How To Grow LOTS Of Pineapples At Home The Ultimate pineapple Growing Guide garden homegarden

Hi and welcome to my channel. My name is Jarrah and I teach people how to garden and grow food. In today's video I'm going to show you how to grow pineapples. I think pineapples are one of the easiest fruits you can grow as a backyard home gardener. Pineapples are actually part of the bromeliad family so I treat them more like a houseplant. That's why I say they're way easier to grow than fruit trees because they don't really require much attention or care in terms of watering, fertilizing, or pruning. Plus these grow great in my native Florida sandy soil without any compost or added nutrients. Also they don't have any real pest or disease issues except that critters will try to eat them but we'll talk about that later. Anyways in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to grow pineapples from either pineapple tops or plants all the way to harvest and everything you need to know in between. Before we continue let me just address the most common comments I am sure I'm going to get with this video. I get it every time I post something about growing pineapples and that is why should I grow pineapples when they take 18 to 24 months to produce a pineapple when I can buy them for cheap at the grocery store? I get it especially if you're limited in growing space. It's not the best idea to dedicate space to a crop that gets kind of big and only produces once a year. So in those cases I agree but if you have room or you can even grow them in containers indoors like a houseplant then why not? A lot of pineapples in my patch were free plants from tops that I got from grocery store pineapples that I would have thrown out anyways or give them to your garden friends. I know I would be so happy if someone gave me a pineapple plant just saying. Let me give you another reason why you should grow some pineapples. This is the front of my house. I live in an HOA community and I cannot grow you know vegetable crops and that kind of thing but I can get away with growing a huge pineapple patch in my front garden area. They look like tropical plants you know so I can get away with growing some beautiful pineapples something edible in the front of my house. If I had to guess how many plants I have in here I would say around 15 or so but they are very happy growing underneath the shade of these palm trees and there's not that many other types of edible plants that are happy growing underneath that much shade. So if you got a shady spot where there's not much else that will grow there pineapples might work out for you. Finally the best reason why you should grow pineapples is that the flavor of a fully ripened on the plant pineapple far surpasses anything you could possibly buy at the grocery store. The sugar content is more developed which gives a more intense and sweeter flavor unlike the grocery store pineapples which are harvested early before they reach their full maturity. Anyways let's get started with this growing guide. First up we have cultivar selection so you can choose the best pineapple to grow at home. Believe it or not there are quite a few interesting varieties of pineapples beyond the standard yellow grocery store pineapple. When you're shopping for pineapple plants there are some differences that you should consider which by the way I do sell some of the more unique varieties of pineapple plants on my website. There's differences in color standard pineapples have a yellow flesh but there are also pink and white varieties too. There's also differences in size the pineapples sold at the grocery store tend to be the really big jumbo sizes while the other ones just tend to be a little bit smaller. Some examples of the most common commercial varieties include smooth cayenne and elite gold. Did you know that there's also thornless pineapples? Pineapple leaves look like bromeliad leaves but with tiny serrated spines all along the edges. This is very annoying when it comes to tending the garden area around them like when I'm weeding or trying to add fertilizer around my pineapple plants. I definitely get scratched up. There are some cultivars that are thornless which is now my preference. An example is the Florida special pineapple. There's also differences when it comes to the inside core of the pineapples. With the standard grocery store pineapples you probably notice when you cut into them that the center is like this really thick fibrous part. Some people eat them. I personally don't like to eat it. So that is what we call the pineapple core. There are some cultivars that are considered coreless meaning the core isn't so tough so you can actually eat the whole thing. Some examples of the coreless cultivars include white jade and sugar loaf. There's also some differences when it comes to flavor. Not major differences but there are some pineapple varieties that have less acidity to them and therefore they have more of a sweeter flavor. Some examples of cultivars that have less acid and therefore sweeter flavor is white jade which is also coreless and spineless. Since white jade has all of these features it's sweeter it's coreless and it's spineless it's a pretty highly sought after cultivar. Some pineapples have more cold hardiness than others. In general pineapple plants stop growing once temperatures fall below 50 degrees fahrenheit. They get serious cold damage once temperatures drop below freezing 32 degrees fahrenheit. Some pineapple cultivars were bred to withstand a little bit more cold than others. For example the Florida special pineapple was developed by the Libby company back in the day to withstand temperatures down to 30 degrees fahrenheit without fruit damage. With that said pineapple should grow just fine without any cover during the winter in southern parts of the United States garden zones 9 and up. Any zones below 9 will either have to cover your plants or bring them indoors during the winter. Just to give you an idea here in my Florida garden I'm zone 9b. I don't cover anything during the winter and the pineapples do just fine. They slow down in growth during the winter but they pick right back up in the spring. I'm usually harvesting pineapples randomly during the summer. I'm sure you didn't realize there were so many differences across the cultivars. If you have a favorite variety please comment below and let me know why. All right so let's discuss another very common question that I get and that is how many pineapples will each individual plant produce? Some pineapple plants depending on the variety and how old the mother plant is can produce up to three times so that's three pineapples. Then the plant is done and it will die back kind of similar to bananas. Once the banana stalk produces a bunch of bananas it's not going to produce another one so it's just best to cut that stalk down. However pineapple plants produce a lot of suckers that can be used to propagate more plants or allowed to continue growing to produce another pineapple. Suckers grow in between the leaves, under the ground, or even right under any pineapples that are forming on the plant. Just so you know it could take anywhere between 18 to 24 months for your propagated pineapple crown to actually start producing your first pineapple. Since I'm in zone 9b pineapples really thrive here and I usually start harvesting my first pineapple in about one year from planting it or propagating it. Let's talk about the growth requirements and picking a good spot to plant your pineapple. First up we have sun requirements. In high heat zones like 8 and up I find that pineapples do much better in a spot that gets bright morning sun but with some afternoon shade. Another gardener told me that in Hawaii they grow pineapples on the east side of mountains so they do get some shade. If you notice the leaves are very yellow instead of more green it's probably because it's getting too much sunlight. If you're in the more temperate zones and probably growing your pineapples in containers because you have cold winters it can handle a little bit more of your full sun. As far as soil requirements I mean basically anything that you will try to grow grows best in soil that is heavy and rich with compost and matter but pineapples also do well in poor soils like my native sandy Florida soil. So I just plant them straight in the ground. I don't add any amendments or fertilizers and they do great. Just toss some fertilizer every now and then to make it happy. Pineapple plants have shallow root systems and they grow really great in containers as well. Now like I mentioned pineapples are part of the bromeliad family so quite honestly I mean they like water but they don't like to be standing or sitting in water long term. So it's really important that the soil drains well. For that reason I recommend that you allow the soil to kind of dry out a little bit before you decide to water your pineapple plants again. Now here in Florida we have kind of like a dry season which is usually December through March followed by a very rainy season which is our summertime and it rains here every day. The pineapples do fine just again make sure that you plant them in soil that has good drainage so even though that it's raining every single day during the summer it's draining well and they're not sitting in water which is going to cause root rot. Once established though they are pretty drought tolerant. Now let's say that you live in a pretty dry climate like California for example that doesn't get much rain. In that case you're going to have to closely monitor your pineapple plants just make sure they don't go without water for a long period of time. Pineapples are really easy fruits to grow. You don't have to prune them like you do with you know regular fruit trees. I do not prune mine at all but let's say you're growing them in containers and you got to bring them indoors for the winter time or something like that it is okay to kind of cut those leaves down by half so you can make the plant a little bit smaller and fit it into your house if needed. Pineapples don't have many pests or disease issues. Probably the most common pests are the same kinds that will affect your house plants like aphids mealybugs and scale. I haven't experienced any of those pests though with my pineapples but if I did I would spray with some insecticidal soap and there aren't many diseases either. The most common issue is honestly root rot or crown rot. Root rot will happen if the soil is not draining properly and the pineapple plant is sitting in water for a long period of time so again very important to plant your pineapples in some well draining soil. Crown rot is when you notice the leaves especially the inner leaves of the pineapple plant just start randomly turning brown dying off rotting away which is caused by too much water. So the best way to prevent root rot or crown rot is to plant them in areas that get good drainage or plant them in containers or grow bags. Grow bags drain really well. If your pineapple plants have any of the root or crown rot that's it the plant is dead there's really no cure for it so it's just best to pull it out. The most common issue though when growing pineapples is not due to pests or diseases but instead it's due to the critters. Pineapples that are ripening up on the plant smell deliciously sweet and will The only way to stop them is by protecting the pineapple by creating some kind of a barrier. The best idea I have seen is getting inexpensive mesh trash cans from the dollar store and covering the pineapple while it's on the plant but there are so many other ideas. If you have a favorite way to protect your pineapples as they form on the plant please share by commenting below. If you want to propagate your own pineapples here's how you do it. Let's pretend I bought this one at the grocery store. Cut off the top and save it don't throw it away in the trash. You're going to want to remove as much of the bottom pieces as possible because if you root this in water or something like that it will kind of rot out those lower leaves and this leftover pineapple which will cause the whole thing to rot out so you just want to clean it up a little bit. So I'm going to take my knife and I'm really going to get close to the stem part and cut off as much of that pineapple portion that I can. All right this is nice and clean and then you're going to remove like two to three inches worth of bottomless leaves. This one's nice and clean you might even see some little root pieces because the roots do form in these layers here in between the leaves. They almost look like aerial roots or something like that. From here you can do one of two things. You can either root the pineapple in water for a couple weeks or you could just plant it straight in the ground. It's up to you. Some gardeners tell me that one method works better than the other for them. Quite honestly I've had success with both methods but you know experiment and do whatever works best for you. If I had to recommend one over the other I would say just plant it in the ground. If you're in zones nine and up or it's very warm the things aren't going to die during the winter when it gets cold it's okay to just plant these right in the ground as is. Just make sure it stays a little bit watered it doesn't dry out so that this will set its roots and take off. Let's say it's maybe winter time and you can't like go out and plant your pineapples outside or you just want to try the water method. I like to cut the bottom off of plastic you know water bottles or this is a Gatorade bottle here that I would be recycling anyways but they are like the perfect narrow circumference to hold up your pineapple as it roots in water. So I just cut it off fill it with water and just pop it in there. These will root pretty quickly actually within a couple weeks you'll see a whole bunch of roots in there. Once you see those roots you could just take it and plant it you know in the ground or in a pot whatever you decide. It's been two weeks and look you can see all of the roots. I would let this grow out some more roots before planting it in the ground or in another pot or container and if you notice this water getting gross and like cloudy make sure you just change it out. Let's say that you decided to purchase a pineapple plant. If it's smaller than a one gallon size then I recommend that you plant it in a one gallon container and grow it out for a little bit just so the plant is bigger because I have a tendency to forget about small plants or I run over it with my lawnmower or maybe another plant kind of grows over it and smothers it out. So I recommend that you plant it in a one gallon container just until it gets a little bit bigger. I just filled this up with regular potting mix and any time that I am planting something I always sprinkle in some sort of a fertilizer in the planting hole. For any kind of fruit crops I really like to use Espoma brand organic granular citrus tone. It's just a really good fertilizer and it's organic so you don't risk the chance of burning tender little plants. Mix it in a little bit with the soil and then plant your pineapple at the same soil level. Put this in a spot that gets a lot of bright morning sun but with some afternoon shade like in a patio or something so you don't forget about it and you take care of it and you know water it every now and then. Now let's say that you have a plant that is pretty big and you're ready to transplant this out into the garden. Just dig a hole in your soil. I plant mine straight in my Florida native sandy soil without any amendments or compost or anything. Dig a hole the size of the container, sprinkle in some organic granular fertilizer like I said and plant it at the same soil level. You could most definitely plant this as is. It has a pretty good developed root system but just don't forget about it okay. Alright so your plant is producing its first pineapple. How do you know that it's ready to be harvested? Ideally you'll want the pineapple to turn completely golden yellow like this one or this one right here before you cut it off the plant. However if critters are a problem in your garden you might have to harvest it a little bit earlier than you would like. So in that case I recommend that you harvest it off once it starts blushing yellow or starting to turn yellow. This one right here is still really really green no signs of yellow so I'm going to leave it to continue growing on this plant. This big boy is ready if I wanted to harvest it. At this point you can see that it's starting to show signs of some yellowing. It actually looks very similar to the pineapples that you see in the grocery store. Now out of all the years that I've been growing pineapples here I actually have not had a critter problem and I don't know why because it's very very common. It's like the number one complaint of all gardeners that grow pineapples. The critters, the raccoons, whatever will find them so I'm sure one day they will but up until then I just leave my pineapples on the plant until they turn completely golden yellow like this one. This pineapple plant is one of my older ones. This is what we would consider the mother plant so that's the first plant that you see growing right here. Here's a little sucker that's growing right underneath the pineapple that's forming and this is another type of sucker that develops in between the roots. So if I wanted to I could cut this one off and I could plant it into the ground. It will start growing and become a new mother plant and produce more pineapples for me. Same with this little one here. Or you could leave it. This sucker right here is going to continue pulling energy out of the mother plant beneath it which also has a more developed root system and eventually probably next year it will produce another pineapple for me. All right let's harvest this one. It's definitely ready. I just take some kitchen scissors and cut it right off at the base. Look at that. All right so look at our harvest. I actually harvested all of these pineapples within the same week so I'm getting a lot of pineapples here but not bad for some free plants that I would have thrown on the trash anyways. I know some people struggle with cutting pineapples so I thought I would show you guys how I do it. First step is to lay it on its side and you're going to cut the top off and then I like to cut the bottom off. This particular pineapple variety does have a core in the middle that I want to cut out. So the best way I found to do that is to cut this pineapple into eight equal pieces and then you can easily slice out that core. So first I'm going to cut it in half and then cut those pieces in half and then cut these in half so you'll have like eight equal pieces. And yes I know there's a kitchen tool the pineapple corer that will kind of just cut the whole thing for you and I have one but I prefer to cut it myself I don't know with a knife and I feel like it wastes a lot less. Perfect so you have these eight pieces right here pick one up and you can clearly see that core there in the middle and I just slice it out. And then we turn it over to slice off the skin and there you go it's a perfect pineapple spear you can leave it like this or cut it smaller if that's what you want to do. But let's taste it. So good. I ate the whole thing it was so good. If you love pineapple flavor man you will be shocked at how more intensely pineapple the homegrown ones are. And here's your pineapple top so don't throw this away go ahead and plant it or give it away to a friend. If you enjoyed this guide and learned something new make sure to give me a big thumbs up and subscribe to my channel for daily gardening inspiration. Thank you for watching and happy gardening.