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rdj1234

Planting Pineapple Tops With Brown Leaves

rdj1234
13 years ago

I live in Nebraska, and it is impossible to find a ripe pineapple without brown leaves. Would it work to plant a pineapple top even if the leaves have started to turn brown?

Comments (4)

  • dellis326 (Danny)
    13 years ago

    Look down the center of the top, that is where it'll grow from. If you see some small leaves that look ok it will probably be fine to plant. Twist it off the fruit and starting at the bottom. peel off a few rows of the leaves. You should see little whitish nubs between them. Those are roots waiting to become useful. Plant it in loose, fast draining soil.

    Here's mine from about 1-1/2 years ago. That orange triangle is 7 inched high. Currently they are growing through the shelf above them.
    {{gwi:68853}}

  • rdj1234
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    dellis326, Are your plants in soil or water? Your plants look really healthy. Do you have some secret that made them grow that much in a year and a half, or do they normally grow at that rate when the conditions are right?

  • dellis326 (Danny)
    13 years ago

    I'm not sure how they grow out in the field but I've grown a bunch of them over the years and it seems the first year or so it goes kinda slow. I've planted a few out in my yard and they seem to grow a little faster but I've just left them out as winter comes because they take up so much space. I think on a plantation they grow very fast for a couple of years and go to fruit getting several feet tall but I've never seen it.

    That photo was in feb 09, they were about 2 years old then. They were potted in 2 quart paint buckets from the hardware store, I melted a dozen or so drainage holes in them using a soldering iron, last summer I switched them to 5 quart buckets. the grow mix is 50/50 shredded wood chips and organic potting soil. I keep them wet, very wet, I flood them until the tray underneath is full of water and leave it to evaporate but I do let it go dry for a couple of days at a time about once a month. When I repotted them there was no sign of root rot. They only get morning sun, almost from sunrise until around 11 am and that is through a slightly tinted window. They would probably grow bigger and faster with better light.

    I have grown pineapples in water but they grow a lot of roots fast but the plant grows slowly.

    The third smaller one was newly potted, I gave it away so I don't know how it's doing.

    I'll take a few new pictures in the next day or two to show you how much change has occurred.

    Danny

  • dellis326 (Danny)
    13 years ago

    Here's a couple of photos from earlier today, In the middle picture you can see a steel yard stick to the left in th image. (just under a meter for any metric folks reading)

    They seem to thrive on neglect, at least for me. I rarely ever fertilize them maybe once every few months.

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