The best thing to do is twist the top off the pineapple, that way no fruit is on it... then you peel off some of the bottom leaves till these rootlets show, that's where the roots will start.

Yeah peel the lower leaves and you will see little bumps, these are roots that are slightly forming. You could cut off more part of the flesh but let it dry up before planting.
check out the link, from a fellow gardenwebber, Alnesbit.

Here is a link that might be useful: gwebber Alnesbit

Thanks for the advice...it was you Eggo that inspired me to start one when I saw that you had over 40 lol!

The Hawaiian Pineapple Association is going to start sending out hit-men to Eggo! They're afraid he might be trying to compete with their market!

The dangers of North American pineapple ranching! :D

LOL I think you started something here Eggo...the pineapple industry will never be the same again! :)

Homegrown is always best!

LOL. Thanks all, I got a good belly from all the posts.

Yep, homegrown is da kine.

Well here goes my first attempt at trying to force it to flower and fruit. This was is one of the older ones, its in a 5 gallon pot. I placed an apple in the middle and somewhat bagged the top. Wish me luck, I'll probably know in a month or so if it sends out a bloom.

Wow this the 6th pineapple that has died. I need help... They always get heart rot and die. I've tried a varity of different things but none seem to work.

Are you getting water into the crowns. Unlike many plants in the same family, the Bromeliads, which like water in their vases, some do not and are prone to rot if the crowns get wet and stay that way , especially under cool growing conditions I'd suspect. It's funny how much temperatures influence whether plants get various fungus and disease problems, but noting this year, my Kalachoe , which was kept under gro-lites rather than it's sometimes chilly growing conditions next to a cold window, has no sign of the mildew that plagued it all winter last year, and many types of fungal disseases only thrive under cool conditions!! It's also possibly a case of plants have lowered resistance under cool less than ideal conditions!!

Wow Thanks!!! Thats why. Some internet site said pineapples like water in their tops. Those idiots. It must be the climate to, i tried planting in December.

I twist off the top, trim the fruit off the bottom of it, pull off the bottom leaves until I see root bumps, then I put it into a glass of water so that the water is barely over the bottom of the stump--in a sunny south window. Every once in a while one rots, but 85% of them root that way. Then when they get good roots, I pot them up in promix, and they go into the greenhouse to be ignored for about three years.

I agree with sandy0225. At first I tried putting the crowns in soil but they all ended up rotting. After reading in a gardenweb forum someone suggesting putting the crowns in water in order to start rooting, I tried it and since then I 've had a 50% success rate (definitely an improvement over the previous 0% rate).

Here is some info that could be useful to everybody.

Here is a link that might be useful: how to grow pineapple

I have a pineapple I started in soil some time ago and it is about the size of eggo's pineapple shown above. The instructions state "... 'force' a plant by enclosing it completely in a polyethylene bag together with two ripe apples for one week..." Will any large plastic bag do, and can one start the 'forcing' any time of the year? Thanks.