Growing a Pineapple From It's Top

Planted October 1, 2010

Planted October 1, 2010

This weekend I decided to grow a second pineapple.  I discovered a couple problems with the first one.  First of all, I forgot to actually blog about the fact that I planted it.  Sure, I talked about soaking it, but anyone actually paying attention (yea yeah, a stretch, I know...relax), would think the damn thing has been soaking for the last month.  Well, it was planted on October 1st.  That brings me to the second problem.  When I planted the first pineapple, I planted it in old dirt that has been sitting on my lanai (back porch) for the last month.  There were several garden pots already on the lanai when I moved in.  These pots had dirt in them already, and at the time, I didn't have a chance to go get potting soil, so like MacGyver, I just used what was available.  Now, I may not know a whole lot about gardening or planting pineapples, and maybe old dirt that has been caked in clay pots for God-knows-how-long will be fine, but I assume fresh potting soil is better.  The third problem is that I never bothered to take a "before" shot and it's going to be pretty difficult to measure any change without some context.  Well, here are two pictures of the first pineapple (taken 3 weeks later...oops).

This weekend, however, I happened to pass Home Depot and stopped to get potting soil so I could plant a second pineapple.  I assume using potting soil will better promote pineapple growth than old dirt (at least that's what the Miracle Grow bag says and I doubt the fine people at Miracle Grow would deceive me!).  Anyway, since I had plenty of pots, I figured I could compare the second pineapple with the first one.  After all, if I am going to blog about my life in Hawaii as it parallels the growth of a pineapple (I also just considered how ridiculous that sounds when you say it out loud), I wanted to document the pineapples' growth a little more "scientifically."  All this really means is I plan to take pictures every 2-4 weeks and measure the leaves to report any changes (or lack thereof).

Planted October 25, 2010

At present, there are two pineapples growing on my lanai.  The second one (pictured to the left) was planted on October 25, 2010.  Interestingly, I think the first pineapple that was planted has actually grown a little in the last few weeks.  Since I forgot to actually blog about the fact that I planted that one, I guess we'll just have to go with "it looks bigger" (insert 'that's what she said joke here').  The second pineapple is growing in a medium-sized pot that will probably be sufficient throughout the growing process.

Planted October 25, 2010

Now, to give you a better sense of what growing a pineapple entails, I included a YouTube video of a guy going through the process (below).  I watched a few videos and despite this guy's "weird" personality, this was the best one.  Unlike in the video, however, I chose to soak my pineapple for a couple days prior to planting.  Soaking the pineapple stem allows the roots to sprout a little more fully.  I soaked the first pineapple for about a week.  The second one I soaked for only 3 days.