Congratulations!
However, I have a question. After reading that all I had to do was stick the top of a pineapple in dirt and I would get a plant, I tried it and it worked! How do I know when my pineapple is ripe? It is a golden color now. If you have any tips you would like to pass on, I'd be glad to hear them. Thanks, Brandy

Hi Brandy,

Usually when it turns slightly golden and smells like a pineapple -it is ripe! It will also twist off easily.

I always pot mine up in orchid bark in relatively small pots (6-8" ) with lots of drainage holes. They seem to do fine inside in winter in bright light and moderate water. Out in summer in full sun to part shade. Fert with MIRACLE GRO or similar several times from MAy till August.

Boca Joe

Thank you, Joe. It must be ripe then! I will give it a try when I get home, hope it is sweet. (I guess it is not true what I was told, that it takes a pineapple several years to ripen?)
I didn't fertilize it much, just some fish emulsion a couple times over the summer. Maybe it would have been a larger pineapple if I had fertilized according to the directions.
I doubt I will plant any more, I have limited space for plants that have to be brought in in the winter.
thanks again for the info. Brandy

Wow! What a sweet pineapple! The best! I never had a homegrown pineapple before. So, are pineapples like tomatoes, is the plant finished now? Will it die? I stuck the top of the pineapple in dirt- wouldn't want to be w/o a pineapple plant. Thanks, Brandy

Well hopefully you dont pick your tomatoes and kill the plant, they can keep producing for years.
Hopefully your pineapple will send up a few pups, new plants, from the bottom as the existing one dies back.
Mine usually produce 3 or 4 pups per plant, though I have mine planted in the ground.
Glad you like the sugar loaf Boca Joe, i have a few of those too, found them at the local Farmers Market down here they are fantastic.
John

Thank you orchidguy. Great to know that my pineapple plant may produce some "pups". As for my tomato plants, the cold will kill them off next month (though they are likely to be killed sooner if they don't start producing again!). Then I will plant rye- soil here is all sand and it needs all the help it can get to produce anything. Brandy

I just bought a pineapple it has that rock in the pot should i remove that ?.

not sure what you mean unless it was treated like a bonsai for some strange reason.

I always grow mine in orchid bark in a well drained pot.

Do you have a photo-

Boca Joe

Here it is

if it were me, I would remove all the rock- is it glued down?

The pineapple looks ripe anyhow

Boca Joe

For more than 20 years I have grown pineapples indoors in northern NM. I started with one plant a friend from Hawaii shipped to me. It has usually taken 4 to 5 years for a plant to flower, 9 or 10 months to ripen. I leave mine inside all year. The high altitude sun doesn't seem to do them much good. I have usually been able to save the mature plant after harvest by re-potting immediately. Larger pots make larger plants and fruit