Rolling continuous planting on mineral upland, cycles of fourteen to twenty four months, with first and second ratoons kept on the older blocks.
“Every field has two or three plantings in it at different ages. Any number across the whole field is meaningless and we knew it, but that is what the tool gave us.”
What happened
Batches are tracked separately here, each on its own clock. That also means the system knows a first ratoon reads about 0.05 to 0.10 lower than a plant crop by design, and does not call the difference stress. In the fourth month on the platform, one batch approaching fruit development showed a sharp localised drop in a low lying corner while the rest of the batch held its band. A scout found heart rot in standing water. The affected area came out before it spread through the block.
What did not work
“Setting up the batches took a full day and we had to dig through our own planting records to do it. Worth it, but nobody warned us.”
What they would tell a peer
“Anything that gives you one number for a pineapple field does not understand pineapple.”
