You can grow your own pineapples from those you buy at the grocery store.

It is easy to grow pineapples in your own backyard. Here is how:

  1. 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.
  2. Allow the bottom of the crown to dry out for a day or two.
  3. Plant in sandy well-drained soil.
  4. Water weekly. Pineapples, like most Bromeliads, prefer water in their vase-like tops.
  5. 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 theirvase-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

PINEAPPLE PLANTS GROWN FROM SAVING AND PLANTING THE TOPS OF STORE BOUGHT FRUIT.

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