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GROWING
PINEAPPLE HOUSE PLANT
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It is possible, and easy, to grow a pineapple plant
indoors. Growing new pineapple fruit is more
difficult. To make full-sized pineapples, the plant
will ultimately need to get about six feet across
and six feet tall. But, you can grow it as an
interesting indoor plant and even get it to produce
fruit (albeit small fruit) without letting it take
over the living room.
Start with a
pineapple from the store. Cut the top off and trim
the fruit from this small plant. You will wind up
with a tuft of leaves and a bit of stalk. Carefully
peel some of the lower leaves from the base of the
tuft of leaves to reveal more stem and some small
bumps, perhaps even some roots which have started to
grow beneath the leaves. The bumps, by the way, are
root primordia, baby roots waiting to grow.
Place the stem
portion of this into a potting soil which is about
one-half sand. Sandblasting sand is a good type of
sand for this. The idea is to have a potting soil
which holds water well but has enough sand to allow
it to drain readily and to allow sufficient oxygen
into the soil.
Keep this soil
slightly damp until roots develop. The roots should
form in about two months. I like to place the pot
and plant in a white garbage bag which is loosely
sealed at the top. Place the plant and the bag in a
south window if possible. This garbage bag keeps the
humidity high and diffuses the light so the plant
doesn't burn in the sunlight. In a less sunny
window, use
a clear plastic bag.
After about two
months, you should see some new growth beginning at
the top of the plant. Gently tug on the plant to see
if new roots have formed. If they are present, they
will resist your tug. If absent, the top of the
pineapple will pull from the soil revealing the
absence of roots. If there are no roots, replace the
pineapple top in the soil and wait longer. If the
base looks like it is rotting, start again with a
new pineapple top and fresh potting soil. Repeat the
process, but be sure not to over water.
To grow
your new houseplant, give it a brightly lighted
location which receives at least six hours of bright
light each day. Water sparingly, as the soil dries.
Don't over water, but don't let it go completely dry
either. Fertilize once or twice a month with a
houseplant fertilizer. If possible, let it spend the
summer outside in a brightly lighted location. You
can find such a site in the shade of a tree where
grass grows successfully. Too much shade will not be
good. Before frost, bring the pineapple plant back
indoors for the winter.
When the plant
gets as large as you can manage, lay the plant and
pot on its side between waterings. This interferes
with hormones in the plant, causing the production
of another hormone, ethylene, which induces
flowering. An alternative method of inducing
flowering is to place the plant in a bag with a
ripening apple. The ripening apple produces ethylene
gas which will induce flowering in the pineapple.
You will have to continue these treatments for a
couple of months and will probably need to replace
the apple several times.
Now that you know
how to grow it, here is some interesting trivia
about your pineapple. The pineapple is a member of
the bromeliad family. As such it is related to
Spanish moss and some interesting ornamental plants
sold in many nurseries. These ornamentals are
interesting in that they absorb water and nutrients
from a water-tight reservoir formed where the leaves
come together, or by interesting absorptive hairs
which cover the Spanish moss and similar bromeliads,
allowing them to draw water and nutrients from the
fog and dust in the air. The pineapple, however,
uses its roots like houseplants with which you are
familiar and should be easy to grow if you treat it
like a normal houseplant which needs bright light.
Interesting
Pineapple Facts
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