Pineapple

[Liz and Steve]

HI grapes,

We've finally managed to get a pineapple to root - has anyone successfully grown one of these through to fruiting?

Regards

Steve

[veg4681]

I wouldn't have thought that you can grow pineapple successfully in UK, or can you under cover? I think you only get one pineapple per spikey bush so need a few plants just to make it worthwhile for eating crop unless you're only in it for the ornamental garden value. Would make an interesting talking point with visitors .

[shirlthegirl43]

I have rooted one too - I believe they fruit in the second growing year. I will wait and see if it happens or not. Good luck with yours.

[Seahorse]

How cool! How did you go about rooting one?

[shirlthegirl43]

I found instructions in a gardening magazine - can't remember which one but will post the stuff if I can find it.

[TonyF]

Bob Flowerdew had an article in Kitchen Gardens a while back on this very subject - if you look at their web site, you may get a lead from there.

[shirlthegirl43]

Bob Flowerdew had an article in Kitchen Gardens a while back on this very subject - if you look at their web site, you may get a lead from there.

That could be the one I read - about this time last year - the only copy of that mag I bought coz I discovered GYO!

[Seahorse]

Bob Flowerdew had an article in Kitchen Gardens a while back on this very subject - if you look at their web site, you may get a lead from there.

Just had a quick Google with no joy (but then again, it's friday night and there's a bottle in the vicinity ). I did buy a job lot of back issues of KG recently though, so will have a flick through them later

[kernowyon]

i got one to root, just a supermarket one (make sure that the centre leaves are still there, some supermarkets pull the smaller leaves out to prolong shelf life) had nothing for two years but lots of green growth and then left door open on greenhouse, frosty night and it is no more, an ex-pineapple, gone to meet it's maker etc. was looking forward to it fruiting? takes upto 3 years i've read somewhere. will start again i s'pose it is not gonna beat me!

[Geo]

How cool! How did you go about rooting one?

Just found this >>>Click<<<


Geo..

[Seahorse]

Just found this >>>Click<<<


Geo..

Cheers Geo!

[Paul Wagland]

Pineapples have been grown in this country for many years - since Victorian times I think. In the gardens of Heligan there are some truly amazing tailor-made pineapple beds, like extra-large cold frames with brick walls and glass tops. The gardeners would fill them with tonnes of fresh manure, which released so much heat as it rotted that the pineapples fruited extra quick! When Jeannine and I visited a year or two back they were filling the beds with a mini tractor - I've never seen poo steam so much!

[shirlthegirl43]

So do they plant the young pineapple plants straight into the manure or do they put pockets of 'soil' to plant into? Interested as my plant is about ready to be potted on this spring.

[Paul Wagland]

I'm not sure, but I would guess they have 'soil pockets'. The manure is chiefly there for the heat it produces, so I'm guessing it must be fairly fresh (the well rotted stuff isn't as hot). I also guess (sense a theme yet?!) that fresh manure would 'scorch' pineapples if it was in direct contact, just as it does other plants.

Am I right in thinking you only need the top 'slice' of a pineapple, including the leaves, to start a new plant?

[shirlthegirl43]

I'm not sure, but I would guess they have 'soil pockets'. The manure is chiefly there for the heat it produces, so I'm guessing it must be fairly fresh (the well rotted stuff isn't as hot). I also guess (sense a theme yet?!) that fresh manure would 'scorch' pineapples if it was in direct contact, just as it does other plants.

Am I right in thinking you only need the top 'slice' of a pineapple, including the leaves, to start a new plant?

You need the leaves and a little bit of the top - not much. Just be sure that the central leaves are there as apparently they are removed by some (growers or stores I am unsure). Getting the thing to root was the fussy bit, once that was done it needs nowt but water. I left my pineapple top to dry for a week, then peeled off the leaves closest to where the fruit was, after peeling a few of these off, you see the little 'rootlets'. Once you have exposed these, sit it in water for a week or so until the rootlets start to grow, then pot it and keep damp till it can't be moved when you 'wiggle' it. Then treat much as a houseplant.