A pineapple pit is a method of growing

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...

s in colder climates. One of the earliest examples in Britain has been found by archaeologists at Heligan in Cornwall.The Lost Gardens of Heligan Handbook, 2002 Updated 2007, copyright Heligan Gardens Ltd. The first pineapples known to have been grown in Europe were cultivated in the Netherlands. None were grown in England until about 1715.

Method of cultivation

The pineapple pit consisted of three trenches covered with glass, slightly below ground level, connected with two cavity walls. The outer troughs were kept filled with 15 tonnes of fresh horse manure, which gave off heat as it decomposed. This heat passed through small gaps at the bottom of the wall, rose up, and was then forced through gaps at the top of the wall, into the central trough. The central trough is where the pineapples were grown, at an artificially high temperature, due to the manure.

Maintenance and obsolescence

A pineapple pit requires a huge amount of fresh manure, and manual labour to maintain the temperature of the central trench. The introduction of steam ships meant that the pineapple pit became obsolete, as it was cheaper to transport fruit from overseas than to grow them under special conditions in the UK.

Modern pineapple pits

An original pineapple pit was discovered at the

Lost Gardens of Heligan The Lost Gardens of Heligan ( kw, Lowarth Helygen, meaning "willow tree garden") are located near Mevagissey in Cornwall, England and are considered to be amongst the most popular in the UK. The gardens are typical of the 19th century ...

in the UK, and renovated in 1993 by John Nelson, architectural historian John Chamberlain, and horticultural historian Peter Thoday. The original design was by

Thomas Andrew Knight Thomas Andrew Knight (1759–1838), FRS, of Elton Hall in the parish of Elton in Herefordshire (4 miles south-west of Ludlow) and later of Downton Castle (3 miles north-west of Elton), was a British horticulturalist and botanist. He served a ...

FRS. It uses two varieties of South African pineapples, Jamaica Queen and Smooth Cayenne. In 1997, the first pineapple was successfully grown in the renovated pit. The second pineapple grown there was presented to Queen Elizabeth II of the UK.

References

Agricultural buildings Victorian era Greenhouses Tropical agriculture Pineapples {{Agri-stub