quasi Report This Comment
Date: July 29, 2026 01:54PM

"1908, Burris Alexander Wachob the first man to grow pineapples commercially in Solana (Punta Gorda), Charlotte county

The overhead wooden structure seen in the photo is a "slat house" or "shed." Growers built these lattice roofs to protect the delicate pineapple plants from direct, scorching midday sun and frost.

Before Hawaii dominated the global market, Punta Gorda was a major supplier of pineapples to the United States. The local industry thrived extensively from roughly 1890 until a combination of severe frosts, soil depletion, and competition from Cuba and Hawaii brought the era to a close by the 1920s.

Burris was born in 1861 in Florida to Francis Marion Wachob and Mary Jane Swails. His family was among the early settlers of the Florida peninsula long before it underwent modern development

By 1914, as the local pineapple industry scaled up to attract major out-of-state capital, Wachob stepped up as a core board member of a newly formed regional agricultural corporation alongside other prominent local leaders like T.C. Crosland.

Wachob's pineries specialized in growing the Smooth Cayenne variety. This was a massive, premium pineapple that required the intensive, shaded "slat house" cultivation style captured in the photograph."

quasi Report This Comment
Date: July 29, 2026 02:00PM

I'm thinking there should be a return of the pineapple industry here with solar panels instead of the old sheds. Freezes have become far less frequent in the last three decades and the sun remains brutal but full of energy.