Growing Pineapples

[NewGen]

I just received a Gold Elite, and Smooth Cayene, both in containers. Should I leave them under shade or in full sun?
Thanks,

[jcaldeira]

I just received a Gold Elite, and Smooth Cayene, both in containers. Should I leave them under shade or in full sun?
Thanks,

Pineapple require full sun for best results.  They might need hardening off if they've been previously raised in a shade house.

[kevin8715]

I just received a Gold Elite, and Smooth Cayene, both in containers. Should I leave them under shade or in full sun?
Thanks,

First few day in half shade half sun. Then part shade for a bit. Finally full sun. They adapt pretty quickly and the soil should be let to dry out a bit to avoid rotting.

[ben mango]

There may be some genetic drift after multiple generations and chances of passing on diseases may increase the longer you keep a clone going. I believe they replant strawberry fields every year or every couple of years for this reason.
Simon

It's different for strawberries.  They are dry susceptible to root rot and other diseases... Pineapple. ... Not so much

[Mike T]

The best way to treat smooth cayenne is vigorous hacking with a machete. They may be the preferred pineapple for those with a hankering for high acid fruit.

[TheWaterbug]

Should I start a new thread? Or continue this one? Anyway:

I have been rooting pineapple crowns off and on for the past 2.5 years, and I now have the following collection:



One of them (in too small of a pot ) has a maturing fruit:



as well as three suckers and three ratoons. I think it's about 2 years old.

My oldest crown (2.5 years) is quite a bit larger:



and has just started its inflorescence:



Despite having some minor success, I do have quite a few questions about best practices for the future:

1) 2/3 of the crowns I attempt to root in water end up rotting instead of rooting. I've tried drying the crowns beforehand for anywhere from a day to a week (as specifically recommended by Dole), and they frequently end up shriveling and browning, after which they almost never root. If I can dry it for 2-3 days without it turning brown, then it will often (but not always) root. Any tips on increasing my yield for crowns-in-water?

2) I suppose I should try going directly into some dirt, but then I will have a serious problem--how do I see what's going on under there? It will drive me bat-guano-crazy!!! How do I tell if it's got roots or whether it's just wasting my time? If they need high humidity, does putting a dome of sorts over the top help in the initial stages? Other tips for successfully rooting in dirt? We get almost no rain in Southern California between April and November.

3) Why do suckers/slips/ratoons fruit faster than crowns? Is there a difference in terminology between the suckers that come out of the side of the plant and those that come up from the soil?

4) I've read conflicting advice about watering the leaves (Don't! It causes rot! vs. Yes, it's a bromeliad!). Should I avoid watering the leaves until it's got roots?

5) This page has pretty detailed instructions on how to plant suckers and slips. Has anyone tried these? Are they generally correct? I have some suckers on my fruiting plant that are at least 8-10 inches long now, so that site says I should snap them off and get them in the dirt.

[Mark in Texas]

This is the best ditty I've seen. http://www.rickswoodshopcreations.com/pineapple/pineapple.htm

In just 6 months I have 7 large pineapple plants that will surely fruit next year.  None failed to root and take off like a ruptured goose.  They are growing like a weed.

[LEOOEL]

Pineapple Propagation

OK, one cuts the top of the pineapple that includes the 'hair' (slips, leaves...), put it in adequate soil and water adequately, and voila! you'll get another pineapple. Is this the quickest way to pineapple fruit?

After the pineapple fruit was ripe, I removed it from the rest of the plant. And, after a few weeks, the leftover plant has another fruit on the way! I really wasn't expecting that so soon. So, I'm on the way for getting two, three ... fruits from one plant. At such a rate, pineapple production will get critical in a good way; 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1,024: Wow! Over 1,000 pineapples in just 10 pineapple generations!

From what I've heard, pineapple propagation by seeds is the slowest method to obtain pineapple fruit.

I wonder whether anyone has been able to propagate pineapple through slip/leaf cuttings, or whether it's even possible. If propagation by leaf cuttings were possible, then this would really take the production of pineapples to another, higher, exponential level.

[TheWaterbug]

I wonder whether anyone has been able to propagate pineapple through slip/leaf cuttings, or whether it's even possible. If propagation by leaf cuttings were possible, then this would really take the production of pineapples to another, higher, exponential level.

The slips and suckers that appear on the mother plant can be rooted like crowns to make new plants, or so I've read . My fruiting plant has 3 suckers and 3 ratoons, and the crown of the fruit also can be planted, so in theory my one plant could turn into 7.

I've even read that you can slice any of these plantlets into halves or quarters and place them, cut side down, onto soil where they will spawn shoots. I may try that after I harvest my pineapple, since I will then have more plantlets than I need, and so I risk little by experimenting.

edit: Ah! Here we go; a list of various vegetative propagation techniques.

[KarenRei]

I've had good luck getting pineapples (indoors) to stay alive, but not much at growing. Mine grows, but at an almost unbearably slow pace. And yeah, it took an awful lot of root attempts here to get the one. Back when I grew them in the US, I found it much easier to root them; I think freshness of the pineapples and what conditions they were shipped / stored in are key to how well the tops root.

[TheWaterbug]

Ah! Here we go; a list of various vegetative propagation techniques.

And here's a terrific video from Dole on propagation through suckers and slips in Costa Rica. It's interesting that they don't mention crowns in this video, while they say on the linked page above that crowns are the "preferred" starter material in Hawaii. Maybe it depends on the cultivar and the location.

In any case, I'm in awe at the size of those suckers and slips. See at the 1:52 mark on that same video. They're way bigger than my mother plants! And 20x the size of any crown I've ever seen:



I read a link somewhere that recommended twisting suckers and slips off the mother plant when they get to about 20 cm long, so they don't compete with fruit development. Clearly Dole is doing something different. They let the seed material grow on the mother plant for awhile _after_ fruit harvest, and they even slash back some of the mother plant's foliage to stimulate growth on the little guys.

Returning to the subject of crowns, which is how I suspect most of us are getting started, I saw another video that suggested I should really strip the crowns much further up than I've been doing, to prevent rot at the leaf level. I just bought two more pineapples today, so I'm going to try that.

[TheWaterbug]

Returning to the subject of crowns, which is how I suspect most of us are getting started, I saw another video that suggested I should really strip the crowns much further up than I've been doing, to prevent rot at the leaf level. I just bought two more pineapples today, so I'm going to try that.

So here's what that looks like. The crown on the right is how it looked right after twisting it off the fruit. The crown on the left is after I stripped way more than I usually do:



I did both crowns like this, and now one's in water and one's in soil. I'll follow up in a few weeks with the comparative progress.

[TheWaterbug]

Harvest time!!!! After 2.5 years my store-bought, water-jar-started, crown has borne ripe fruit! The yellow color has worked its way up the fruit over the last several weeks, and it looks like it's time to pick:



I'm going to pluck it tomorrow morning. Should I eat it right away? Or do pineapples benefit from some "counter" time?

[TheWaterbug]

Harvest time!!!! After 2.5 years my store-bought, water-jar-started, crown has borne ripe fruit!

By the way, can anyone identify the cultivar?

[From the sea]

I think its Smooth cayenne or 'MD-2'

[TheWaterbug]

I ate it:



It was really good, though I think it might have sweetened up a little had I left it on a few more days and/or let it sit in the bowl for a day or two.

This is contrary to what Dole and other pineapple authorities publish, e.g. "Pineapples do not improve in flavor after picking because the starch to sugar conversion happens only while the fruit is attached," but from my empirical "testing" over the last 3 years, pineapples do get sweeter and/or less acid as they age.

This guy seems to agree with me (PDF):

The reason for leaving it in the refrigerator overnight is that the diced sections will release their acidic juices that make the pineapple sour and that attack your lips and the linings of the mouth. This is why it is important to cut across the veins when dicing, so that the juices can flow out. It appears that, after the acids flow out, these acids either react with the air or undergo some kind of aging process and are neutralized, and the whole bowl of fruit becomes sweeter.

I need to do some sort of controlled testing on this theory. Maybe a pool acid pH tester would help, and/or some sort of sugar meter.

I have refractometer that I use for testing honey; I wonder if that would tell me anything.

[ericalynne]

I ate it:



It was really good, though I think it might have sweetened up a little had I left it on a few more days and/or let it sit in the bowl for a day or two.

This is contrary to what Dole and other pineapple authorities publish, e.g. "Pineapples do not improve in flavor after picking because the starch to sugar conversion happens only while the fruit is attached," but from my empirical "testing" over the last 3 years, pineapples do get sweeter and/or less acid as they age.

I have heard the same thing, but my experience says otherwise. I grow lots of pineapple and I no longer try to eat them right away. Even ripe yellow ones get sweeter in a day or two. Sometimes I leave them as long as a week.

I understand the botanical reasons for saying there can't be an increase in sugar content, but none the less it occurs. Happens in grapefruit too. I had a neighbor who was an old farmer. He used to give me grapefruit and I told him they were too sour for me. He told me to leave them for a week or two and they would get sweeter. Just sitting in the kitchen. And he was correct.

Erica
Venus

[fyliu]

I think the reason is not that there's any more sugar, but the unwanted volatile flavors decreases. Maybe that's part of the plant's defenses so you don't eat an unripe fruit before the seeds are ready for propagation.

[TheWaterbug]

What I don't understand is why Dole et al. propagate this myth:

Once the pineapple is picked, it won’t ripen any further or get any sweeter, since unlike most fruits, a pineapple draws its sweetness from starches in its plant base. Fresh pineapples from Hawai`i are picked at maximum ripeness for delivery to U.S. and Canadian markets: the sooner they are eaten, the better. If you don't plan to use your fresh pineapple right away, store it in your refrigerator, where it will keep longer.