Tropical Fruit > Tropical Fruit Discussion
Pineapple thread
spaugh:
Im sharing this info for people who are interested in growing pineapples. Ill include some info on how to plant and the different types Im growing.
Pineapples are quite easy to propogate and grow. They do well in containers and don't require much upkeep or care. The only real issue is they are fairly tropical and do not like cold weather below 50F. They will survive in the 30s but they stop growing and tend to go into decline, especially if they are wet and cold. So pull your plants under a shade or inside the garage or greenhouse during those winter rain storms if its cold where you live.
To propogate them you can use fresh slips or offsets and plant into small pots. If you have slips that have no roots, peel back some of the lower leaves to expose the root nodes and plant into 4 or 6 inch pots to get them started. Using a small pot allows the dirt to dry out while the plant gets established vs always staying soggy in a larger pot or in ground. If you are lucky enough to live somewhere like costa rica or hawaii where conditions are right, pups can be planted straight into the ground obviously. Im assuming most people reading this are zone pushing a bit and growing in semi tropical climate or greenhouses. Pineapple plants do amazingly well in a greenhouse environment. If you live in zone 8-10 , a greenhouse will be best during winter.
Peel back your leaves and expose the roots
Plant into 4 or 6 in pots to root them for 2-6 months
This MD2 plant has been in the 6in pot for several months and is ready to up pot to a 5gal pot to fruit in.
Once you are seeing roots on the bottom of the pot, it can be up potted. This one could have been done a month ago.
A 5gallon pot is sufficient for most varieties to produce a large fruit comparable or larger than comercial store bought pineapples. This is a 5gal MD2
The soil Im using is EB stone cactus mix. You want well draining mix with pumice or perlite addative in it for breathability and drainability. This mix has no fertilizer so I will add a slow release fertilizer or some organic slow going fertilizer to the mix when potting. A little animal manure would work also. Use a well balanced fertilizer to start with. Organic 5-5-5 or similar is good.
Then you can water occasionally maybe once a month with fish emulsion or other water soluable fertilizer to feed them. I use a jacks 15-5-15 with micro package on pineapple and banana. Or sometimes a grow power 8 6 8. They also like high iron and mineral content so a micro nutruient with iron is good. Pineapples are not salt sensitive and they will take all kinds of fertilizers no problem, just don't go too crazy, an occasional feeding between multiple waterings is all you need. Don't over water your plants, once they have some roots let them dry out a bit between watering, they dont like suoer wet feet. And when fertilizing with dry fertilizer scratch in around the plant into the dirt. Or if using water soluable, pour straight into the center of the plants and drench the plant and soil.
spaugh:
This is a home grown DEL MONTE GOLD pineapple AKA MD2. Grown in a 5gal pot. It comes out very sweet and large. Better than the store fruits. This is a good cultivar that has few serrated leaves and stays compact and grows well in 5gal pots. The fruit have brix of 16 to 17 in the bottom half. It's quite sweet.
spaugh:
This one is a KAUAI WHITE SUGARLOAF and WHITE JADE. These are the same cultivar. This plant gets quite large and will do well in a 7gal pot. It has smooth leaves, and a white sweet subacid flesh and semi edible core. The cores are edible but are harder than the surrounding flesh. This plant is not as cold hardy as some other varieties. Its a slow grower but does make a decent amount of offsets and slips. The leaves turn red and purple in the sun. It is normal and will turn this color even with the same feeding program as other types that stay green. Some pineapple plants just turn colors and this one does a lot. This fruit has a brix of 16-17 and low acid making it taste very sweet.
EddieF:
Question- do they flower more then once or do you chop down after harvest like bananas?
spaugh:
--- Quote from: EddieF on September 10, 2020, 02:59:30 PM ---Question- do they flower more then once or do you chop down after harvest like bananas?
--- End quote ---
The plant produces pups along the main stem and out from the ground and along the stem below the fruit. Those will fruit again if you leave them on but its better to seperate them and make new plants and focus the energy into a single plant/fruit.
The way it grows, theres root nodes along the main stem below the leaves. So once a plant fruits, it gets tall and will tend to fall over and throw out new roots. But because Im doing container culture, I always remove the pups and repot. Sometimes, Ill let the plant go a while after harvest just to grow more pups before tossing it or chopping it out and leaving a new pup in place.
You can cut them out while leaving a new pup in its place like a banana or just start new ones.
Heres one I harvested and am leaving behind a pup that was already there and rooted. It should grow faster since it already has a root system and large pot.
Heres how slips grow on a serrated hawaii gold plant. Theres many similar types that produce excessive amounts of slips.
The white jade makes a more reasonable amount
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