Re: Pineapples are ripe

Yes, you can use tops of supermarket pineapples. Both Dole and Del Monte market premium quality fruit, so either one will do. Most of mine are offsprings of Del Monte "Gold."

When you fix the pineapple, cut a slightly larger piece off the top, maybe one that's 3/4 inch thick. Let it sit on the kitchen counter for a few days. The flesh will begin to go south. In about a week, you can strip the skin and flesh from the top. What you will have is the top attached to a short piece of the core. Plant it in rich soil that drains well. I use Florida black sand, which is simply sandy soil with humus [in my case, rotted pine needles]. I mix blood meal, bone meal, and cottonseed meal in the potting mix. Plant the whole piece of core, right up to the bottom of top. Keep it moist, not wet, not dry. Give it a handful of osmocote every 4 or 5 months.

I root mine in the lathhouse--shade. I grow my plants in the shade; lots of light, but no direct sun. I would think they would fruit as a houseplant. They're just a terrestrial bromeliad, and a pretty tough one at that. In 18 to 24 months, it should start to flower. At first you'll notice a dome-shaped bump in the crown. It will look like a pincushion of gold pins. Pretty soon, it will emerge from the crown on a stem and begin to bloom--small purplish flowers. I don't know what pollinates them, but I've never had one that didn't get pollinated. At this point, they look like a pineapple. but small [baseball size] and green. They take 4 or 5 months to grow to size and ripen. Keep fertilizing them. They are ready to pick when they begin to turn yellow. Ripen them fully on the kitchen counter. Eat, enjoy, and plant the top.


On Aug 2, 2005, at 12:08 PM, Cathy Carpenter wrote:

Jim,
I know you've probably given me this before, but could you go through
what you do to the tops to ready them for planting? And could I use
tops from a supermarket pineapple?

Cathy, west central IL, z5b

On Jul 30, 2005, at 6:26 PM, james singer wrote:


We have 12 30-gallon pots with pineapples in them--one plant per
pot. Four of them fruited this year. When they fruit, the plant
dies, but it sends out suckers first. We've found, however, that
rooting the tops of the fruit is better than trying to save and re-
pot the suckers, so when a plant fruits, we usually clean out the
pot, re-mix and fortify the soil, and start all over. It takes an
average 18 months from pineapple top to edible fruit. But soooo
good [!] because we don't have to pick them green to get them to
market.

We've got two more 30-gallon pots in the patch that we're trying to
fill with yard waste that will compost down and make new growing
pots--but that's a long process, mostly because I forget about
them. Originally, we had wanted 24 pots, but I doubt that we'll
ever get there.

On Jul 30, 2005, at 7:00 PM, Cersgarden@aol.com wrote:



Jim, you have pineapple on ranch?  How wonderful!
    Ceres

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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