Kona Sugarloaf Pineapple

Kona Sugarloaf (also sold as White Sugarloaf) is the pineapple Hawaii gardeners grow for themselves. The 5 to 6 lb cylindrical fruit has white to pale flesh, low acid, and an exceptionally sweet, mild flavor, plus a tender core soft enough to eat right along with the rest of the slice - no hard middle to cut out. Because the ripe fruit is delicate and does not ship or store like Smooth Cayenne, you almost never find true Sugarloaf in a mainland store, which is exactly why it is a backyard treasure in Kona and across the Islands. The plant has smooth (spineless) leaves and grows like any pineapple in full sun and well-drained soil, rewarding patience with one of the sweetest fresh pineapples you can grow.

✅ Plant alongside

Good neighbors that attract beneficial insects or deter pests

• Marigold — French marigolds help suppress the root-knot and reniform nematodes that are a leading pineapple pest, useful as an interplant or a pre-plant cover crop
• Sweet Potato — A low sprawling groundcover that shades bare soil between the widely spaced pineapples while sharing the same warm, well-drained beds
• Banana — A taller tropical neighbor can give young pineapples light afternoon shade while they establish, before they crop best in full sun

🛡️ Pest & disease prevention

Proactive ways to stop trouble before it starts — tap a name with an arrow for its full guide

• Mealybugs →

  The main pineapple pest, often tended by ants that also spread mealybug wilt - control ants, start with clean planting material, and remove badly infested plants

• Scale →

  Inspect leaves and crowns and treat with horticultural oil, removing heavily encrusted leaves

• Nematodes →

  Root-knot and reniform nematodes stunt plants in sandy soil - add organic matter, interplant marigolds, rotate beds, and plant only clean tops

• Root and heart rot →

  Phytophthora and Pythium rots strike in wet ground - plant in raised, sharply drained beds and never let the crown sit waterlogged

🌾 Harvest & storage

A pineapple is ready about 18 to 24 months after planting (sometimes up to 30 months from a grocery-top crown). Each plant makes one main fruit on a tall stalk, ripe when the shell turns from green toward gold from the bottom up, the fruit smells sweet and fragrant, and the flesh gives slightly. Sugarloaf can stay greener than Smooth Cayenne even when ripe, so trust aroma and softness as much as color. Cut it with a short piece of stalk attached. Pineapple does not get sweeter after picking, so harvest at full ripeness. After the main fruit, basal suckers (ratoons) grow on to bear a second crop, and the crown, slips, and suckers can all be replanted to start new plants - let cut tops dry about a week first.

🥗 Nutrition & benefits

About 50 calories per 100 g with 1.4 g fiber, roughly 48 mg vitamin C (more than half a day of vitamin C), 109 mg potassium, and a high dose of manganese (around 75 percent of the Daily Value in a single cup), plus the bromelain enzymes found in all fresh pineapple. The very low acid and high sweetness make Sugarloaf a pure fresh-eating pineapple, mild enough to enjoy in quantity, and the soft edible core means almost no waste.