Author Topic: pineapple propagation  (Read 1331 times)

treefrog

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pineapple propagation
« on: May 04, 2016, 12:36:16 PM »
i'm trying a trick on one of the white jades i got from adam a year and a half ago.

 i have heard it is possible to trigger a blossom by laying a plant on its side for a week or so.
a while back, i had a potted pineapple plant (kona sugarloaf) fall over on its side and get neglected for a couple months.   in this case, it did not bring on a blossom, but rather a frenzy of offsets.  the mother plant put out fourteen suckers, many of which have now fruited.

today, i picked out one of the potted flying fox white jades and laid it over on its side.  it's pretty well grown, maybe a little small for fruiting size.  i'm just going to leave it on its side for a while and see what happens.  perhaps, it will trigger a blossom.  perhaps it will trigger a reproductive frenzy.  either one of those i'd like.

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LivingParadise

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Re: pineapple propagation
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2016, 02:50:45 PM »
Interesting experiment - be sure to share the results! If it happens to force more suckers than normal, that's useful info too, because I have a few extras I could give this a shot with.

But I wonder how well this can work for plants that are already in the ground, if disturbing their roots at all to try to lay them sideways would do more harm than good. I'm sure it should only be tested on plants that one doesn't mind losing.

Somebody was doing something similar to this in another thread - I think it was with passionfruit vines? They were under the impression that laying the vine sideways could force more roots and leaves along that segment, I think. I shared an accidental experiment where that did in fact appear to be the case for my vine. So forcing more growth by laying a plant on its side might be a new way to aid progress, when one needs more roots, or suckers/new growth for propagation. Would be interesting to see if this holds true for many species.

treefrog

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Re: pineapple propagation
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2016, 11:55:29 PM »
interesting question about in-ground plants.  digging them up would be necessary.  this would unavoidably stress the plant

...however, this whole exercise is presumably to stress the plant and kick it into reproductive behavior "survival mode" as a response to stress.   i don't have a lot of in-ground pineapples.  (zone 8b with finite greenhouse space).  if someone else tries it,please let us know what happens.
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