Is this pineapple going to be big enough to bloom next year?

[applestar]

Sorry, these are blurry. I decided to take pics at the last minute and didn't feel like going inside the enclosure so used zoom.

It is yellower than the greener ones they sell in stores now Two views. More yellow on the side that gets more sun?

[imafan26]

it looks like it is ready to pick. The color is uniformly yellow. It should have a sweet tangy smell and if you tap it, it should sound solid not hollow. If you keep it at room temperature it can continue to ripen, but it looks like it is ready to eat.

[applestar]

Oooh! I will try sniffing it tomorrow!

[applestar]

It's the weirdest thing. I keep tying this upright, and I'm pretty sure this last time, I re-tied the strings quite securely, but it was doing THIS ... again.

[Rose bloom]

Your pineapple wants to relax haha it's slouching

[applestar]

YAY! Here is my 4" pineapple



...I'll post again when we taste it

[applestar]

We ate the little pineapple for after dinner treat yesterday. OMG it was soooo sweet and delicious -- it didn't have the astringency of fresh pineapple that we associate with -- not the mouth-burning acid -- and more complex FLAVOR, sweet and tangy and what a real fresh pineapple should taste like.

As small as it was ...plus the fact that I trusted the outer surface completely (not something I would do with store-bought pineapple)... I simply pulled the top leaves off, barely cut the top and bottom off, then sliced into wedges for biting and scraping the flesh off the rind like you might with orange or melon. I sliced off the inner core from first wedges but when I offered the core pieces for DD to chew on like we do with store bought pineapples, she said it was not stringy/fibrous at all and while less sweet, completely edible, so I left the core on the rest. (That might have been just because it was such a small sized fruit.) And everybody scraped as much of the inner flesh as they could with their teeth.

I can't wait until another one produces. I have three other plants of various sizes outside as well as the plant that grew this fruit, looking all limp but maybe it will recover enough to grow the next generation pups/sideshoots for me to grow more with? And OF COURSE I planted the little top from the fruit we ate.

[imafan26]

The offsets from this plant should produce a bigger pineapple next time. Pineapples from crowns are usually smaller the first go around. When the offsets are large enough you can remove the parent. It will never bloom again. Feed it with something that has a lot of potassium.

The newer low acid pineapples don't have much of a bite. I actually prefered the older varieties that had some bite, a bit of sweet and sour. To make a pineapple sweeter you can add a little salt or we would add li hing mui.

[applestar]

Ha! OK... Well, I guess this one must have been one of those newer varieties. I lost the tags I made for them initially but one of them was Delmonte Gold? I have more plants of another variety which declined as a top in the 2nd year and produced 3 or 4 pups, of which 2 or 3 survived.

I've heard that about the offsets -- I really hope this one will produce babies for me to grow from. So far it just looks very sad. I cut the fruit from the very top of the stalk and left the stalk on the plant. I hope that was the right thing to do. -- give it extra potassium NOW? This will encourage it to grow the offsets?


Now that I know flowering will happen eventually even without extraordinary care as long as I give them space to overwinter, I'm just going to keep growing them. hehe I have mostly spineless varieties so they are not too difficult to find room for.

Before, I was ready to give up because they were not producing fruits in the "allotted" time usually given as how long it takes, but it appears to be just a matter of some kind of "growing days" -- I guess it takes longer because it's not ideal growing temperature here for at least 5 months of the year (assuming the other 2 months in the house in the fall and spring are comfortable enough)... unless of course this was a freak lucky accident...

[applestar]

I had to look up "li hing mui". This is different from "umeboshi" right? My Dad used to make umeboshi until their plum tree died. I might have to go to the other more Chinese Asian market and look for it. ...what should I look for?

[Rose bloom]

After three years, they've finally started to flower! I'll post pictures when it's daytime/if I remember!

[imafan26]

Pineapple takes 18-24 months usually from crown to bloom. I think it may be slower because you are in a colder climate. It likes to be in full sun and because it is a bromeliad, you should water and fertilize it in the cups. Mine doesn't get very big either, but I don't feed mine regularly. I had both the dole and Del Monte Gold varieties. I still have the dole but I am not sure if the Del Monte Gold survived. I thought Del Monte Gold was less bland than Dole. The Dole variety is a very large plant. Del Monte is more compact.

[applestar]

Yay! Sounds likes it’s your turn this year, @Rose bloom!