I just cut mine off, it was part green and part yellow. I didn't want a critter to get it. I would dig up the plant and take the babies off and plant them seprate. The mother plant will die.

Smell it! If there is a nice sweet smell coming from the fruit pick it. Don't wait until it smells really strong as the fermentation process has started. Also, flick it with your index finger. If the sound you hear is solid and not hollow it could be ready to pick. Your pineapple will tell you when it's ready.

I received three pineapples from the same plant two years ago. The plant lived on through one of the suckers. This year I had a great pineapple but I will have to pick off 7 suckers from the plant.

I hear that picking and planting the sucker is a good idea as it will grow fruit much faster than planting the pineapple crowns.

Enjoy!

Here's a link to some good info on growing pineapples, including how to tell when one is ready to harvest.

John

I picked mine when it became yellow and gave off a sweet smell. Boy, was it delicious! :-)

My pineapple plant grows pineapples every year. Same plant 3 years in a row. It hasn't grown babies or suckers. I pick mine when the top of the pineapple is a little golden in color compared to the bottom. They are sweet and yummy.

After picking, I recommend leaving 1 or 2 suckers to produce another pineapple from the same stand in about a year. Cut off all the other suckers and plant elsewhere.

Man I wish we could grow pineapples here, the squirrels get every single one when they are only about the size of a baseball :-( Anybody have a way to overcome this? And, don't tell me to kill them, Cathy won't let me :-(

Tom

Tom,

Make a little chicken wire cage for the pineapple plants, a few short lengths of 2x4's, some deck screws, one inch hole size chicken wire & some chicken wire staples (all available at Lowes or Home Depot) and you will have a squirrel proof cage.

another way is use the basket from a broken shopping cart.

Use your imagination, I can think of many ways to make or use a small cage to protect a pineapple.... even a rusted or busted parrot or bird cage. You could use the old rusty grills from a few BBQ's wired together. It don't have to be fancy. Shelving from old refrigerators wired together will work too.

Be creative.... recycle! and best of all.... enjoy your own home grown pineapples.

Lou

Oddly enough, I live in a fairly rural neighborhood, would harvest up to 5 dozen a year, and only had one get bitten, despite letting them ripen on the plant. All you have to do is twist it off the plant when it's ripe. Leave the biggest of your new plants attached, remove all the others within the next couple months and plant them too. The fruit should turn yellow and smell like a pineapple when it's ripe. You can harvest partially ripe and it'll ripen on the counter. The more ripe on the plant, the more sugars get in the fruit. I started off with about 6 plants, ended up with over 100. Happy pinas!

Gary

I'll think on that Lou. I don't have a lot of room so I've planted them in the front, and I doubt seriously my neighbors would like Rube Goldberg cages over my pineapples :-(

Tom