I was watching a gardening show on DIY yesterday and they had a segment
about planting a Pineapple. In the segment, the host takes a pineapple,
twists the top off, and puts it in water to let it grow roots.

Has anyone tried this and been successful? If so, did you use a pineapple
from the supermarket or...?

James

GROWING PINEAPPLE HOUSE PLANT

It is possible, and easy, to grow a pineapple plant indoors. Growing new
pineapple fruit is more difficult. To make full-sized pineapples, the plant
will ultimately need to get about six feet across and six feet tall. But, you
can grow it as an interesting indoor plant and even get it to produce fruit
(albeit small fruit) without letting it take over the living room.

Start with a pineapple from the store. Cut the top off and trim the fruit from
this small plant. You will wind up with a tuft of leaves and a bit of stalk.
Carefully peel some of the lower leaves from the base of the tuft of leaves to
reveal more stem and some small bumps, perhaps even some roots which have
started to grow beneath the leaves. The bumps, by the way, are root primordia,
baby roots waiting to grow.

Place the stem portion of this into a potting soil which is about one-half
sand. Sandblasting sand is a good type of sand for this. The idea is to have a
potting soil which holds water well but has enough sand to allow it to drain
readily and to allow sufficient oxygen into the soil.

Keep this soil slightly damp until roots develop. The roots should form in
about two months. I like to place the pot and plant in a white garbage bag
which is loosely sealed at the top. Place the plant and the bag in a south
window if possible. This garbage bag keeps the humidity high and diffuses the
light so the plant doesn't burn in the sunlight. In a less sunny window, use a
clear plastic bag.

After about two months, you should see some new growth beginning at the top of
the plant. Gently tug on the plant to see if new roots have formed. If they are
present, they will resist your tug. If absent, the top of the pineapple will
pull from the soil revealing the absence of roots. If there are no roots,
replace the pineapple top in the soil and wait longer. If the base looks like
it is rotting, start again with a new pineapple top and fresh potting soil.
Repeat the process, but be sure not to over water.

To grow your new houseplant, give it a brightly lighted location which receives
at least six hours of bright light each day. Water sparingly, as the soil
dries. Don't over water, but don't let it go completely dry either. Fertilize
once or twice a month with a houseplant fertilizer. If possible, let it spend
the summer outside in a brightly lighted location. You can find such a site in
the shade of a tree where grass grows successfully. Too much shade will not be
good. Before frost, bring the pineapple plant back indoors for the winter.

When the plant gets as large as you can manage, lay the plant and pot on its
side between waterings. This interferes with hormones in the plant, causing the
production of another hormone, ethylene, which induces flowering. An
alternative method of inducing flowering is to place the plant in a bag with a
ripening apple. The ripening apple produces ethylene gas which will induce
flowering in the pineapple. You will have to continue these treatments for a
couple of months and will probably need to replace the apple several times.

Now that you know how to grow it, here is some interesting trivia about your
pineapple. The pineapple is a member of the bromeliad family. As such it is
related to Spanish moss and some interesting ornamental plants sold in many
nurseries. These ornamentals are interesting in that they absorb water and
nutrients from a water-tight reservoir formed where the leaves come together,
or by interesting absorptive hairs which cover the Spanish moss and similar
bromeliads, allowing them to draw water and nutrients from the fog and dust in
the air. The pineapple, however, uses its roots like houseplants with which you
are familiar and should be easy to grow if you treat it like a normal
houseplant which needs bright light.

6ft across and 6ft high??? You've never been to Hawaii and seen the pineapple
fields then, as when they start picking them when they are ripe, they are all of
maybe 18inch to 2ft tall and not as wide. I lived there for almost 20 years and
wached the fields as I drove by them everyday.


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towards an east that would not know another dawn.
But elsewhere the Stars were still young and the light of morning lingered: and
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"TOM KAN PA" wrote in message
...

GROWING PINEAPPLE HOUSE PLANT

It is possible, and easy, to grow a pineapple plant indoors. Growing new
pineapple fruit is more difficult. To make full-sized pineapples, the plant
will ultimately need to get about six feet across and six feet tall. But, you
can grow it as an interesting indoor plant and even get it to produce fruit
(albeit small fruit) without letting it take over the living room.



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JNJ wrote:

I was watching a gardening show on DIY yesterday and they had a segment
about planting a Pineapple. In the segment, the host takes a pineapple,
twists the top off, and puts it in water to let it grow roots.

Has anyone tried this and been successful? If so, did you use a pineapple
from the supermarket or...?

James


I have one; I twisted the top off the pineapple and then let it dry out for
a few days. Peeled the bottom leaves off to expose the adventitious root
bumps, and planted it in some well drained potting soil. It has about
doubled in size in a year, but I haven't been taking very good care of it
over the winter. I'll put it in a bigger pot outside when the weather gets
warm (June?).

My brother has a bunch of pineapple seedlings. Grown from seeds taken from
a golden pineapple.

Best regards,
Bob

--
Have a Windows® computer that is powered on for hours at a time? Join the
search for a cure for cancer: http://grid.org/projects/cancer/

I have one; I twisted the top off the pineapple and then let it dry out
for
a few days. Peeled the bottom leaves off to expose the adventitious root
bumps, and planted it in some well drained potting soil. It has about
doubled in size in a year, but I haven't been taking very good care of it
over the winter. I'll put it in a bigger pot outside when the weather
gets
warm (June?).

How big a pot did you start off with?

My brother has a bunch of pineapple seedlings. Grown from seeds taken
from
a golden pineapple.

Seeds? I didn't even know Pineapples had seeds. Hmmmm....

James

JNJ wrote:

I have one; I twisted the top off the pineapple and then let it dry out
for
a few days. Peeled the bottom leaves off to expose the adventitious root
bumps, and planted it in some well drained potting soil. It has about
doubled in size in a year, but I haven't been taking very good care of it
over the winter. I'll put it in a bigger pot outside when the weather
gets warm (June?).

How big a pot did you start off with?

Started out with a 4" pot cuz I have so many of them. Moved it to a 6"
almost immediately.


My brother has a bunch of pineapple seedlings. Grown from seeds taken
from a golden pineapple.

Seeds? I didn't even know Pineapples had seeds. Hmmmm....


Most of them don't. Some of the golden ones, (not grown in Hawaii) do have
little hard black seeds.

Best regards,
Bob

Neat info -- thanks Tom!

James

Hi James. My wife asked a pineapple grower about growing one and was given
a demonstration.

First off he said to twist off the top, not cut it off. I know some have
cut them off and it worked, and we are some of them, but you get a better
success ratio if you twist rather than cut.

Second, you should pull the bottom row of leaves off of the cutting. My
wife puts it in a jar of water right away, and changes the water every other
day or so. After one or two weeks. she gets roots to grow.

Then she puts it in a pot. We have one in about a 2 gallon pot now that is
about 6 years old. It has never had fruit, but the way to get it to
produce, when it is mature, is to put an apple or two in the pot, and cover
the whole thing with clear plastic. The apple apparently puts off some gas
that starts the pineapple bearing. We have seen pineapple plants for sale
in a grocery store that had little pineapples on them.

We live in western Kansas and move our tropical plants outside during the
summer and inside during the winter. The pineapple plant, orange and lime
trees do well here, but the banana trees get beat to death by the wind.

Enjoy, Dwayne





"JNJ" wrote in message
...
I was watching a gardening show on DIY yesterday and they had a segment
about planting a Pineapple. In the segment, the host takes a pineapple,
twists the top off, and puts it in water to let it grow roots.

Has anyone tried this and been successful? If so, did you use a pineapple
from the supermarket or...?

James

Dwayne wrote: =

Then she puts it in a pot. We have one in about a 2 gallon pot now tha=
t is
about 6 years old. It has never had fruit, but the way to get it to
produce, when it is mature, is to put an apple or two in the pot, and c=
over
the whole thing with clear plastic. The apple apparently puts off some=
gas
that starts the pineapple bearing. We have seen pineapple plants for s=
ale
in a grocery store that had little pineapples on them.
I believe apple produces ethelyne gas and that triggers the
inflorescence.
Enjoy, Dwayne
=

"JNJ" wrote in message
...
I was watching a gardening show on DIY yesterday and they had a segme=
nt
James
-- =

J. Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - commercial
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html

http://agrss.sherman.hawaii.edu/pineapple/pinegrow.htm

JNJ wrote:
=

I was watching a gardening show on DIY yesterday and they had a segment=

about planting a Pineapple. In the segment, the host takes a pineapple=
,
twists the top off, and puts it in water to let it grow roots.
=

Has anyone tried this and been successful? If so, did you use a pineap=
ple
from the supermarket or...?
=

James

-- =

J. Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - commercial
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html

Grew some at home - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html

JNJ wrote:
=

I was watching a gardening show on DIY yesterday and they had a segment=

about planting a Pineapple. In the segment, the host takes a pineapple=
,
twists the top off, and puts it in water to let it grow roots.
=

Has anyone tried this and been successful? If so, did you use a pineap=
ple
from the supermarket or...?
=

James

-- =

J. Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - commercial
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html

g'day james,

i just twist the tops off peel off some of the lower leaves and plant
them into the ground never fails. the growers over here actually leave
the tops out in the sun for a couple of weeks or so then they plant
them their reasoning being that this makes the new plants fruit
quicker.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://hub.dataline.net.au/~gardnlen/

J Kolenovsky wrote in message ...
Grew some at home - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html

JNJ wrote:


I was watching a gardening show on DIY yesterday and they had a segment

about planting a Pineapple. In the segment, the host takes a pineapple
,
twists the top off, and puts it in water to let it grow roots.


Has anyone tried this and been successful? If so, did you use a pineap
ple
from the supermarket or...?


James

James:

I have a friend who does grow pineapples in his back yard. He first
started his small crop from pineapples he purchased at the local
grocer. (As an experiment to see if he could do it) He cut the tops
off, allowed them to root in water, and then trasplanted them into 50
gallon buckets he obtained from a local nursery. (One to each bucket)
The last I counted he had about 10 or 15 of them growing. Hope you try
growing them! Good luck!

Sherry

In JNJ wrote:
I was watching a gardening show on DIY yesterday and they had a
segment about planting a Pineapple. In the segment, the host takes a
pineapple, twists the top off, and puts it in water to let it grow
roots.

Has anyone tried this and been successful? If so, did you use a
pineapple from the supermarket or...?


My mom and stepdad lined a walkway with pineapple plants grown that way,
and they were by far the best pineapples I have ever had.
Then my poor mom developed an allergy to pineapples. Do you have any
idea how many things contain pineapple juice?

Sean Quinn

Do tell us how many things contain pineapple juice.


wrote in message
...
In JNJ wrote:
I was watching a gardening show on DIY yesterday and they had a
segment about planting a Pineapple. In the segment, the host takes a
pineapple, twists the top off, and puts it in water to let it grow
roots.

Has anyone tried this and been successful? If so, did you use a
pineapple from the supermarket or...?


My mom and stepdad lined a walkway with pineapple plants grown that way,
and they were by far the best pineapples I have ever had.
Then my poor mom developed an allergy to pineapples. Do you have any
idea how many things contain pineapple juice?

Sean Quinn