Update:Harvest pic taken on 10/30. My pineapple is finally blooming after 2.5 years!

bbhaag

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Jul 2, 2011
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I was so excited to see this finally happen I just had to share it. 2.5 years ago my son wanted to do a science project on pineapples. Don't ask me why he just did so my parents found one and shipped it from Florida to Illinois. When we received it it was just a little thing that was way to small for a science project. Because I own a greenhouse of course it got pawned off on me to take care of this thing.
So a couple of days ago I was looking it over and tending to it when I noticed that it has started to bloom! The bloom is still very small right now but is growing fast and I imagine within a couple of weeks will start to have small pineapple on it. Here are a couple of pics I took today. It measures just around 28" high and a whopping 44" across! It's massive. lol

Here is a pic of the whole plant. The reason it is on a shopping cart is so I can move it easily without causing damage to it or my back.
aSZ06MN.jpg

And here is a pic of the bloom coming out of the top. Like I said it is small right now but growing very fast.
A06Gc8U.jpg
 

Jeeebus

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Aug 29, 2006
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Nice!

Just cut into one of ours today. Beautiful white jade pineapple. Yours will be 100x sweeter than any store bought pineapple because it will have much longer to ripen.

20190626-172929.jpg


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Nov 8, 2012
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While traveling once to a tropical place, I did a tour at a place that grows pineapples... and I swear they had like.. 10 different kinds each with different flavors. It was pretty delicious.

Sadly all I ever see is the same old boring Dole Gold Pineapple at grocery stores =/
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
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While traveling once to a tropical place, I did a tour at a place that grows pineapples... and I swear they had like.. 10 different kinds each with different flavors. It was pretty delicious.

Sadly all I ever see is the same old boring Dole Gold Pineapple at grocery stores =/

a "tropical place" you say? great story, bro.

Did the airport at this tropical place have the call sign of LSD?
 

Exterous

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Jun 20, 2006
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While traveling once to a tropical place, I did a tour at a place that grows pineapples... and I swear they had like.. 10 different kinds each with different flavors. It was pretty delicious.

Sadly all I ever see is the same old boring Dole Gold Pineapple at grocery stores =/

What really shocked me was when the price of a pineapple on the same island they grew them on was 3x the price of the one shipped to Michigan (same kind, same company)
 
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BudAshes

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What really shocked me was when the price of a pineapple on the same island they grew them on was 3x the price of the one shipped to Michigan (same kind, same company)

Driscoll's strawberries grown in Watsonville, CA sell for 99 cents in a grocery store in Tuscon, AZ. Same strawberries are 4.99 in a grocery store in Watsonville.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
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Driscoll's strawberries grown in Watsonville, CA sell for 99 cents in a grocery store in Tuscon, AZ. Same strawberries are 4.99 in a grocery store in Watsonville.
In case you and exterous haven't noticed, food costs are no longer linked to environmental costs and are based entirely on purchasing algorithms.
 

bbhaag

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Can't say it's that difficult? They bloom for one another and there can be multiple from each.

1517258666464.jpg
That's not entirely true. Each plant only produces one fruit. As you can see in the picture you posted there are four fruits and four plants.
Pineapple plants produce pups that spread out from the base of the main plant. It' hard to tell but in my first pic there are two pups in the pot. These pups can be transplanted and then forced to produce fruit of there own.
 
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Scarpozzi

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My wife and I did our honeymoon in Hawaii. We didn't visit the plantations because that just seemed too touristy and we wanted more beach time. I had never seen pineapple plants before, so didn't know how they grew. We went to a mall in Waikiki our last day, while waiting on the red eye back...while we were walking through the mall, I noticed they had all the planters in the mall filled with pineapple plants and all were bearing fruit.

Recently, I've seen the plants for sale at my local grocery stores for $14.99, as well as at some greenhouses. I live in the SouthEastern US....and they'd definitely need to be climate controlled indoors or in a greenhouse to survive.... My wife has a bunch of indoor houseplants. We went on a trip back in January...I turned our heat off while we were gone and it took her plants months to rebound from the inside house temp dropping below 50 degrees for the week. (or perhaps the lapse in watering paired with that)
 
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Recently, I've seen the plants for sale at my local grocery stores for $14.99, as well as at some greenhouses. I live in the SouthEastern US....and they'd definitely need to be climate controlled indoors or in a greenhouse to survive.... My wife has a bunch of indoor houseplants. We went on a trip back in January...I turned our heat off while we were gone and it took her plants months to rebound from the inside house temp dropping below 50 degrees for the week. (or perhaps the lapse in watering paired with that)

Wut?

$14.99 for a pineapple to plant? lol just cut off the top of the pineapple, voila! You have a plant.

Also not sure what you mean as far as climate in the south east - I'm out of Texas and the Pineapple grew quick and easy outside.
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
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Wut?

$14.99 for a pineapple to plant? lol just cut off the top of the pineapple, voila! You have a plant.

Also not sure what you mean as far as climate in the south east - I'm out of Texas and the Pineapple grew quick and easy outside.
The $14.99 was for a plant with a pineapple fruit already sprouted... I know you can cut the top off and plant it....but not sure how long it takes to take root and produce fruit...I'm assuming from the OP, 1-2 years? I'm sure it'd grow around here, but we get 20 degree winters...sometimes colder. Wouldn't that kill a pineapple plant? Other plants I've seen with those kinds of leaves usually wilt and die when they see cold weather or sustained low humidity.
 

bbhaag

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The $14.99 was for a plant with a pineapple fruit already sprouted... I know you can cut the top off and plant it....but not sure how long it takes to take root and produce fruit...I'm assuming from the OP, 1-2 years? I'm sure it'd grow around here, but we get 20 degree winters...sometimes colder. Wouldn't that kill a pineapple plant? Other plants I've seen with those kinds of leaves usually wilt and die when they see cold weather or sustained low humidity.
Don't use my situation and think it is a normal time frame for raising a pineapple. The pineapple in my first post has lived a very unusual life compared to commercially farmed ones. Even compared to home growers in warmer climates my situation is not normal. For gods sakes I posted a pic of it on a shopping cart.haha
Anyway, you are correct in assuming that a pineapple can not take temperatures in the 20's or lower. In a more northern climate they would need to be protected from the cold.
 

Jeeebus

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I know you can cut the top off and plant it....but not sure how long it takes to take root and produce fruit...I'm assuming from the OP, 1-2 years?

Home-grown pineapple from a previous pineapple top will probably take around 2 years to get a mature fruit. It will be smaller than the original pineapple and it takes longer than using pups/off-shoots, so it's generally not the preferred method.

Home-grown pineapple from pups/off-shoots usually results in a large pineapple and is usually faster to fruit - 1 - 1.5 years (faster if you leave one pup on the original plant and let that one grow as the root system is already established).

Commercial farms are an entirely different story as they use a gas(I forgot the name) to stimulate fruiting at a particular time. When growing thousands of thousands of plants, it would be too labor-expensive if a few fruited today, a few next week, etc. They need them all fruiting at the same time.
 

bbhaag

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Just wanted to post a quick update. It is coming along nicely but still on the small side. Right now it is about the size of my fist. I must say out of all the plants I have grown over the years this one is certainly in my top 5 as one of the most interesting.
Anyway, here is a pic I took today.
8i0OmBU.jpg
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
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Looking at your pictures it dawned on me that pineapples are a giant bromeliad and that we might be able to grow one. The lack of freeze tolerance might be a problem but we could probably wrap it up during cold snaps.
 

DAPUNISHER

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We just ate one the Mrs. grew from the top of a Costa Rica Gold. So good, soooo gooood.
 
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Zanovar

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Jan 21, 2011
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I havent eaten pineapple in years.Ate some great strawberries the other day.expensive fucking things considering poles and romanians are pickig the things.Bastard farmers.