How to Grow
How to Grow Pineapples (in pots)
My last post on pineapple cores had many asking how to grow them yourselves. Here's how:
- Buy a pineapple from the grocery store with a top on it.
- When ripe (about 75% golden yellow), twist off the top and put to the side.
- Prep and eat the fruit end. Waste not, want not.
- Prepare a 7 gallon pot (smaller will work but they tip over easily) with an average potting soil, lots of perlite for good drainage, plus a bit of fertilizer or compost. NOT VERY MUCH.
- Literally shove the TOP into the soil an inch or so, place pot in the sun or half shade, and ignore.
- DO NOT OVERWATER.
- Weird things might happen. Ignore and weed the pot even though you might think it is dead.
- Fertilize at HALF the rate of veggies every other month.
- From the pineapple top it takes about 2 years to bear fruit. Sorry, bummer. But you now have started a system for growing.
- We (honestly again, it is John) move our pineapple pots inside our lanai, close to the house, when a below 28ยบ frost is likely.
- We (again it is John) move our pineapple pots inside our lanai once the pineapple is visible so the critters don't get after them. Yes, we have lost many to the critters and the hubby refuses to let them have another.
- After harvest, allow the mom produce some children. Children can be suckers from the base of the plant or slips from off the main "stem".
- Suckers take about 18 months and slips take about a year to produce. We LOVE slips.
- Enjoy, you will never need to buy a pineapple again if you always have a one growing!
- FYI. We have about 25 pineapples growing in pots so that we are continually harvesting at least one pineapple a month. It took us two years to get to this point.
