PINEAPPLES

The Pineapple Bed is in

Start from a store bought pineapple

I went for mulch yesterday and decided instead of putting it in the new chicken pen area (yes, I know that mulching the expansion should be this post, but...), that I would start a new pineapple bed. 

I have been collecting pineapple tops from the ones we and our friends are eating and putting them into our saved and recycled pots. Its been a few months and many have really established roots on them. One or two needed to be planted as their roots are feeling their way out of the drainage holes. 

I am a newbie to pineapple growing so most of my info is coming from interweb searches. This is a two to three year investment of time and space since I get the starts free.

 This is what our little ones looked like in the front horseshoe last year. They turned a bright yellow and wow, did they small good! I have both the yellow and white varieties of fruit, white being preferred here by the locals. I still can't tell the difference because the flesh of both is yellow and yummy. 

Photo Gardenweb.com

Today was a good day to plant; sunny and warm, with just a hint of a breeze. I put up 14 new plants in the new bed and we have 5 others still left in the front horse-shoe in the driveway. These had produced pineapples already so we are going to have to wait until they send up slips, or keikes that I will then replant. These are tough plants. I had thrown one to the side meaning to trash is on the next trash run, but forgot about it and it set roots and produced a mini pineapple! They can be tough to get rid of around here. 

Once a pineapple plant fruits, that plant will only bear smaller and smaller fruit so while the mini-me pineapples are still yummy, they just are a double or single serving so we wanted to farm bigger ones. The suckers, slips and keikis (Hawaiian for child or baby) will produce full sized fruit and are easy to propagate. Which is why I can do it. 

Trimmed for planting

To do it yourself using a store bought pineapple, trim the top off the pineapple and pull off any of the fleshy fruit. Remove the lowest leaves until you have about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch clear. You may see roots already between the leaves- this is a member of the Bromeliad family and while most get their water from the air, pineapples are one of the few varieties to put down roots.

Use your favorite potting mix and let the pot dry out slightly between waterings. It my take a month or two for you to notice the change, but if you cut back the leaf tips with shears you will notice the new whole leaves easier.

When you see roots peeking out the drain holes, transplant into an outside bed for best results. Grown indoors, it is a spiky and belligerent plant if you brush by it or get too close, but the satisfaction of growing your own tropical treat is well worth the occasional poke.  

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Here is a better picture, a little closer to show that it is a miniature of the supermarket fruits. Once they get to this stage, its hard to resist tearing them off and eating them, but these are worth the wait. 

 

Yummy treats, just waiting to happen

Here is my bed of 14, transplanted into just 8" of mulch over a cinder base. This was a bare spot between the Aloe plant on the left and the Areca palms on the right. There is a little space for four more to be transplanted as the others grow up. Hopefully the rotation of old and new plants will continue to yield new fruits so we can start our journey into self sustainability. 

Chocolate trees next!