Starting a pineapple crown in water . . . .

[Ohio Tiller]

I have one thats about a year old now and has finaly started showing some major growth. I thought it was dieing because the lower leafs were dieing but man the thing has taken off.

That's great OT, but you have to bring yours in for the winter, right?

How long does it take for them to produce a fruit? I've never started avocados from the seeds (even though it does seem like such a shame to throw them out), because I'm not willing to drag an avocado tree in and out for ten year before it produces anything.

Yes I have it inside already it sits near a window pouting untill spring time rolls around. And under normal conditions it is 2 years before the fruit.

[TheWaterbug]

So a few weeks ago I decided my pineapple needed a bigger pot. I bought this beauty for $50, then added about $5 worth of Super Premium Magic Cactus OMGAmazing Soil and put in my pineapple plant:



Over the next year I will probably add a few more dollars' worth of water and fertilizer. And if I'm lucky, I'll harvest a pineapple and save $1.88!



Please contact me for other free investing tips

[applestar]

Looks great! My 6 are hanging in there. The 4 inside the bottom of the "greenhouse" shelves that I call "Winter Paradise" have visibly grown and are looking fresh compared to the two upstairs. I think the extra light and humidity are the added factors.

Right now, with the seed starting going on, I've pushed them all to the back of the shelf so I don't get snagged on the jagged leaves (some of them developed spines) and the stiff leaves are actually helping to keep some of the smaller seedling trays from falling off their pedestals that are keeping them closer to the lights.

I'm planning to plant some or all of them in the ground along with the super dwarf banana plants during the growing season to see if I can beef them up a bit. It'll be my "Tropical Paradise" bed.

[imafan26]

I root pineapples by cutting off the top and letting it dry a day or two.
It is a bromeliad, so it does not really like to be water rooted. Treat it more like a succulent.

Plant it in well drained soil. It is actually fine not planted at all if you can keep it upright. Water and fertilize in the cups (between the leaves). It takes 18 months to fruit. It will then have off sets which will produce next years' pineapple. The mother plant will only bloom once. After the offsets mature and establish themselves the mother plant can be culled.

[syntheticbutterfly]

Wow, I haven't been around here in ages, and had forgotten what a useful resource this place is. I am trying to grow my first pineapple top - wish me luck!

[imafan26]

Pineapple is a bromeliad. I have always cut the top of the pineapple and just let it dry a day or two and potted it up. It is important to water and feed bromeliads in their cups or leaves. I have some bromeliads that do fine not planted at all just propped upright.

One of my pineapples is planted in a six inch pot. It does have some fibrous roots but most of its stem is lying on the ground. The first pineapple was small, successive pineapple from the off sets are bigger.

Pineapple fields take 18 to 24 months to mature and are harvested three times because not all of the pineapples will ripen at the same time. Each mother plant only blooms once, but will produce offsets. Bromeliads don't mind being packed tightly, so there can be many plants packed into a smaller space.

Most of the world's pineapple production has moved to countries with cheap labor and land costs, that is what keeps the prices down.

[TheWaterbug]

Pineapple is a bromeliad. I have always cut the top of the pineapple and just let it dry a day or two and potted it up.

I've had a few rot and a few root, and I'm starting to believe that the drying for a day or two is quite important. Dole recommends it, too, though they suggest a full week! I'm too impatient for that.

Dole also discusses its commercial planting operations, which is pretty interesting. I'd love to visit their plantation, all in the name of science, of course.

I've been eating a lot of pineapple lately, so I've got three in pots right now (including my larger one, pictured above), one in a jar of water, one crown drying for a few more days, and one fresh fruit that's just about ripe enough to eat.

I find that their still a little green when I buy them from the store, but 3-4 days on my counter really sweetens them up.

I also just dug out my heat mat, and put the jarred one on it; we'll see if that stimulates any faster growth. It's got roots about 1/4" long right now already, but they seem to be growing slowly.

[ReptileAddiction]

I tried a like 6 and not a single one rooted. This just gave me the inspiration to try again so I will report back if I get any luck

[TheWaterbug]

Dole also discusses its commercial planting operations, which is pretty interesting. I'd love to visit their plantation, all in the name of science, of course.

I'm here! I'm on a week's vacation on Oahu, so we took an afternoon to visit the plantation. We did the pineapple maze and ate Dole Whip (pineapple soft-serve sorbet) and it's all a tremendous tourist trap , but it's still fun.

There's a pineapple garden showing lots of different varieties at different stages of growth:

image.jpg (54.49 KiB) Viewed 2759 times

I'll post more when I get back to my computer. Right now I'm waiting for the Pineapple Express train to take us through the pineapple fields.

I think I'm getting a lot more out of this than the average tourist

[gumbo2176]

I finally got a softball size pineapple taking shape on one of my plants that have been around for close to 18 months now. It is in a huge pot and doing better than the ones I have in the ground. I have a feeling it will not develop to be like the ones you find in the market as it is more round than cylindrical, but it will be nice to eat a pineapple I've grown-----------a first for me.

[gumbo2176]

Well, that pineapple I had growing was getting ripe by the color of the outer skin as it was turning from green to yellow the past few days so I picked it, cut it and ate some of it. Quite good for my first ever home grown pineapple and I have some in the box for my lovely wife to sample when she gets home.

I already have the crown growth trimmed and sitting in a glass of water waiting for it to root like the others did before putting it in a pot. Hopefully my other pineapple plants will do as well as this one did as it is nice to watch them grow and see the fruit mature. I just have to figure out how to make them get a bit larger in the future. This one was about the size of a cabbage ball and once trimmed, about the size of a softball.

[applestar]

That sounds great! From what I understand of the process, your plant should grow side shoots which will grow better than the crowns.

[gumbo2176]

The plant I got the pineapple off of does have some side shoots. If they continue to grow as large as the mother plant, I'll need to put it in the ground. I now have it in a pot that has to be close to 15 gallons and it is getting crowded now.

[TheWaterbug]

So here's an update from my own pineapple plants. The big one is the same one that's potted on the first page of the thread, started July 2012, so it's about 14 months old now:



I don't remember how old the smaller ones are.

So the big one's nearly the size of some of the ones I saw at the Dole plantations that had fruit, so I wouldn't be surprised if that one started fruiting soon. I hope

This one did a whole lotta nothing for the better part of year, and then start growing this summer. It might be the heat, or maybe the fertilizer, but it's really growing now.

I also have 5 crowns that I put in the dirt, 4 of which are still growing, and one of which looks like its dying.

[Ohio Tiller]

What soil are you guys using with yours I have one that’s getting ready to turn 2 years old. it is growing real good and getting nice and big putting on new leafs but no fruit yet? I am just using miracle grow potting soil and I added about a 1/3 sand to the mix. I am thinking it might be time to repot it. the plant is looking to big for what it is in.

[gumbo2176]

What soil are you guys using with yours I have one that’s getting ready to turn 2 years old. it is growing real good and getting nice and big putting on new leafs but no fruit yet? I am just using miracle grow potting soil and I added about a 1/3 sand to the mix. I am thinking it might be time to repot it. the plant is looking to big for what it is in.

I too have used a potting soil mix and that's the one that produced my first pineapple that I picked just a few weeks ago. I have 4 more pineapple plants growing right now with 3 being in smaller pots and one in the ground. Ironically, the one in the ground is not doing as well as I thought it would as the potted ones are out-growing it by a good bit.

You may be onto something and your plant may have become a bit root bound if the pot is not large enough. Mine that produced was in a pot that is at least 8-10 gallons.

[TheWaterbug]

So here's an update from my own pineapple plants. The big one is the same one that's potted on the first page of the thread, started July 2012, so it's about 14 months old now:



I don't remember how old the smaller ones are.

The big one is at 21 months now, and is moving forward, slowly. It just started to heat up here in LA, so I'm guessing the growth will accelerate now:



There's a soda can there, for scale. It's not a lot bigger than it was in September, but it's fuller.

My set of crowns in the dirt in my garden are doing very poorly. They're alive but they're nearly yellow, and they haven't grown much at all. I'm guessing they don't like the clay soil and poor drainage. I might try building up a long hill with a lot of organic stuff and transplanting them. I did that for my strawberries, and they seem happy.

I have 4-5 crowns in jars of water that need to go into the dirt as well.

[jb02007]

That's pretty cool, I've never tried that with a pineapple before but I think I will now.

[TheWaterbug]

Hmmm. And here are a few that I stuck in the dirt back last summer. I started them all in water, and when I had six of them with roots I decided to plant them. I tilled in some municipal mulch/compost and then put them on my drip system:



They're about twice the size they were when I planted them, but they're _really_ yellow, and they're not growing nearly as well as the ones in the pots (see above). The potted ones also have some super premium cactus soil that costs $15/2 cu ft, and I'm not about to buy a truckload of that!

If I were to guess, I'd guess that they don't like my clay soil, and they're not draining very well. I'm thinking of tilling up another row with 3-4x the amount of mulch/compost, and then mounding it up into a raised row, then transplanting these guys. I suppose it can't hurt, since they're not going to do much if I just leave them alone.

Then I'd do the same thing in this row and plant my 6 new crowns with roots and get them off my window sill!

I did a raised row like this for my strawberries (about 6 feet away, off camera), and they're doing very well.

[applestar]

How are they doing now?
Mine are outside and waiting to be uppotted, transplanted, or planted in the ground....

I have to say they don't look as hefty as yours. I'm guessing I'm not feeding them enough or they are not getting enough sun and warmth through the year.

[TheWaterbug]

Late update on this, but a few weeks ago I freaked out because my beloved pineapple plant was turning yellow:



And then I looked closer. It's flowering!!!!!



This isn't the one in the big $50 pot; this is in an undersized, $5 pot. So this one is younger that my first planted crown, but probably also about ~2 years old.

A few weeks later, and the fruit is now the size of a mango (more on that later!):



And I also have 2 rattoons growing from the base:



and 3 suckers growing from the middle of the plant.



So if I'm lucky, one plant will turn into 6! This inspired me to put the rest of my crowns in pots. Within a few generations I'll be able to challenge the Dole empire!

[TheWaterbug]

My first successful crown, planted wayyyy back in July 2012, is starting an inflorescence:



Here's the closeup:



This plant is easily twice the size of the one that fruited earlier, and the its pot is much larger as well (probably not a coincidence), so I'm hoping for a larger fruit.

I also recently bought some pineapples from the store, and they had ginormous crowns. I've put both of those in water (after cutting off the soft flesh, peeling an inch of leaves, and drying for 2 days), and they've just started putting out roots. I'll put them in pots, soon.

My first fruiting plant has 3 suckers and 2 ratoons that are growing quite large now. Should I wait until after harvesting the fruit to separate them? What's the best way to separate them?

[TheWaterbug]

Here's an update on my July 2012 plant. The plant itself:



and its inflorescence:



and a closeup:



Here's my other pineapple, growing out of a surprisingly small plant (and pot):



and a closeup:

[Rose bloom]

Looks great.

[applestar]

So envious
But it's great to see that it CAN BE DONE.
Please eep posting progress waterbug -- I'm enjoying your successes vicariously.

I hope yours grow well for you too, rosebloom.

...some of my smallest ones in smallest containers are starting to yellow but it's getting chilly outside -- 50's and dips into 40's a couple of times and I haven't brought them in yet. These have been neglected so I'm not surprised -- but I think I'll uppot them and bring them inside now and give them another chance. I was thinking of putting up a low tunnel over the bigger ones and keep them out a little while longer....

[Rose bloom]

Thanks, applestar.

[TheWaterbug]

Here's an update on my July 2012 plant . . .and its inflorescence:

One week's additional growth:

[Rose bloom]

WOW!

[TheWaterbug]

I potted two more crowns on Sunday (the water roots were about an inch long).

And here's a terrific video from Dole on propagation through suckers and slips in Costa Rica. It's interesting that they don't mention crowns in this video, while they say on their "growing pineapples" page that crowns are the "preferred" starter material in Hawaii. Maybe it depends on the cultivar and the location.

In any case, I'm in awe at the size of those suckers and slips. See at the 1:52 mark on that same video. They're way bigger than my mother plants! And 20x the size of any crown I've ever seen:



I read a link somewhere that recommended twisting suckers and slips off the mother plant when they get to about 20 cm long, so they don't compete with fruit development. Clearly Dole is doing something different. They let the seed material grow on the mother plant for awhile _after_ fruit harvest, and they even slash back some of the mother plant's foliage to stimulate growth on the little guys.

Returning to the subject of crowns, which is how I suspect most of us are getting started, I saw another video that suggested I should really strip the crowns much further up than I've been doing, to prevent rot at the leaf level. I just bought two more pineapples today, so I'm going to try that.

[Rose bloom]

Huh. Thanks for the link!

[TheWaterbug]

Returning to the subject of crowns, which is how I suspect most of us are getting started, I saw another video that suggested I should really strip the crowns much further up than I've been doing, to prevent rot at the leaf level. I just bought two more pineapples today, so I'm going to try that.

I had two tall crowns that started like the one on the right, and I stripped them both until they looked like the one on the left:



I put one in water, and that one rotted. I put the healthier one directly in potting soil, and it's still green. I don't know if has roots yet, since I can't peek, but it's still green and healthy, which makes me think this one's going to make it.

My yield on crowns-in-water has been _really_ low this year, with perhaps 2 out of 10 actually making it. I might switch to direct soil in the future.

[Rose bloom]

I've switched to direct soil, for now.

[TheWaterbug]

Here's my other pineapple, growing out of a surprisingly small plant (and pot):



and a closeup:

Ready to harvest!!!!

[imafan26]

Much better than mine it was tiny. I think I am not feeding it enough the plant itself is very big. My uncle says they need potassium and magnesium and to put the fertilizer between the leaves since they feed through their leaves.

[applestar]

I love it! Thanks for the update. Enjoy your patio-grown pineapple!

[Rose bloom]

gorgeous!

[TheWaterbug]

Ready to harvest!!!!

I ate it:



It was really good, though I think it might have sweetened up a little had I left it on a few more days and/or let it sit in the bowl for a day or two.

This is contrary to what Dole and other pineapple authorities publish, e.g. "Pineapples do not improve in flavor after picking because the starch to sugar conversion happens only while the fruit is attached," but from my empirical "testing" over the last 3 years, pineapples do get sweeter and/or less acid as they age.

This guy seems to agree with me (PDF):

The reason for leaving it in the refrigerator overnight is that the diced sections will release their acidic juices that make the pineapple sour and that attack your lips and the linings of the mouth. This is why it is important to cut across the veins when dicing, so that the juices can flow out. It appears that, after the acids flow out, these acids either react with the air or undergo some kind of aging process and are neutralized, and the whole bowl of fruit becomes sweeter.

I need to do some sort of controlled testing on this theory. Maybe a pool acid pH tester would help, and/or some sort of sugar meter.

I have refractometer that I use for testing honey; I wonder if that would tell me anything.