How to Grow Pineapples

Pineapples are wonderful fruit. Not only are they delicious, but they are also very easy to grow. All you really need to start growing your own pineapple farm is a pineapple and some dirt (and a pot if you live in a colder climate).

Step 1: Obtain a Pineapple...

Go to wherever you like buying fruit from, whether it be a supermarket, farmers market, or from a guy selling fruit on the side of the road. Buy a nice looking pineapple. Make sure it's nice and ripe. Take the fruit home, and move on to the next step...

Step 2: Cut and Eat...

Take your pineapple home with you. Rinse the fruit off, then place it on it's side on a cutting board. Take a knife and cut off the leafy top part of the pineapple, along with an inch or two of the pineapple's meat. Set this aside while you proceed to eat the rest of the pineapple

Step 3: Figure Out Where to Plant Pineapple...

Your leftover pineapple top from the previous step is all you need to grow a pineapple. A pineapple is a fruit, so therefore it can produce seeds, but from what I understand seeds are rare in domesticated pineapples. I've personally never gotten any seeds in any of my store bought or home grown pineapples. Because of the lack of an overflowing supply of seeds, using the cutting from the top of an eaten pineapple is the ideal way to go.

For the planting itself, I have found that putting the pineapple top directly into the ground works best. There are other techniques to planting pineapples, such as trimming all of the remaining fruit away leaving just the base of the leaves, then letting the top dry out for a few days, then putting the pineapple top in a glass of water until roots start growing, then finally planting the pineapple top into the ground. I have experimented with these extra steps and haven't had too much luck. Trimming all of the fruit away just seems to kill the pineapple plant, even before it is planted. Root sprouting in water resulted in some very moldy pineapple plants, which ended up no surviving. So with all of these extra steps that you could try, sticking the pineapple top directly into the ground seems to work best.

If you live in a warmer climate, you can plant your pineapple directly into the ground. Where I live, there is an occasional frost each winter, but that's about the worst of the cold weather. My pineapple plants handle that just fine. If your winter weather is any worse than the occasional freeze, plant your pineapple in a pot where you can take it inside.

When you pick out a spot (or pot) for your pineapple, make sure it has room. The plants grow to about five feet across and get spiny leaves, so take that into consideration when deciding where you plant your pineapple.

Step 4: Plant Your Pineapple

Once you have decided where to plant your pineapple, dig a hole in the dirt. The hole only needs to be deep enough to cover the fruit still attached to the pineapple's leaves. Place the pineapple in the hole, and cover with dirt, leaving the pineapple leaves exposed above ground.

If you're planting in a pot rather than the ground, the same applies with the only difference being that your dirt is contained within the pots walls.

Step 5: Water and Forget...

Once your pineapple is in the dirt, water the plant.

If you are growing your pineapple in the ground, you can basically forget about it for a while. Pineapples are very much maintenance free plants. After the initial plantings, I never go out of my way to purposely water my pineapple plants. It can't hurt if you do water your pineapple plants more often than when it rains, but the plants definitely won't die if you forget to water them every few days. My plants have lived several years with this let-them-be attitude and are now on the third season of the plants producing fruit.

If you are growing your pineapple in a pot where you bring the plant inside during colder weather, I would definitely water the pineapple more often.

Step 6: Wait...

Pineapple plants grow slowly. After about a year, you will definitely notice the growth in your plants. It took somewhere between 2-3 years for my plants to start producing fruit.

The fruit will start forming in the center of the pineapple plant. It starts out looking like a large bright red and yellow flower. The flower eventually transforms into the normal looking pineapple fruit that everyone is familiar with.

While you're waiting for the plant to produce a fruit, be on the lookout for animals living among the pineapple leaves. It seems tree frogs seem to enjoy resting among the plants...

Step 7: Harvest

Let your pineapples get ripe on the plant. They taste better that way, rather than the store bought pineapples that get ripe on the shelves. When the outside skin of the pineapple starts changing from brown to yellow, go outside with a saw and cut through the stalk supporting the pineapple. In this process of waiting for the opportune moment to pick your pineapple, be careful of the neighborhood squirrels. They also enjoy nice ripe pineapples, so if you don't beat them too it, you may go outside one morning and find your pineapple half devoured.

Take the pineapple inside and enjoy eating your home grown fruit. Enjoy it, and save the top so when you're finished you can make your pineapple plants multiply...

Comments

[acianciulli26]

Corn, Zea mays, belongs to the Poaceae family, and while eaten sometimes as a vegetable and sometimes as a grain, it is actually classified by botanists as a fruit, as are tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and other squashes.

[Karakuda]

Did I miss the part where you say how much sun it should get?

[DavidB1437]

My wife planted a single pineapple head in our backyard. Two pineapple plants (Heads) started growing at the same from the single planted head. How rare is this occurrence? Both producing heads producing pineapples now.

[sapppppp]

its really quite common for your plant to grow more then a single crown but you want to remove the smaller ones if you want a better fruit its wont hurt the plant to leave the suckers on it will just produce smaller fruit yield and the fruit usually wont be as sweet, but the upside to having more then 1 crowns on the plant is you can just break the smaller one off and replant it elsewhere to get a whole new plant growing much faster

[BobF63]

Do you only get one pineapple per plant. Will that bush produce next year?

[klbsmith36]

The plants that produce the pineapple will not produce another fruit however it will throw parts or shoot that you can then grow that will produce fruit as well. Each plant only produces one fruit but will throw several shoots/parts that can be re-planet and produce fruiy

[Lexasam10]

Is it possible to grow a pineapple tree in a pot in Northeastern PA? When would they start producing?

[jessyratfink]

It is, but you'd need to keep it inside near a window or get an LED growlight. The time for fruit would still be the same - about 2-3 years :)

[PamK35]

I have a dozen pineapples that I don't want the squirrels and/racoon to eat as they have in the past. Any help with what I might do so that I get to eat them and not the animlas?

[Chrg]

A pellet gun works well. Squirrel stew with pineapple and Indian spices is a great dish. Raccoon is a little tuff unless you marinate for a week. I hang the tails in my garden. Acts as a great warning to any other of those thieving marauders.

[marekma]

I am planting pineapple plants in my lawn in the tropics. Do I have to remove the lawn around the pineapple plant. In other works, is is OK to have grass touching the pineapple plant? Should I mulch around the plant?

Thanks

[shernandez6182]

i just have put my pineapple in a pot after 3 months of waiting for roots i have finally moved to a new step . i hope my chickens don't eat it we it gets put in the ground . we are going to have two pineapples grown now cause we have one more sitting in water waiting for roots

[RuthH56]

We had started with one which has produced a pineapple every year. They multiply. I guess they send out root shoots. So it is that we have 5 pineapples this year and there's a young plant just starting a few feet away.

[spaktashabit]

After you pick the pineapple does it grow another one? Or does it just die and you need to plans another?

[TropiChris]

After a pineapple is picked, that part of the plant doesn't grow another pineapple but it will produce a "sucker" or "pup" and these will grow another pineapple.

[pjintexas]

My nephew Richard Westover just posted a photo of the pineapple he just grew onto facebook

. Check it out.

[emmielou08]

i have two beautiful plants that I have had for two years, outside in the summer and inside in the winter Texas gets cold but I have not seen any signs of a blossom is there something else that I need to do?

[Randi0773]

I know this sounds like a joke but they need an apple -- no, seriously!! The apple slice will give off ethylene gas which encourages the plant to flower and set fruit. Simply place the plant in a large plastic bag, put a slice of apple on the crown, tie up the bag and put it in a warm shady spot. After 4 days, remove the plant from the bag, discard the apple slice and put the plant back in it's sunny place. After a few months you'll get beautiful little cluster of flowers followed by a small fruit -- about 6 months later, you should be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor!! Good luck!!

[Nolanism]

How can I do this with a plant that is in the ground? Thanks for the tip :]

[TruthHunter]

Don't waste a good apple! Use peels and cores. Most any fruit scraps will do the trick...banana peels, etc.