Patience is a Virtue When Growing a Pineapple

Growing up, my father was an avid horticulturist, with a garden plot in our backyard, allocated to fruit and vegetable cultivation. As I grew older, I realized the difference in quality of homegrown food versus store bought; you could just TASTE it. Not to mention, this was before organic was even a categorical option in the grocery store. With age and further knowledge, I became aware of how important it was to source my food supply from a quality-controlled environment, where I could ensure no potentially hazardous pesticides or herbicides were applied to it.

Now as an adult, I’ve been able to apply what I’ve learned from him (and the internet) to successfully try my hand at a variety of crops, including: Tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, kale, bell peppers, tobasco peppers, watermelon, zucchini, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries – is that list exhaustive enough for ya? Ha! 😀 But then one day it hit me! My favorite fruit is pineapple, so could it be possible for me to grow a tropical fruit in a temperate climate? I figured I’d give it a try…

After cutting and peeling a recent pineapple, I saved the crown and removed the dying leaves from it. I continued removing layers of leaf blades until I could view the brown root tips at the base of the crown (circled in red, in the picture below). Some sites suggest allowing the crown to sit and dry for a couple days before planting in a pot of peat moss, but I’ve also been successful planting immediately after de-leafing the crown. 

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Now being that pineapples are bromeliads and somewhat related to the cactus, they don’t require much water, nor do they appreciate sitting in water-logged soil for extended periods of time (thus the use of peat-moss). So, don’t suffocate the little plant with love; resort to a weekly, light watering and allow the crown to settle into the soil. After about 3 months, new leaves will emerge from your planted pineapple crown, and it should look something like the picture below.

Over the course of 2 years I watered once weekly, and after about 6 months in the pot I fertilized once monthly with a granular, organic fertilizer; I prefer fertilizing the soil around the roots as opposed to applying products to the foliage, as some suggest. This way, I can avoid potentially ‘burning’ the leaf blades, and stressing out the plant.

I also made sure to bring my potted pineapple inside once outside temperatures dropped below 40 degrees Fahrenheit at night and 60 during the day.

Then one August day, I observed an interesting finding….*gasps*

August 7 – The pineapple displayed a developing flower bud! Subsequently, it would blossom and eventually grow into a mature fruit, if all went well!

Check out these chronologically sequenced photos as my pineapple continues growing!

August 12

August 20 – Photo zooming in on the flower bud.

August 26

September 3 – The flower bud is blooming from bottom to top! Did you know that a pineapple is the fusion of multiple individual fruits? Each flower blossom represents one of those individual fruits.

September 12

September 16 – The pineapple flower (inflorescence) is finished blooming, and the fruit is completely fused together. Now it begins to grow as a whole, fused fruit, and will mature over the next 4-5 months.

September 27

October 1

• 

  Me (left), The Pineapple (right)

October 5

October 18 – In case you were wondering, this plant spans over 4 feet in diameter!

Pretty cool, huh?

Well, “The marathon continues…”(shoutout to Nipsey Hussle, RIP). Keep your fingers crossed for me while we enter the winter season, as I’ll have to bring this little pineapple inside where there’s some semblance of climate control! The biggest challenge will be providing adequate lighting…hmmmm…what to do, what to do…🤔

Check back in a few months for my updated post as I attempt to address my interior lighting issue and detail the remaining growth and ripening stages of the fruit. Hope you’ve enjoyed my pineapple-growing journey so far, and don’t be afraid to embark upon your own. You can do it!

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