Growing Pineapple tops, I've got the gardening bug it seems.

Who'dathunkit? what started as a naive venture into growing my own hops has led into me spending copious amount of time in the yards gardening. And now, I have stumbled upon another potential gem.

Growing a Pineapple from a cut off top. Sure, it'll take a couple years to get a fruit from a cutting but the plant itself looks AWESOME and a bit wicked.

Anyone else tried this?

Sidenote: Spent the weekend planting several slips of Irish Moss (not the brewing kind), some Black fountain grass, a Crimson Queen Jap Maple, an Azalea, and splitting some Liriope.

Next weekend I'll be putting in a Mint and Basil garden.

Gawd! My water bill is going to skyrocket!

What kind of climate is required for pineapple?
And I heard that a pineapple tree will only produce fruit for 3 years

Reading blogs and forums, they will do well in most any Zone (from coastal to dessert) but must be watered carefully and brought indoors to protect from frost and freezing.

However, many of the photo I have looked at show the plant in various yards throughout the US and in the ground. I have yet to find out what the outdoor, in ground growers are doing to protect the plant through winter seasons.

I haven't come across anything to suggest that the plant will only fruit for 3 years but, I have read that it can take up to 3 years before it will fruit and sometime needs the assistance of ethylene gas (rotting apple or calcium carbide) to force flowering and fruit set.

These are in my yard

Knew I'd find somebody here doing this.

How old?

And, do you do anything special for them come Winter (not sure what the winters are like in CC, Fl)?

I am gonna do mine in a pot and I expect I'll have to bring the pot in over winter but, might just let it feast or famine and see what happens. It's not like we never buy Pineapples.

What I haven't yet read is what actually does happen to the plant after fruit harvest. Does it actually fruit again, and again, or does it have a fruit-iful lifespan as IP has suggested?

I had the same urge recently. I popped the top off of the pineapple using the twist method. For S&G's I put the top in a jar with water (remember doing that with potatoes when you were a kid?). It didn't work... but I am tempted to do it right and put one in some soil.

Niquejim, how did you plant them? Did you just pull the top and stick it down an inch or so in soil?

I wish I could remember what they said about pineapples on my tours at the Dole Plantation when I lived in Hawaii. I'm sure that they have a set lifespan. The wikipedia write-up said an early harvest of the plant will produce another fruit later in the season.

You might contact a pineapple grower and see if they would assist.

Does a plant product a single pineapple a year?

McKBrew said:

I wish I could remember what they said about pineapples on my tours at the Dole Plantation when I lived in Hawaii. I'm sure that they have a set lifespan. The wikipedia write-up said an early harvest of the plant will produce another fruit later in the season.

You might contact a pineapple grower and see if they would assist.

Click to expand...

Googled "lifespan of Pineapple plant and got a Ma'ona link. Which just so happens to plug the Dole plantation and provide some facts. One of which says that the plant will only produce 2 fruits in it's lifetime. But, it doesn't indicate that the plant dies after the second fruit. And none of the other links even elude to a terminal lifespan of the plant or of a pre-determined quantity of fruits.

I am still "digging" tho'.

As you can see on the first 2 photos there are new plants coming out of the base of the first plant. How many times it will reproduce without restarting I do not know.

Yes, I just set them in the soil (my soil is all sand).

We have virtually no winter here. We did have a freeze here this winter for the first time in 5 years.




Edit

I've never tasted a pineapple as sweet as a fresh cut one

As you can see from the difference in sizes from the first set and this set, finally getting some rain down here really helps

GilaMinumBeer said:

Next weekend I'll be putting in a Mint and Basil garden.

Gawd! My water bill is going to skyrocket!

Click to expand...

Be careful with mint, it will take over your whole yard if you don't contain it.

KingBrianI said:

Be careful with mint, it will take over your whole yard if you don't contain it.

Click to expand...

Yeah. I know. Used to have ton of it at my folks place growing up.

I am either going to slice up some metal to drive down around and between the sections or, I may just confine them to buried pots. I don't mind the garden spreading about within it's own box but, I don't want it spreading out into the yard either.

We have a mystery patch along our back patio. We had never planted mint there and one summer, about 2 years after moving in, I did some grading and the patch suddenly appeared. so either some mint seed was mixed in with grass seed or the soil I used had some mint remnants in it. Meh. It cuts with the grass and it appears it doesn't like the Scott's weed and feed I laid down recently either.

We had a service guy go to an army base in Hawaii for a trip. Thats where my info came from. I didn't mean to imply the tree dies after it's 3rd fruit. Just that it wouldn't produce anymore. The (I believe DOLE) plantation he visited rips the trees out though of course because they're no longer useful to them. and they replant.