I dont know. I was told the experts here knew everything

I don't think that's possible. But you cut off the top crown of a pineapple and plant that.

yes bromalaids include pineapples.

yes. on a mature pineapple plant you can remove a leaf that has some roots as long as don't damage the roots.

When you purchase pineapples and cut the top...and peel the outter leafs.if some of the outer leaves with roots are removed carefully.will finish rooting and can be potted.

Individual leaves cannot make new plants by putting them in soil. I think the original poster is thinking about leaf rooting, not a slip or pup.

Gary

Gary is right. The roots which frequently appear in the leaf axils, permitting the plant to harvest additional water, are completely independent of the leaves.

Whenever we get a whole pineapple to eat I cut off the top and just put it in some well draining sandy soil with the other bromeliads. I make sure it's constantly holding water and they've all taken off. We've got about 10 growing down the back now and they haven't needed any special attention. They should be planted in at least part sun, however they do best in full sun. Why not try it? I was very impessed by mine :)

Goodluck, Lauren

yes pineapples belong to the sub-family BROMELIOIDEAE their genus is ANANAS and the species we eat is A. COMOSUS (latin for "crown" signifing the terminal offset above the flower spike)and the cultivar that is produced widely is called "Smooth Cayanne" their are sevral species of ANANAS all varying in size flower color and shape... and all have edible fruits...

Latin 'coma'= tuft of hair, hair of the head, 'comosus' = hairy, having a shock of hair. The tuft of leaves is not an offset. It is just the end of the growing stem, the flowers encircle the stem.

thats right... i was thinking of the wrong plant... but the tuft of leaves is an offset... its called a terminal offset (crown) and is used to propogate new pineapples as well as small offsets that form around the base of the Simple, and Polystichous Inflorescence called (suckers)... if you want to prove me wrong try to carefully carve the offset out and allow to dry and plant in soil (i've done this myself and is also practiced in the industry)... the same principle is applied to Tillandsia Latifolia this plant also grows terminal offsets at the end of the inflorescense... just like a pineapple... the same process is used to propagate the plant (removing the offset)and besides its not the stem of the plant its the "stem" of the flower-spike...but obviously you haven't raised pineapples... but here one of many web-sites that agree with me that the "tuft of leaves" IS an offset let me know if you want more proof

Here is a link that might be useful: Pineapple link...

I mean if any one takes the time (and has it in their heart) to cut a very mature "tuft of leaves" down the middle as a longitudinal section (like you cut an apple in half) you will find this tuft of leaves has all the parts and workings of an individual plant... even separate roots! the original parent is no longer growing and going down hill to eventual death... another bromeliad that offsets terminally is: t. somnians... but obviously pengoff thinks he is taking a "leaf cutting" or something like a saintpaulia or some succulent or cactus...haha

The term offset means a sideshoot, that is, a shoot emerging from a bud on the side of the plant stem. If you cut a pineapple, crown and all, through the middle you will see that the crown is the top end of the plant stem, not an offset. This not the case with orthophytum and the viviparous tillandsias. I am not at all interested in proving anybody wrong, only in pointing out some basic facts.

so what are these basic facts from??? your own unemperical observations?? can you prove them?? why does the "crown" have apical meristematic tissue?? please explain the different cases concerning the viviparous tillandsias why are they different from Ananas??? and answer my question... do you believe you are making a leaf cutting from the crown?? plus you see there is no axial stem tissue connecting the plant too the offset... and again its not a plant stem its the raceme... the plant stem stops at the base of the raceme... and to top off heres a direct quote from Werner Rauh's book 'Bromeliads'...pg66 vegetative propagation "4 finally there are the offshoots which appear on the inflorescence (Ananas comosus, Tillandsia Latifolia, T. Somnians, etc.) as decribed before" i can understand your arguement all other bromeliads offset at the base or along the stem... but please do back up your "facts" they have little influence...

I know one very important and very non-scientific fact about ananas:
The small spined green form (and some of the red ones and others that are spineless) are the much preferred food of DEER.
The very spiney variegated forms are scorned by deer.

Important knowledge for the practical gardener. Especially at my ponderosa where we have herds of deer. And rabbits. And possums. And armadillos. And....well you get the picture

Hey Bihai!

My garden can beat up your garden!

C3D :-)

PenGoff,
I appreciate your advice whenever I see it here on the forum. I think its great. I can tell that you are a very knowledgeable person about plants, culture, propagation, etc. I think everyone can benefit from advice from folks like you, Gonzer and Lisa from Hawaii. I am grateful that the 3 of you guys contribute so frequently.

CD3, I think my 4 ft variegated pineapple can beat up your Vrieseas "fer sure" but I don't know about the REST of the garden! But I'm not callin anybody out....

Oh Bihai, I am sure that your variegated pineapples would kick my Vrieseas' butts! This is one one the reasons I don't have pineapples. They are an aggressive beast by nature, ehh? LOL!

C with 3 Ds, hold the pineapple

Hooty hoo, I'll second what Bihaiconia said about PenGoff. His experience speaks for itself, as does Lisa's and Bihai's and 3DDD's. As they say, "Pen, you can be my wingman anytime!" As for the feuding gardens? Best outta three, no tag-teaming.

{{gwi:522867}}

The pineapple page is from Bill Seaborn, Bromeliads,1976. A clearer idea of the status of the tuft(coma)on pineapples is provided by the drawings of species in Flora Neotropica, Bromelioidiae by Smith and Downs. Perhaps your society library has it. Some of these tufts are huge in proportion to the fruit (cf. nana) and can only be supported by the stem which passes through the fruit. That the crown contains the mother apical meristem is implied by Rauh when he says in reference to T. latifolia "similar to ananas the end of the inflorescence remains vegetative." (Sorry, I can't give you a page reference because I have only the 2nd German edition here.) It is not a new shoot, it is the old one continuing to grow. The flowers are amplexicaul and the fruit is syncarp but I don't know a term for this kind of inflorescence. Definitely not raceme. Why does the tuft contain an apical meristem? Because all bromeliad shoots contain an apical meristem. The seedling develops one vegetative growing point, that is the apex of the plant. Leaves are formed in a rising spiral around the axis (as Rauh calls it--I prefer the word stem)as the plant grows higher (or longer). (2-ranked or distichous tillandsias such as albertiana are an exception to the basic rosette conformation.) Axillary shoot buds are formed in the leaf axils. As long as the apex grows leaves, it also produces growth regulators which keep the axillary buds from growing. When the growing point stops forming leaves
either because the point was damaged or it decided to form an inflorescence, this apical dominance ends and pups or offsets begin to grow. In the case of some dyckias, hechtias,deuterocohnias, and tillandsias the flowers are produced from the leaf axils so that the vegetative stage is not brought to an end and the same shoot can bloom year after year. This information is all in Rauh, Richter, Baensch, Roth, Isley.

Just in case anyone cares. The original post was a joke. Glad everyone had fun with it. Ado

Hmmm...I have a pretty dry and wry sense of humor and I could detect not a speck of joke in any of the original post. I suppose it is, of course, possible for someone to have even a drier, more wry sense of humor than me, though. But while possible, improbable. Its hard to back out of a tunnel gracefully once you get yourself stuck there.

Where'd you dig up that booklet PenGoff? Here I was thinking I had the only surviving copy. ;-). That book was my inspiration.

The joke was to see how many of the "know it all's" here would have to make an obnoxiously self-assertive and arrogant comment, just took longer than I expected. There is no tunnel to get out of.......

Gonzer, the Seaborn book was one of the first things I got on bromeliads. It's quite good for beginners except that the pictures often show plants which are too young to give you an idea what the mature plant looks like.

Actually Imanut's joke, if not funny, was useful for clearing up some misapprehensions (I hope). Only problem is, now Imanut's cover has been blown and reregistering under a different name will be necessary before another joke can be played.

Bihai and Gonzer, I appreciate your support and agree that this forum has wide and solid experience to offer people with questions. As in any forum from time to time arrogance may appear and also a few empty nuts. But all in all it's a good forum.

The misapprehension here is to think that anyone new on the bromeliad forum is welcome. Explains why there are only a select few commenting here.

I am sorry you have this impression and I think it would be useful to forum participants to know what caused you to feel this way so that we can try to avoid the problem in the future. For my part I welcome all questions, a few of which I can answer. If my answer is incomplete somebody on the forum will add to it. If my answer is inaccurate somebody will correct it. I can then take offense and grumble about the know-it-alls or I can learn. I used to grumble about the know-it-alls who were one-upping me but then I discovered it is really more fun to read and learn and then be sure to know what I'm talking about. I don't hesitate to correct what I perceive as errors because I think that's what should be going on in a forum. But unfortunately there's no way to bruise an ego without causing pain.

"...Only problem is, now Imanut's cover has been blown and reregistering under a different name will be necessary before another joke can be played..."

Hi PenGoff. A very astute observation! :-) I believe most of the forum members have already been on alert at the multiple personalities here. Not much of a joke and a rather snotty tone throughout from the same person, no matter the username.

As Bihai and Gonzer have already stated, your help and guidance with questions are always informative, polite, insightful and useful without making one feel less of a person because they are not all knowing about a particular subject. We would NOT be posting our questions if we already knew the answer in an attempt to goad other forum members and try to put them down because of their thoughtful replies.

But every garden needs it's troll, ehh? A decorative feature in the corner somewhere. Usually they remain silent though. Hmmmmm.

I know that you would forgive me for having no publication to use as a reference to prove what I have stated in my post. It is purely an observation by an amateur brommie person.

Please do continue with your efforts to help real people here. They are very much appreciated!

Thank You!

BTW, is the male bovine excrement tossed about in some of the other posts here good for brommie growth? (Just joking!)

C3D :-)

well the reason i still believe this is still an offshoot is because of the direct qoute from Dr. Rauh from 'bromeliads' this is my best proof that 100% backs up my claim... i regret to imform you but this picture you supplied does not support your claim nor does it falsify my own... it merely states the obvious fact that there is a terminal growth atop the fruit (an offshoot?)... nowhere does it state it is a continuation of the original stem... and the quote you gave me from Rauh is in reference to the offsets that are vegitative... i am afraid you will have to try again... heres another quote...PG 37 (bottom of page)'Bromeliads'... "As a rule, the bromeliad rosette ENDS its growth with the formation of a terminal bloom SPIKE (inflorescence). The plants axis STOPS producing foliage, and its vegetative tip engages in the formation of an inflorescence.this means that evey plant, every rosette, produces only one branced or unbranced inflorescence" it later describes the habit of T.Complanata and T. Multicaulis... and heres another bottom of page 44 and into pg45 (same book) "Another peculiarity of all bromeliad inflorescences is the fact that they are always 'bare' at there tips i.e. they have no terminal flowers. in some species the inflorescence end develops into a tuft of sterile bracts as with aechmea hystrix and with a. comata(pl. 67) or leaves. with ananas comosus the terminal leaf rosette is capable of VEGETATIVE REPRODUCTION; simple panicled fruit spikes are sterile and form no seeds. another example of leaf formation at the ends of the inflorescence is the peruvian deseret tillandsia , t. latifolia. its inflorescence is composed of spikes, and it terminal spikeas well as the side spikes are capable of leaf tuft formation. usually however, only the terminal spike forms a tuft, which even when still attached to the mother plant, forms into a sizeable rosette. (ill. 57) as a result of its increasing weight, the elongating scape arches to the ground so that the young rosette can take root and grow into a new plant..." now think of this information and see how it benefits my arguement...

--Aaron

so to summarize to back my claim... Rauh states in the first quote that all bromeliads axes end their vegetative growth with their bloom spike... and in the second quote states that ananas comosus is capible of vegetative reproduction (offsets)... with the exception that the bloom spike is unfertilized... in nature the parent and the offset both die with the spread of new seed... human intervention help the offsets by cutting them off to grow a new crop... and the quote futher states how tilliandsia latifolia's offsets become so heavy they weigh the inflorescence spike to the ground and develop into new plants... the reason why i asked why apical meristematic tissue is found a second time atop the flower spike... after the original merstem deminshed after the formation of the flower spike... obviously you dont know anything about botany... i come to this because you dont know what constitutes a TRUE stem... thankfully for me i am a student majoring in botany... i suggest YOU look at your local library to find any book on genral botany... to find truth to my claims... as to the part connecting the TRUE STEM and the inflorescence is not a stem... call it a flower stalk, inflorecence stalk or or what ever else you think BUT IT IS NOT A STEM... i suggest you rethink what a stem is, other than what you learned in grammer school... 3 tissues and one physiologcal part make up stems of all vascualr plants... 1 an EPIDERMIS; 2 VASCULAR TISSUE composed of phloem, xylem, and tracheids (usually grouped together called vascular cambium); and most importantly a PITH composed of one or more of the folloing tissues PARENCHYMA, SCLERENCHYMA, and COLLENCHYMA; and finally NODES... unfortunatly the inflorescence stalk is only composed of vascular tissues running the entire length of the stalk and well into the inflorescence (or fruit)and obviously an epidermis... this is evident by the very fiberous tissue found both in the stalk and the core of the fruit, which is removed... THE STALK DOES NOT CONTAIN PITH a major component of stems of all vascular plants... this is the whitish tissue you see in the center of the leaf rosette in your picture... the actual stem is very short and squat and the flower stalk is an extension of the stem just like a leaf.... but unlike the leafs; which ar energy producers, the inflorescence and its stalk are are energy sinks... most of this information was aquired during my last semester and its text 'Plant Biology' 9th edition, Stern. not too bad for a 21 year old botany student huh??

but... i still wait from you for a quote, produce a picture, or website... (from an accredited source).that states 'the terminal growth atop the fruit is the continuation of the original plant and is NOT an offset'... i have looked across the internet and they either dont mention it, like your photo... or they side with me...

--Aaron

but, after further review... your picture calls the inflorescence stalk a peduncle... maybe you should also do the same... instead of a stem...

i mean this photograph can be interperated to my advantage too i could say it is merely pointing out the terminal growth of the offset... it backs both of us up 50%... oh and heres some more quotes from the same book...(Rauh, 'Bromeliads') pg 290 on description of the Ananas genus..."Proagation is achieved by removing YOUNG PLANTS grwoing at the base of the leaf rosette and also from the base of the inflorescence bracts and from THE CROWN (ill. 204 and 205)" and another about the terminal offsets of T. Latifolia same book, pg 146 on description of the species..."...which propagates in the peruvian costal area primarily vegetatively by the formation of new shoots (ill 57)" and if you turn to illustration 57 you will find a picture with the subnote "vegetative propagation in tillandsia. Ill. 57 T. Latifolia Meyen var. major Mez. Old inflorescence (J), whose STERILE TIP has developed into a NEW PLANT (ak)"... once again i am wanting you to back up your claim with a quote DIRECTLY NOT INDIRECTLY (backing it up 100%) stating that the terminal leaf tuft is a DIRECT extension of the plant and in no way develops a SEPARATE PLANT...

--Aaron

Aaron, sorry, I had no idea you had studied botany. I didn't need to go into such detail. Anyway, Seaborn's picture indicates that the crown contains the "Terminal growth point of plant." I am assuming that "plant" means the entire pineapple plant and that he's using "growth point" in its botanical meaning. Since there is only one vegetative apical growth point in a bromeliad shoot, it would seem to follow that this is somehow a continuation of the growing point in the original shoot. And, as I said, Rauh does not say "becomes vegetative," he says "remains vegetative," implying that it never stopped being vegetative. I may be wrong but that's how I understand Rauh's statement and Seaborn's picture. If I run into anything that makes the picture clearer, I'll run it by you. Meantime I will continue to say "stem" because most of the people I talk to haven't studied botany and don't know the words pedicel and peduncle and according to Answers.com a stem is: "a. The main ascending axis of a plant; a stalk or trunk, b. A slender stalk supporting or connecting another plant part, such as a leaf or flower."
And you will continue call the pineapple crown an offshoot. Doesn't mean we can't be friends.

well a stem- a plant axis with leaves and enations...
a peduncle- the stalk of a solitary flower or a stalk of an individual inflorescence. the same is or an onion or a daffodil the true stem is a small part inside the papery bulb... and the peduncle and leaf blades push through the ground in the early spring... and since you qouted Isley i guess you have his book so i will state some more quotes from him about offsets on top of the inflorescence of T. Latifolia...
P. Isley III 'Tillandsia' chapter 1 Introduction to Tillandsia... pg3 "some species, such as Tillandsia Latifolia, produce PUPS from the inflorescence itself..."

same book... pg70 about T. Latifolia Mr. Isley missused the term viviparous " some are viviparous (OFFSET from INFLORESCENCE)" the picture on the opposite page shows young offset that has not formed viviparously (plant is still in bloom and no seed pods are evident)

heres another about the habit of T. Secunda's habit to offset from the peduncle (flower stalk) pg 102 same book ", produce multiple OFFSETS along the scape, but T. Secunda is the only one that naturally produces so many OFFSETS in this manner"

this next one from Isley is to correct your reply on Jan 11 at 23:26 where you state:'the flowers are produced from the leaf axils so that the vegetative stage is not brought to an end and the same shoot can bloom year after year'

this is a quote from pg 201 same book section on vegetative offsets " all tillandsia shoots are typically determinate, that is they grow for a predetermined length of time, then BLOOM JUST ONCE" another quote correction this can befound 8 posts ago on Jan 14 14:56 with my quote from Dr. Rauh... they both finish with the habits of T. Mulicaulis and T. Complanata which produce flower spikes laterally (from the sides as many as ten or more...)from the leaf axils and the terminal maristem continues to grow

heres more from Paul Isley's little booklet 'Genus Tillandsia' : the world most unusual air plant. pg 6 middle of page "a few (tillandsias) send PUPS from the inflorescence"

another from 'the New Tillandsia Handbook" by Hiroyuki Takizawa and Hideo Shimizu...on page 66 and 67 on picture # 169 Tillandsia Latifolia 'Enano' the side note says "small caulescent type, inflorescence is often topped with an offset" and the following page on picture #174 of Tillandsia Latifolia 'Enano red form' small caulescent plant. slightly reddish glabrous leaves. PUPS on top"

Less we forget the everpresent Tillandsia somnians which produces plants along the bloom spike and Till. baileyi var. vivipara complete with roots grabbing air. This is pretty heady stuff for a pineapple post ;-)

Sort of an Ananas comosus somniferum?

the problem with your quotes is they are not definite and require interpretation... you prove this too me by saying the words: assumed, seem, and imply... these can be interpreted to my claim just as easily... with no definite as to who is right and who is wrong? and why? i am afraid the ONLY one who knows this is Werner Rauh himself... as you can see all my quotes need no reinterpretation as they directly state the truth to my claim...

And pengoff i did study botany in the past and i am currently enrolled in botany classes and will be again in the soon future... i am going for a bachelors or hopefully a masters in botany... you dont have to ask me to be friends (I have wanted too), i had every intention to come to this forum TOO make friends with everyone here, help them like you, and ask questions like eveyone else... i did not have intentions to pick fights, make enemies, or put anyone down... last i remember I was the one who was abruptly shoved into a corner and forced to defend myself, my claim, and the writings of these authors... and since then i have done nothing but that...and for chickadee.. i have posted about 5 or 6 or more replys on this forum and all have been kind and helpful in all of them... including the 200+ posts on Green Culture Singapore forum where i am considered to be very helpful and laborous in their tillandsia club (member since April 2005)... unfortunately we can only learn on forums by "self- proclaimed" "know-it-alls" and we risk being missled by with incorrect information from ANYONE... you may consider pengoff and others as well as myself to be "know-it-alls" (not with a negative context) but remember we are only so, because of the books we have by the REAL "know-it-alls" who wrote them... ultimately it is everyones job to keep a check on the validity of information being passed here... and we must all consider the posibility of fallicies amongst everyone... i am sorry by the "snotty" attitude i may have had, but i took offense to being proclaimed wrong (indirectly or maybe "arrogant") because of someone merely "percieved" that i was... with no direct scientific or literal proof (which i still wait for)... any one would do the same if they were called so "just-because" with no descript reason... i hope to quickly put this behind us to get to the real important issue here our bromeliads

--Aaron

Hmmmmm I seem to be lost in the ozone here about this whole pineapple leaf thing. But hey, we did see one kickin metal show tonight. Very hardcore. Cocytus, 9th level of he-l-l and all that. Not much mention of pineapples, though. I guess they don't have those available past Purgatory or Limbo. But if I was to go to the Abyss I know that I couldn't be tormented any worse than being forced to read anymore about this pineapple issue.

C'mon guys and gals.....lets form a cohesive non-argumentative unit and let this discussion slide. Or if not let's at least pop some popcorn.....make it more fun.

Lighten up Tilly, let's put this baby to bed.

Oh dear! I'm glad I found this resourceful forum. I realize this is not much to go by, but can someone please ID {{gwi:522866}} for me. I'm guessing Ananas Scrawnyass... but I'm certainly no expert. Thank you in advance.

Mr. Fi, there is indeed a strong resemblance to Ananas comosus 'Scrawnyass' but I thought all existing stock of that cultivar had been wiped out by the Pine Beetle Pestilence of 1996.

Ohhhh Semper I knew you had an exotic dancer bent didn't know you were a shaver! That fish looks quite delectable, but I must correct your ID:
Its definitely "Ananas comosus "Scrawnyass" var. "White Boy".

Indeed Ananus. Scrawnyass? Methinks not. The absence of foliar hair leads me to conclude it is A. comosellamas var. whitetrashimus

Thanks for the skinny on this cultivar. Titillating info.

Um.. are there any pineapple experts here who could respond to my post? Thanks.

Here is a link that might be useful: the other

woops, the link abv is to "the other pinapples post on the bromeliad forum" that I posted on a few days ago... I was thinking that maybe nobody noticed it.

Hey Pinheads,

This plant started from cutting-off the top of a Dole pineapple from the grocery store. I let the fleshy end crust-over by letting it dry for a couple of days...then potted it and kept the soil moist at all times. When shopping for a pineapple with the intention of planting the crown, I choose one with good leaves on the crown, that do not pull out.

{{gwi:446512}}

This plant is now 2 yrs old and blossomed on it's own. It will produce 1 or 2 pineapples, and also grow pups like an aloe plant does. Good luck with your fragile egos and grow up....BTW have a nice day!

~ SCalDude

tilly21 & pengoff,

Books are written by doers, for doers, but sometimes books are READ by info regurgitaters who offer little more to society than being Jeopardy contestants.

~ SCalDude