Pineapples...anyone growing them?

[jfrye01@live.com]

My local nursery had several pineapple plants for sale for $15 a piece, so I had to buy one. It is quite large. It is in a small 1 gallon pot. What size of pot do these do best in?

[empireo22]

3 gallon should be plenty. I have some with fruit on them now I grew from the crown of the fruit. I will try to take a pic and post here.

[mnorell]

Your grocery store has pineapple plants for markedly less than $15, plus you get a wonderful fruit to boot! simply grab and twist off the crown of leaves, then manually strip the lower half of leaves, one by one, until you see a good amount of the bulbous base with the small rootlets (nubs) showing. Place it directly into a 3-gallon pot with somewhat porous soil, water it well as it establishes, and within a couple of weeks you can move it into full sun. Just bring it in if a freeze is imminent. It takes about 18 months to get fruit from it. You may want to shift it into a 7-gallon about halfway there. It will get very big but you will get the biggest fruit possible this way. Feed it with lots of iron!

[MDPalm]

I bought one last summer, had about a 4" pineapple on it. I had it in a 3 or so gallon pot and it did well until bugs got to it then it started to rot. A new shoot or plant started coming out the side but the cold got to it before I got move it inside. I have also seen them at Lowe's with tiny pineapples growing.

How long does it take for a pineapple to form after rooting the top of one?

[The Silent Seed]

Are the mini / dwarf ones edible ?

I have one regular pineapple, and 2 lucidus - not sure if those are edible, but the leaves are lime green with maroon bands down the middle - extremely attractive! I also had 3 different types of variegated ones, but sold them - they were too spiny for me.

[PalmatierMeg]

I have several "dwarf" pineapples now growing fruit but the fruits are not edible. Enjoy them as decorations and let them reproduce.

[JEFF IN MODESTO]

Easy way to fruit any size pineapple is just put a few grains of calcium carbide into the crown, then a half cup of water... after a couple of months you will have a pineapple growing even on a 4 inch potted plant.

I have a plant that rotted this winter... no leaves... but a fist size pineapple is growing.

Jeff

[Tropicgardener]

Pineapples grow like weeds here in our Queensland climate, I can't understand the people who pay up to $20 for a plant from a nursery when they can just twist the top off a $2 pineapple from a grocery or fruit store......Possibly in the cooler southern states where they don't grow as well it might be worthwhile buying an established plant.

[tropicbreeze]

Pineapples grow like weeds here in our Queensland climate, I can't understand the people who pay up to $20 for a plant from a nursery when they can just twist the top off a $2 pineapple from a grocery or fruit store......Possibly in the cooler southern states where they don't grow as well it might be worthwhile buying an established plant.

They probably don't get the store bought fruit because they're not worth eating.

[jfrye01@live.com]

I've tried growing one from the top of the fruit multiple times, never had it work:/

Edited May 10, 2014 by jfrye01@live.com

[mnorell]

I've tried growing one from the top of the fruit multiple times, never had it work:/

Follow the instructions I posted above, I promise you it will work. I have more pineapple plants than I care to admit. They are EASY!! One of the most straightforward plants in the world to propagate and grow.

[The Silent Seed]

Tropicbreeze - I do not understand your comment - The store bought ones are DELICIOUS. Are you saying that it's not worth it, because people can just grow their own ?

I imagine it's also a time issue? How long does it take for one plant, to grow one pineapple to maturity ?

[tropicbreeze]

Santoury, it's the same issue with a lot of store bought fruit - transportability. Fruit is usually picked early for a number of reasons including getting an early income flow, less exposure to damage/losses from weather/pests/etc., and importantly it's less prone to damage during handling and transport. This leaves some fruit tasting more like wood compared to freshly picked ripe fruit. Pineapples are like that. Additionally they're usually gassed to bring them on evenly so they can be harvested all at once. If you taste the "real thing" it's hard to go back to the store bought stuff. It does vary with different fruit. And of course it's not that properly ripened fruit can't be bought, it's just rare.

[aussiearoids]

very sweet 2kg fruit bought last week ..

got 2 more yesterday ...

[The Silent Seed]

Thanks! Now I need somebody to send me one of the REAL ones

[Tropicgardener]

Home grown Pineapples always taste better than store bought ones.........but buying a few $2 store pineapples and starting their tops is a much better way to start growing your own than spending $15 to $20 for a plant from a nursery.

[_Keith]

Santoury, it's the same issue with a lot of store bought fruit - transportability. Fruit is usually picked early for a number of reasons including getting an early income flow, less exposure to damage/losses from weather/pests/etc., and importantly it's less prone to damage during handling and transport. This leaves some fruit tasting more like wood compared to freshly picked ripe fruit. Pineapples are like that. Additionally they're usually gassed to bring them on evenly so they can be harvested all at once. If you taste the "real thing" it's hard to go back to the store bought stuff. It does vary with different fruit. And of course it's not that properly ripened fruit can't be bought, it's just rare.

Same thing with Tomatoes. Sadly many people today have no idea what a Tomato is really supposed to taste like.

[Zeeth]

I have a ton of pineapple plants from planting the tops, it's super easy. One variety that I'd like to try though is the Kona Sugarloaf. They don't ship well, so the fruit are never sold here. One of these days I'll buy a plant.

[Kumar]

[omitted]

Edited May 16, 2014 by Kumar

[Kumar]

I was very keen on having one pineapple plant at least and in 2010 planted the discarded crown of leaves from the kitchen. The thing grew wonders and then.....imploded for no apparent reason, other than too much rainfall maybe. Here is a photo taken just before the implosion in June 2010

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I grow pineapple, even outside here they just stay a little smaller but are far more delicious. In a greenhouse they get big!

Very, very easy to propagate, a pineapple top will root no problem.

[JEFF IN MODESTO]

Seems like the store bought pineapple , crowns root better if the fruit is bought in summer.

Most if not all of the crowns that I plant from midwinter rot and drop the leaves even with bottom heat. I'm thinking cold storage?

Anyway I found the best way to get them going is put them in a glass of water with bottom heat.

Once the leaves start growing pot em up in one gal pot with 50/50 perlite and potting soil

[Chasrobin]

As a whim back in Jan I hit the local flea market got three fruits, sat down and had a feast.

Took the tops threw them in some pots and forgot about them outside in the cold.

one of the three has survived, and now I have a green house so it is starting to look like it might grow.

having my experiment go so well I bought five sugar loaf pups and they seem to be doing very well in the GH.

either this fall or next spring it will be out in the yard with them.

[Dmcdonald]

I have one that is producing a fruit now. I planted it years ago and it just fruited. it has to be 5 years old. It only gets a few hours of sun a day. I have another in the front yard that produced after 2 years. I just take the tops and stick them in the ground only lost a couple. My friends dad is a cook and they go through a ton of pineapples. He throws the tops in the bed of his truck and plants them when he gets a bunch. They seem to be very easy. I will get a pic of the one that is fruiting in the morning. I also just got a bunch of ornamental pineapples. They have fruit about the size of a golf ball.

Edited May 22, 2014 by Dmcdonald

[Dmcdonald]

Here is the one that is fruiting now.

[Tropicdoc]

I planted a top in a pot. It sprouted 2 pups but they were kind of languishing.... wasn't cold because they were in a heated greenhouse. Is the splitting off of pups what people are talking about growing a new pineapple.... or does a new one grow straight up from the planted top?

[Dmcdonald]

The fruit grows straight up out of the middle of the plant. The pups come off the side and will produce a fruit eventually. Mine start to produce a pup after fruiting.

[Tropicdoc]

Whoops, I threw away the middle and kept the pups. Oh well, I have one to cut and eat on my table right now.... I'll plant the top where it will under the greenhouse come winter.

[aussiearoids]

Still some great sweet fruits grown locally ... 2.5 kg !!

tops will keep for ages just thrown on the ground ..

It is better for you to let them dry out a bit , this seems to stimulate roots .

There are a few very attractive variegated forms of edible pineapples

as well as some awesome giant wild types ..

may have shown thios fruit before .. local lady who really knows how to grow stuff

weighs 11lbs / 5kg

[Dmcdonald]

Wow I guess she does. Mine have all been on the small side. I don't really care about getting the fruit it is just kind of a bonus. I just like that they are so eats to grow and fit in with the overall look.

On a side note my dragon fruit is producing 2 fruits in its second year. Crazy the thing looks dead where it comes out of the ground. Real spindly going up about 9 feet on a piece of fence around the outside part of my a/c. Then looks healthy at the top and is spreading in all different directions. I am looking forward to it producing fruit since they aren't as readily available as pineapples.

[Funkthulhu]

I just ordered some azomite powder that I plan on applying to my 2 pineapples and all my bananas. I hear it does wonders and I'm hoping this is the year with full sun and lots of fert. that I actually get to see one fruit!

Jacob, both of mine come from grocery store fruit tops, and I have a third rooting in the basement. Follow Michael's advice, but once you have enough lower leaves peeled off to see the root nubs, make sure to cut off any remaining fruit on the end to prevent rot. I haven't had much luck starting in soil, so all of mine were rooted by being suspended in water with just the bottom touching. Root every time, wait until they get a couple inches long and transplant them to a good cactus mix soil in a pot. I've up-sized pots a couple times, but obviously you'll want something larger by the time it gets big enough to fruit.

Cheers!

[aussiearoids]

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