You can grow your own pineapples from those you buy at the
grocery store.
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Click
picture to enlarge. |
It
is easy to grow pineapples
from store bought fruit. Click
picture to enlarge. |
It is easy to grow pineapples in your own backyard.
Here is how:
Get your favorite pineapple from the grocery store. Cut
or twist off the
crown from the top of the fruit and set aside. Eat the rest of the fruit as you
normally would.
Allow the bottom of the crown to dry out for a day or two.
Plant in sandy well-drained soil.
Water weekly. Pineapples, like most Bromeliads, prefer water in
their vase-like tops.
Once the young plant is established, pour a cupful of well balanced
diluted water soluble liquid fertilizer into the top of the plant Monthly. Avoid getting
dirt or sand into the buds at the top of the plant as it may kill it.
Pineapple
Facts:
Common Name: Pineapple
Botanical Name:
Ananas
Comosus
Family: Bromeliaceae
Plant Type: Vase-like
Bromeliad
Origin: Tropical
America
Zones: 9 - 11
(Suffers damage at 32°, Freezes at 28° F)
Height: 4'
(Spreading to 6' in width)
Rate of Growth: Medium
Salt Tolerance: Fair
Soil Requirements:
Well drained, sand is
fine, pineapple plants take in more
nutrients through their
vase-like
tops than they do through their roots.
Water Requirements: Water
freely, less water in winter
Nutritional Requirements: Balanced
diluted liquid fertilizer monthly
Light Requirements: Full
Sun
Form: Short,
stiff herbaceous
Leaves: 4'
or longer and often spiny
Flowers: Purple
to pink-red on a stalk, blooms during late Winter to early Spring
Fruits: Compound
and fleshy -- usually yellow when ripe
Pests: Mealybugs,
Red Spiders and Nematodes
Uses: Fruit
Bad Habits: None
Cost: $ --
nearly free
Propagation:
Cuttings -- Crown (produces small fruit, but the best to start your pineapple
plantation with), Slips (growths from above or below the fruit on an established plant),
Suckers (or ratoons that come from the stem below the plant underground)
General Information: Fruiting
season -- all year depending on age of plant and where grown in state -- usually after 15 to 23
months when planted from crown. From bloom the fruit is
usually ready to harvest after 5 to 7 months or fruit is mostly yellow.
Source:
Florida's Best Fruiting Plants
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