A few years ago my father-in-law taught me how to grow your own pineapple plants using nothing more than the top of a common grocery store pineapple. He's been doing this for years and now has a yard littered with pineapple plants that occasionally produce some of the best fruit you've ever tasted. The plants grow fairly easily and are generally pretty robust. It takes about 2 to 3 years for them to mature to fruit producing age.
There are several methods of propagation, but here is mine:
STEP 1: Select a pineapple.
I pick mine up from the grocery store any time they are <$2. Here is what I look for when selecting:
- Make sure the pineapple is not ripe yet. The fruit should be very green. If it is yellow or smells sweet, skip it.
- Make sure you cannot easily pull out the center leaves on the crown. If they come out easily, skip it.
- Make sure the vendor has not stuck the center of the crown with a price tagging gun. If the tag is hanging from the center of the crow, skip it. When they do this, they introduce and injury and the fruit will commonly start rotting from this point. I make sure the tag is only through a couple of the exterior leaves.
These are the tags I'm referring to:
They are applied with a gun like this which pierces the plant creating a potential infection point:
STEP 2: Cut the fruit off.
Cut the top off the fruit about 1" below the foliage. Some people like to twist the foliage off. I've never tried that approach. From the base of the foliage top, also cut off all excess fruit around the base. The more fruit your remove, the less will rot later. Place the body of the fruit in the fridge to ripen.
STEP 3: Place top in water.
place the top in cup or similar container with enough water to cover the stem up to the leaves.
STEP 4: Wait.
Place the cup on a windowsill and wait. Every couple of days I rinse the water out to avoid stagnant water. At this time I also rinse the cut base and remove any rotted flesh or leaves. The leaves pull off very easily leaving a clean stem. Rinse the base/cup frequently to keep bacterial/mold at bay. This is key to prevent die-off. After a few weeks you will start to see roots forming in between the base leaves. The roots do not come out of the but base. You may also see new leaves start growing from the crown.
Here are several plants on my windows sill above the sink. This makes rinsing out the cups easy.
Here is what new roots look like (small white nubs):
Here are more advanced roots:
Here are new leaved growing:
STEP 5: Plant in soil.
Once you have strong root growth, plant in soil. These can take a much richer soil than what most of us are used to. I do not mix in any pumice or anything of that nature. These love warmth and sun. They do not like cold or frost. When the temperature drops into the 40's at night I move them near the house or in the garage. For frosts, they must be covered or brought inside.
Here is an established plant, maybe a year or so old:
Here is a plant fruiting (these were for sale at the local box store for $25 each. But you can have your own for the cost of a pineapple and some time.
Here is an example of the rot that occurs when the vendor has pierced the stem of the fruit with those tag guns. Avoid those if you can and you have a much better chance of survival:
