Believe it or not, you don’t have to depend on the fruit companies for fresh, juicy pineapples: you can grow them right in your own home. Be prepared for it to take a while, though.
One of the biggest advantages of the pineapple is that it stores well, and the vegetation itself is very resistant to drying out — which makes it easy for you to get started. The growing process is simplicity itself: all you need to start a pineapple plant is the vegetated crown of the pineapple, the part you usually slice off and throw in the compost heap. Just include about an inch of the fruit with the crown when you cut it off, and then let it sit in a bowl and dry out for a couple of days.
Next, plant the vegetated crown in a large pot, covering up the entire portion of the fruit ring and leaving only the vegetation exposed. Be sure to give it plenty of water, and keep an eye on it for a few days to be sure it takes. Once it does, you can put it outside during warm weather, and rotate it indoors when it gets nippy (if the temperature drops below 65 degrees, the plant will go into hibernation). Just make sure you water your pineapple plant regularly; the soil should always be at least slightly moist, since this is a tropical plant. Actually, you can water both the soil and the leaves; a pineapple plant can take in water either way.
After a couple of years, the plant will flower and produce a small fruit at the top, which will take about six months to mature. The result might look odd, what with the pineapple growing from a stalk at the top of the original leaf cluster, but the result is delicious — and it’s definitely worth the wait!
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Hi–I’m glad you like my pineapple photo, but it’s in good form to ask permission before use of images.
Sorry, it was an error on our side because we mistakenly thought it was a Creative Commons Attribution License photo!
[Editors note: After we apologized by email, we were granted permission to continue to use the photo.]