I planted an Alcantarea imperialis today which is the largest in the bromeliad family. When fully grown this bromeliad will form somewhat of a trunk and can put out an inflorescence that towers over 8 feet.
I rolled out some weed mat and cut open a hole to plant the imperialis much like how we plant our white pineapples. This way the dragon fruits can crawl down and fill up this hillside and it will require minimal weeding in this area.
We are starting to get waves of ripe white pineapple now. I think this year we will harvest close to 400 of them. If you are on the Big Island and craving some white pineapple or want to give one to that special someone please PM me. Julia and I will be dehydrating a lot of them too to add to the chocolates.
Originally posted on 2021-08-04, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.