Growing Pineapple Plants From Store Bought Pineapples

We all know that pineapples do not come from pine trees. Neither do they look like an apple. The word "pineapple" is used for the plant as well as the fruit.

Pineapples are bromeliads. Knowing this fact makes growing pineapple plants as easy as ABC. It can be grown from suckles, slips, ratoons or crowns, never from seeds. For the first 3 methods, you need to ask from someone who is already growing this plant.

My method is to grow from the leftover crown of a store bought pineapple. A great way to recycle, from the garbage to the garden. Just cut off the top portion (crown) from the pineapple fruit and plant it in on the ground, a tub container or flower pot. You can even use those crowns cut off to be thrown away by the fruit sellers. Just ask nicely and he'll most likely give it to you. To improve the chances of success, here's what you need to do:

1. Select a pineapple that is neither too ripe nor too green
2. Remove excess flesh around the crown
3. Let it stand for a day or so to allow the cut end to heal and to prevent rot
4. Dip the crown in some rooting powder and plant it in the soil.
5. There is no need to let the crown stand for a few days in a container of water. Believe me, it won't work.

It is a challenge to get it to root and initially it takes a long time for the leaves to grow. You won't see much changes in the first year. Your pineapple plant will most likely look like the one in the picture below.
Meanwhile, it helps to water the plant only when the soil is dry, apply a liquid fertilizer and move it to a location under the full sun. Use well drain soil. Pineapple plants hate soggy soil and water-logged conditions.




At first, the leaves takes ages to grow, the roots are so fragile, short and tiny. A gentle pull and it seems that the whole young plant can be uprooted! But don't worry, it won't die so easily.

Pineapple plants get water and nutrition through their leaves. The leaves are very tough and not much water is lost through evaporation. Therefore they do not need a lot of water.

 Pineapples are terrestrial bromeliads, so let some water collect on the leaves while watering.

When the pineapple plant is blooming, the stem elongates and enlarges near the apex. First, there will be a bright red inflorescence in the centre of the leaves. Soon a cone appears followed by small pretty purple flowers, each accompanied by a single red bract. There are as many as 200 flowers in a single inflorescence.

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged in a stem.

The stem will continue to grow and soon you'll see a compact tuft of stiff, short leaves called the "crown" or "top". Pretty, isnt't it?

Scientific name: Ananas comosus

Common names: Pineapple, Nenas
Family: Bromeliaceae

Native plant of: Southern Brazil, Paraguay

How to induce your pineapple to bloom

The fruit takes about 6 months to mature and ripen. Normally it takes about 2 years for the plant from a crown to bear flowers. For suckers, it is 18 months and for slips it is within a year. If your plant is still not showing any signs of flowering way after the "expected" date, try putting some ripe apple peels around the base of the leaves. The ethylene gas released can trigger the blooming process. I tried this method on my pineapple plant after 18 months and it worked.

A mature pineapple is ready to be plucked when the fruit start to turn yellow. A pineapple plant flowers only once and produces one pineapple fruit. Before it dies, it reproduces in the form of suckers and slips.

More information about growing pineapples:
1. My NST Article dated 3rd July 2010 - Fruit of Good Fortune
2. Permaculture way - Tropical Permaculture site

Updates:
1. This post has been updated with my latest images as of March 2010.
2. Rosie from Leaves 'N Bloom blog has a post about using plastic bags to force bromeliads to bloom again, her link is titled "Bromeliads, Inflorescens and Plastic Bags", please click on the link provided to read more.

My Home Tropical Garden

When we move to our new house, I really wanted to have a garden of our own. It costs a lot of money to hire someone to do the landscaping. So I decided that I shall learn how to DIY. Now, after 4 years of sweat and labour, trial and error and not to mentioned the long weekends I spent at bookstores and browsing over many many books for ideas on gardening and landscaping, I am finally rewarded with a beautiful garden.

I guess nothing can describe the sense of satisfation and fulfillment you feel whenever the 'babies' grow up, start to blossom and bear fruits. There were many times that I had encountered difficulties trying to nurture a young plant but soon my memories will drift back to those days of young when I used to help grandma and dad in gardening. It didn't occur to me then but those useful and happy moments will be remembered and relived many many times long after they are gone. Their methods are still useful today. I remember how they have taught me about life and living in harmony with nature, recycling, going organic, etc. I can still remember my grandma's voice telling me what to plant, what to pluck, when to water, apply fertilizer... and father's pride and joyful expression whenever he came home with some new plants that he obtained from his gardener friends.

In this garden, I work alone as no one else in my family is interested. I have found solace and inner happiness in tending to my babies whenever time permits. Isn't it wonderful that in this busy city life, one can stop to smell the flowers, listen to the birds singing, enjoy the beauty of colourful butterflies, bugs and bees. Its really a whole new world out there in my DIY GARDEN!

These marigolds are planted from seeds purchased from the hypermarkets. It is so easy. Just sprinkle the seeds on to the soil and it will grow. Marigolds really loved the bright sun and they smell nice too.

I bought this pair of porcelain ducks at a bargain price of 'buy one free one' during a Chinese New Year Sale from one of the pottery shops along the highway road that leads to the Sungai Buloh nurseries.

The grass is actually pearl grass or cow grass. I find this grass very easy to grow, I mean practically not much maintenance except that you need to water it twice a day and theres not much weeds to pull. One thing, I learnt it the hard way when I tried to apply fertilizer on my beautiful juicy grass. I used to dissolve the urea in water before applying it to the grass and it was okay. So I became more adventurous and experimented with those green chemical fertilizer granules that people used to promote vegetative growth on plants. I sprinkled these granules directly onto the grass and follow through with some watering. I expected the grass to turn very green soon but guess what happened the next day? There were yellow patches everywhere and soon these patches dried up and became dead grass! Luckily a neighbour's grandmother who was visiting came over to my garden for a chit-chat and when she saw my grass, she adviced me to 'letak sikit-sikit saja, tak boleh banyak-banyak'. Nowadays, I apply chicken organic fertilizer and all is well with my grass. However, I have to bear with some faint fowl smell of chicken droppings immediately after applying, especially when there is a breeze blowing.

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