Hi there:
I've read a number of threads over the last few weeks on pineapples, trying to see what kind of success others have had and to learn from them, because frankly speaking, I have almost none in the last three years trying to get them to root. I've tried well over two dozen, changing my methods, water, dirt, orchid bark, lava rock, twist, cust, dry, organic, inorganic, etc, and have had only four taking root last year. The only correlation I've found with the successes: none were sold with tags through the core.
The costco pineapple I got today was surprisingly sweet, and has said tag. Curious, I peeled a bit more of the fronds away, and eventually the core just fell apart.
This confuses me a little.. it shouldn't die because of this? Someone here posted an interesting PDF that concluded it is possible to grow many pineapples by cutting the core into pieces, although, this does cause a longer time to maturity. That said, with the removed core, I'm letting this dry a bit to "heal" and maybe it'll sprout new growth. Bah.