Surrey Pineapples (My Pineapple plants)
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How they started
I found a website which gave a few details on growing your own pineapple plant from the leafy top,
or crown of a store-bought pineapple. Then I found another site with a photo of an actual
pineapple fruit - in someones own house, in the UK! This really made me keen to have a go. After
all, it costs nothing to try.
- Reference 1: online encyclopedia (Wikipedia)
- Reference 2: Dole (commercial)
- Reference 3: Practical guide + photos
- Reference 4: International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS); Pineapple Division
I bought two pineapples at the same time, one from Sainsburys and one from Waitrose. This was in March 2002. The fruits were more or less the same, but I checked them very carefully to ensure that not only were they nice and sweet smelling (and so good for me to eat!) but also had healthy green tops. Some suppliers pull out the central leaves of the crown. I think they do this so that the tops don't try to grow and reduce the quality of the fruit. Obviously these crowns are useless for potting up, so I avoided them.
To remove the crowns I simply twisted them off - see reference. This seems brutal but it gives a nice clean top with no fruit attached. Then I peeled away quite a lot of the lower ragged leaves. I left the tops for over a week to harden off. This is meant to discourage mould. Then I simply put them into damp compost. By this stage the crowns were looking rather dry and tired, but the centres were nice and green so I figured they were still alive.
| Pineapple crown prepared! Twisting off the crown leaves a nice clean base. Removing the lower leaves reveals embryonic roots. The crown will be left for a week to harden off. |  |
Early care
To begin with I checked the "plants" regularly. They had no roots and would fall over
if pushed! Then I got bored and left them. They looked almost dead and I was thinking about
throwing them away but they weren't a nuisance so I left them. By now it was early May 2002.
I probably left them
for about two months, in the shed, just watering when they were very dry. Suddenly I noticed
that there were new green leaves, which was very exciting! The key to early care seems to be:
Dont Do Anything Much! Following this, and with nice warm summer weather, I moved the plants
outside and they began to grow more quickly.
The collection
I now have three plants. One of the first pair has become enormous and has a flower coming (see below).
The other suffered in the summer of 2003 (very hot) as it was in a clay pot and dried out too much.
It has recovered a little but is a bit small. The third plant was started in 2003 from a Queen pineapple
bought in Waitrose.
| Smaller plant with slightly coppery leaves. This plant was in a clay pot and did not grow very well as I underestimated the amount of water it needed. 20030808 |  |
Summer care
In Summer don't be afraid to put your pineapples outside. I have become quite blase about this. They
are pretty tough provided the average temperature is above 12-15 degrees C and they get plenty of light.
The main caveat is that moving them from indoors to outdoors (I do this around May here in Surrey) may
make the leaves go pale because of the sudden increase in light. So, move them initially to
a well shaded spot for a couple of weeks. The extra space indoors is lovely!
 | Here is the large pineapple enjoying the sunshine during the record-breaking Summer of 2003. 20030808 |
During an english Summer of course there are regular downpours and wet spells - my pineapples seemed unperturbed by this. I just went round emptying out the water from their saucers! (This is quite important as they don't like to sit in soggy soil). You even get tiny little ponds forming at the point where the leaves join the main stem, and at one stage I had mosquito larvae in them. Fascinating! In summer I fertilize my plants with citrus feed or just Baby-Bio.
| Another view from 2003, showing a cactus keeping company on the patio. The cactus is about eight year old. 20030808 |  |
Winter care and Owners' Health and Safety
In Winter of course the pineapples have to come inside. They are tropical plants and will not stand
frost or the endless grey wet that we get here in the UK. My big pineapple is about three feet across
and the leaves are two feet long with needle sharp points. Talk about pineapple care: you need to
be careful yourself!! Bending over near to pineapples is a hazardous occupation. I have been prodded
on several occasions while getting things out of my cupboard. The biggest danger is of poking your
eyes out. Seriously, I recommend putting pegs on to the ends of the leaves, and shortening the older leaves
by cutting the points off. This does not harm the plant and may save your eyesight.
Photos
These photos are captured from my digi-cam using a TV card on my home computer as I don't yet have a digital camera. I intend to get some better quality scans from my 35mm film photos.
| I am ecstatic that the pineapple has rewarded me with a flower bud! This plant is now about 30 months old. You can force earlier flowering using ethene gas (or ripe apples) but I did not. 20041212 |  |
 | A closer view. The leaves around the bud are a paler green, and soon the individual flowers should be visible. The "bud" is actually made up of many tiny flowers very close together in a conical form. 20041212 |
| Another pineapple, this one is a Queen pineapple. Queen pineapples are small, bright orange in colour and very sweet. They are also very expensive! I bought one purely so that I could try growing the crown. As you can see it is finally beginning to take off - the plant is about a year old. Notice that the leaves are much more serrated. 20041212 |  |