Back in April 2009 we decided to grow our own pineapples, so we first purchased (and ate) a pineapple and then started growing a new plant from the top according to these directions. The photo above is what it looked like in September 2009. We started from just a regular pineapple like you’d buy at the grocery store and the top grew all those new big leaves.
If you grow pineapples in a non-tropical climate, you need to bring them inside when it gets cold because they don’t like cold weather (I can’t blame them on that). So after spending the winter in our guest room, the pineapple was moved back outside for spring and had to be transplanted to an even bigger pot in April 2010:
Did you know it takes two years to grow a pineapple? We knew this and so in the summer of 2011, we kept checking our plant every so often, looking and hoping for signs of a fruit. The plant grew even bigger and started growing new offshoots all around the sides. These apparently can also grow into new pineapple plants according to what I’ve read.
Finally in September 2011, we had a baby pineapple!
After two years of waiting, the actual fruit grows pretty fast. We moved the plant back inside in late October when the nights started getting too cold and in late December, I noticed that the shell had turned yellow and the fruit was starting to fall off the plant, signs that it was ready to be eaten.
Two and a half years of waiting and watching. How was it? DELICIOUS. Very sweet and so good. We have a second plant that’s a year younger than this one, so hopefully it will fruit next summer. And we’ve saved the top of this fruit to start a new one. It’s one of the easiest things we’ve ever grown. Once you get the top to root and you plant it, all you do is water it once a week and wait two years for your fruit. I think this fruit was sweeter than the original one it came from, but maybe it’s just SWEET WITH VICTORY. Ha. 😉
haha! I *LOVE* it!
Comments are closed.