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Pineapple is a slow-growing, low-stature crop with a distinctive rosette architecture. It sits closer to the ground than most row crops, uses CAM photosynthesis, and is often grown on plastic mulch, all of which affect how it appears on satellite imagery. Healthy NDVI is driven by growth phase, ratoon cycle (plant crop vs first/second ratoon), and planting environment. This page lists indicative healthy NDVI bands for pineapple by environment and phase so you can interpret the Health tab correctly for the block in front of you. For the generic Health tab workflow, see Crop Health.

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Pineapple planting environments at a glance

There is no single peak NDVI for an environment. A band resolves against environment and growth phase together, in the per-environment tables below. See How a band resolves.
Ranges on this page are indicative bands drawn from published Sentinel-2 pineapple studies and MPIB / Del Monte agronomy references. The platform refines them automatically once it has one or more cycles of block history.

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Why pineapple NDVI reads lower than other crops

Even a healthy, fully-grown pineapple block rarely exceeds NDVI ~0.75. Three reasons:
  • Low canopy height and inter-row spacing. Bare soil, plastic mulch, or drip lines remain visible between rows through most of the cycle.
  • CAM leaf reflectance. Waxy, upright leaves reflect less near-infrared per unit ground area than broadleaf crops.
  • Plastic mulch. Silver or black mulch alters the red and NIR signal, especially at 10 m Sentinel-2 resolution. Bands below assume plastic-mulch culture typical of commercial blocks; open-field culture reads slightly higher.
Do not compare pineapple NDVI directly against paddy or oil palm. Interpret only against the pineapple-specific bands on this page.

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Growth phase drives the NDVI curve

Pineapple runs on a 14 – 24 month cycle depending on variety and environment. The table below names the phases and what the crop is doing in each. It carries no NDVI numbers: a band resolves from phase and planting environment together, so the numbers live in the per-environment tables below. See How a band resolves.
The month windows above are the lowland cycle. Highland blocks run to a different calendar — see the Highland table below, where the same six phases sit at 0 – 4, 4 – 10, 10 – 15, 15 – 17, 17 – 22 and 22 – 26 months. A highland block at month 16 is forcing, not fruit development.
Ratoon crops are handled separately, as an offset applied to the resolved plant-crop band rather than as a phase of their own. See Ratoon crops below.
Cycles depend heavily on variety. MD2 and Josapine typically run 14 – 18 months to harvest; Sarawak / Moris run 18 – 24 months. Set the variety in block settings so phase windows scale correctly.

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A reading above the band

The band describes what healthy looks like at this phase in this environment. It is not a floor. A reading above the band is a finding, not the absence of one — see How a band resolves. Pineapple is the crop where this rule works best, because pineapple NDVI does not saturate. It rarely exceeds ~0.75 even at peak, so the whole range stays readable and there is no carve-out to apply. All three of the usual causes are already documented on this page, and none of them is vigour.
A pineapple block reading above ~0.75 is almost certainly one of the three above, not an unusually good crop. Treat it as a scouting prompt, not as a clean bill of health.

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Mineral upland

Well-drained inland mineral soils on gentle slopes. This is the baseline used by the default pineapple preset in Crop Health. Uniform soil and stable moisture give the cleanest NDVI signal.

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Sandy coastal / BRIS

Coastal sand or BRIS (Beach Ridges Interspersed with Swales) soils with low water and nutrient retention. Bright quartz sand inflates apparent NDVI in young stands because red reflectance is very high, but healthy peak NDVI is actually lower because the crop struggles with drought and low fertility.
On BRIS soils, prioritize the NDWI layer during dry spells. Water stress shows on NDWI 2 – 3 weeks before NDVI reacts, and pineapple’s CAM physiology masks early drought stress in NDVI.

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Peat / organic

Drained peat blocks, common for MD2 and Josapine in Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak. Dark, wet peat depresses NDVI in young stands, but well-managed peat blocks reach competitive peak NDVI thanks to strong nutrient supply.
Water-table drops on peat cause rapid, block-wide NDVI declines that are not disease. Confirm against canal water-level records and rainfall before flagging a stress event.

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Highland

Cooler climates above ~700 m elevation, typically for premium MD2 and Josapine destined for export. Growth is slower, cycles run 18 – 24 months, and NDVI curves stretch accordingly. Peak NDVI is similar to mineral upland but reached later.

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Ratoon crops

First and second ratoons are commonly kept in low-cost operations. Expect a lower and noisier NDVI curve because plant density becomes uneven, sucker vigour varies, and weed pressure rises.
On ratoon blocks, prefer the Anomaly view over absolute NDVI. Absolute bands become unreliable across cycles; anomaly view adapts to the block’s own recent history.

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Choosing the right environment on a block

1

Open block settings

From the block overview, open Settings in the top-right.
2

Set the crop to Pineapple

Under Crop, choose Pineapple. Additional pineapple options appear.
3

Set the variety

Choose the variety (MD2, Josapine, Sarawak / Moris, N36, or Other). This scales the phase windows to the correct cycle length.
4

Set the planting environment

Under Environment, choose Mineral upland, Sandy coastal / BRIS, Peat / organic, or Highland. The Health tab legend switches to the corresponding band table above.
5

Set the planting date and cycle

Enter the planting date and choose Plant crop, First ratoon, or Second ratoon. The platform derives current phase from months-after-planting and applies the matching band automatically.

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Cross-environment tips

  • Pineapple NDVI rarely exceeds 0.75. Do not read the Health tab against generic “dark green > 0.7” thresholds; use the pineapple bands above.
  • Plastic mulch alters early-season NDVI. If the block uses silver mulch, expect apparent NDVI 0.03 – 0.06 higher in the first 3 months than the bands suggest; black mulch reads lower. Set the mulch type in block settings to correct for this automatically.
  • CAM physiology delays visible NDVI response to drought. Use NDWI and CWSI for early water-stress detection, not NDVI.
  • Heart rot and Phytophthora show as sharp, localized NDVI drops in wet spots. Cross-check with drainage maps.
  • Nematode damage shows as slow, diffuse NDVI decline over months and mirrors nutrient deficiency. Confirm with soil sampling before treating.