) Seeds develop, reminiscent of apple, but smaller.
Therefore, pineapple can be propagated by seed. Only the taste of fruits grown in this way is significantly inferior in quality terms to the fruits of plants of new breeding self-pollinating seedless varieties. And it’s not at all easy to find hummingbirds in central Russia.
Thanks to the self-pollinating varieties of pineapple, it has become possible to obtain the product year-round, growing it on specially equipped plantations or even in greenhouses and at home. In order for the pineapple to bloom at home at the time we need it, acetylene - a solution of water and calcium carbide - is poured into the axils of the leaves .
Of course, this plant is extremely whimsical and requires tremendous care. But after all, some types of cacti bloom once every hundred years, but this fact does not scare cactus growers at all. Therefore, if there is a desire and patience, you can try to plant this amazing plant on your window in a pot.
But how does pineapple grow, how does it multiply in home or greenhouse conditions? As we have already found out, we can only grow seedless self-pollinating varieties without hummingbirds. And the plant can be propagated either by the lateral shoots that appear in the plant from the axils of the leaves, or from the "crest" located at the top of the plant above the fruit - the "bump". Germination of a "crest" stuck in the ground occurs within about one month.
So now, knowing how pineapple grows and how it multiplies, you can bravely engage in pineapple farming. And then the poet’s words about pineapple will cease to be accusatory, and will become the motto of a hard-working and patient home pineapple.