Homegrown Pineapple
A little over two years ago, my daughter, B, started an after dinner gardening project of trying to grow a pineapple. She plopped a discarded cut-off pineapple crown with leaves into a pot. She treated it like many of her succulent plants: no prep, no rooting hormone, just potting soil and occasionally a bit of leftover water from her school lunch. It still lives in a pot on the front porch, getting about half-day sun. Last winter she did remember to cover it a half dozen times when we had pretty cold temps expected to drop below the mid 30’s, but a few times it was left unprotected on chilly nights. It hung on okay.
For the last 27 months, the pineapple has been slowly growing in the same pot. It started flowering in mid-August, 2014, right around the two-year-old mark. It had pretty purple flowers that emerged from an egg-sized and shaped bud in the center. The flowers slowly bloomed a row at a time from the bottom of the bud to the top.
At this point, the pineapple fruit is still green and growing. It is currently about 6 inches tall, plus another 5 inches of crown above that. Since this is our first time trying to grow pineapple, we aren’t 100% sure at what point to harvest it. B seems to have done fine with caring for it so far, so she’ll be the one to decide when it’s time to lop it off the mother plant and sample. I am guessing it has at least another month or more before it ripens, but honestly, I really have no clue.
If you have tried to grow pineapple, do you have any tips or comments? Happy Gardening!
Update: We harvested her pineapple!
9 thoughts on “Homegrown Pineapple”
thanks for sharing this I’m going to try it but wow can I wait this long lol, great job B
Hi Lianne,
Happy New Year!
Did you harvest and eat the pineapple yet? How was it?
I didn’t know you could grow one from the crown. Kudos on waiting patiently over two years for the fruit!
I saw our neighborhood Trader Joe’s selling pineapple plants. Might go and get one.
Hi,
No, we have yet to harvest the pineapple. It has gotten bigger since my post, but hasn’t started to color up yet. It is about 2/3 the size of a grocery store pineapple right now and all green still. With the cold weather, we have been covering it every night with a towel. Since we aren’t in a tropical climate, and in the middle of winter, it might be taking longer to fully ripen. Honestly, I don’t know how much longer, but were waiting to pick it until it turns somewhat yellow. We are keeping our fingers crossed it will be okay. Nevertheless, it looks really cool on the front porch and is a focal point. Everyone that comes up to the door comments on it.
That IS amazing! And so beautiful! PS Couldn’t help but notice your iris in the pot behind it. Unleash those things! 🙂
On another note…how to you take cuttings from your Bababerries? I am still not sure. The clippings I put in a pot seemed to falter (maybe too much water), the ones I put straight into the ground seem to be growing.
Erin, funny that you noticed my potted iris. It’s a pretty orange variety, ‘Orange Harvest.’ It is not the only one i am guilty of confining to a pot. Out of my 40+ rebloomers, only about 75% are in the ground so far. I collected far too many over the last year and a half. I know I should get them all in the ground, but the area I want it is still full of Bermuda grass. I hate Bermuda grass and am dragging my feet dealing with it.
The easiest way to get more bababerry plants or any raspberry for that matter, is to divide the new suckers from the crowns in winter. Really happy raspberries will send out runners for new plants on their own. Cuttings will work, but are harder to establish.
Wow that is amazing. She takes after her momma for sure.
That’s a beautiful pineapple! Thanks for sharing the photos. Since B was so successful, I’m going to do the same thing! Lianne, you might want Hanbury House as the “from” when sending your emails. WordPress.com doesn’t tell who it’s from, and people are so cautious they might just delete it. Just a suggestion 🙂
Thanks for the great tip, Laurie. I think depending on the way someone subscribes to new posts, it displays differently. I didn’t realize it emailed without Hanbury House as part of the subject to WordPress.com users. I hope I fixed it by changing my displayed name in posts via the profile for the Hanbury House site.
In regards to the pineapple, my friend K’s dad has tried three times to do the same thing and he has a green thumb, but has had no success so far keeping it alive long enough to take root. If you try and don’t succeed, maybe B’s timing was ideal. I think B started her pineapple plant in late July or early August. K’s dad did his all in the Winter and Spring.