Pineapples are wonderful fruit. Not only are they delicious, but they are also very easy to grow. All you really need to start growing your own pineapple farm is a pineapple and some dirt (and a pot if you live in a colder climate).

Step 1: Obtain a Pineapple...

Go to wherever you like buying fruit from, whether it be a supermarket, farmers market, or from a guy selling fruit on the side of the road. Buy a nice looking pineapple. Make sure it's nice and ripe. Take the fruit home, and move on to the next step...

Step 2: Cut and Eat...


Step 3: Figure Out Where to Plant Pineapple...

Your leftover pineapple top from the previous step is all you need to grow a pineapple. A pineapple is a fruit, so therefore it can produce seeds, but from what I understand seeds are rare in domesticated pineapples. I've personally never gotten any seeds in any of my store bought or home grown pineapples. Because of the lack of an overflowing supply of seeds, using the cutting from the top of an eaten pineapple is the ideal way to go.

For the planting itself, I have found that putting the pineapple top directly into the ground works best. There are other techniques to planting pineapples, such as trimming all of the remaining fruit away leaving just the base of the leaves, then letting the top dry out for a few days, then putting the pineapple top in a glass of water until roots start growing, then finally planting the pineapple top into the ground. I have experimented with these extra steps and haven't had too much luck. Trimming all of the fruit away just seems to kill the pineapple plant, even before it is planted. Root sprouting in water resulted in some very moldy pineapple plants, which ended up no surviving. So with all of these extra steps that you could try, sticking the pineapple top directly into the ground seems to work best.

If you live in a warmer climate, you can plant your pineapple directly into the ground. Where I live, there is an occasional frost each winter, but that's about the worst of the cold weather. My pineapple plants handle that just fine. If your winter weather is any worse than the occasional freeze, plant your pineapple in a pot where you can take it inside.

When you pick out a spot (or pot) for your pineapple, make sure it has room. The plants grow to about five feet across and get spiny leaves, so take that into consideration when deciding where you plant your pineapple.

Step 4: Plant Your Pineapple

Once you have decided where to plant your pineapple, dig a hole in the dirt. The hole only needs to be deep enough to cover the fruit still attached to the pineapple's leaves. Place the pineapple in the hole, and cover with dirt, leaving the pineapple leaves exposed above ground.

If you're planting in a pot rather than the ground, the same applies with the only difference being that your dirt is contained within the pots walls.

Step 5: Water and Forget...

Once your pineapple is in the dirt, water the plant.

If you are growing your pineapple in the ground, you can basically forget about it for a while. Pineapples are very much maintenance free plants. After the initial plantings, I never go out of my way to purposely water my pineapple plants. It can't hurt if you do water your pineapple plants more often than when it rains, but the plants definitely won't die if you forget to water them every few days. My plants have lived several years with this let-them-be attitude and are now on the third season of the plants producing fruit.

If you are growing your pineapple in a pot where you bring the plant inside during colder weather, I would definitely water the pineapple more often.

Step 6: Wait...

Pineapple plants grow slowly. After about a year, you will definitely notice the growth in your plants. It took somewhere between 2-3 years for my plants to start producing fruit.

The fruit will start forming in the center of the pineapple plant. It starts out looking like a large bright red and yellow flower. The flower eventually transforms into the normal looking pineapple fruit that everyone is familiar with.

While you're waiting for the plant to produce a fruit, be on the lookout for animals living among the pineapple leaves. It seems tree frogs seem to enjoy resting among the plants...

Step 7: Harvest

Let your pineapples get ripe on the plant. They taste better that way, rather than the store bought pineapples that get ripe on the shelves. When the outside skin of the pineapple starts changing from brown to yellow, go outside with a saw and cut through the stalk supporting the pineapple. In this process of waiting for the opportune moment to pick your pineapple, be careful of the neighborhood squirrels. They also enjoy nice ripe pineapples, so if you don't beat them too it, you may go outside one morning and find your pineapple half devoured.

Take the pineapple inside and enjoy eating your home grown fruit. Enjoy it, and save the top so when you're finished you can make your pineapple plants multiply...
<p>Wonderful instructable. I've had good sucess in Tx. Two years in a row the plants got frostbit and it scared them into making pineapples. </p>
<p>i have two beautiful plants that I have had for two years, outside in the summer and inside in the winter Texas gets cold but I have not seen any signs of a blossom is there something else that I need to do? </p>
<p>I know this sounds like a joke but they need an apple -- no, seriously!! The apple slice will give off ethylene gas which encourages the plant to flower and set fruit. Simply place the plant in a large plastic bag, put a slice of apple on the crown, tie up the bag and put it in a warm shady spot. After 4 days, remove the plant from the bag, discard the apple slice and put the plant back in it's sunny place. After a few months you'll get beautiful little cluster of flowers followed by a small fruit -- about 6 months later, you should be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor!! Good luck!!</p>
<p>Don't waste a good apple! Use peels and cores. Most any fruit scraps will do the trick...banana peels, etc.</p>
<p>the apple trick works. a slice of ripe pear does the same. be careful the bag isn't in the sun. heat buildup can cook a plant. another way to trigger a bloom is to lay your plant on its side for a week or ten days (hard to do this with an in-ground plant). for any of these triggers to work well, the plant must be large enough to support the production of a fruit. if you try this with a plant that's not ready, you may get a tennis ball sized pineapple - or none at all.</p>
<p>WOW I found this quite by accident while looking up some information for a friend! I, too, was wondering why my beautiful 2-1/2 y/o pineapple had never shown any sign of desiring to bloom and fruit. I've got to get apples for Thanksgiving anyway, so I'll reserve a slice for my baby! Thank you so much!</p>
Can it grow in GA in garden bed or I should plant it in the pot?
<p>Definitely in pots for Georgia. In the far South along the Florida border, you cold manage if they are covered with plastic in the winter. They are tropical and will be killed by frost.</p>
<p>Do you only get one pineapple per plant. Will that bush produce next year?</p>
<p>I have a dozen pineapples that I don't want the squirrels and/racoon to eat as they have in the past. Any help with what I might do so that I get to eat them and not the animlas?</p>
<p>I have a plant that I have been growing for several years. It now has 4 fruits on it. Actually there are several plants in the pot. One of the fruits has several small shoots at the bottom that look like small pineapples. Anyone know what this is?</p>
<p>that looks very much like a &quot;kona sugarloaf.&quot; i have several that look just like that. the flesh is white to pale yellow. high sugar, low acid, soft edible core. a great variety! you can break off the plantlets and they will make a whole new plant each. if you have so many plants in one pot, the crowding will likely give you smaller sized fruit.</p>
<p>The small shoots are probably what's called &quot;pups&quot;. Many plants from the pineapple family of Bromeliads have those, and they are volunteer clones. You should be able to separate those, plant them, and get whole new pineapple plants! Congrats and good luck!</p>
Can someone tell me what I have going here?
<p>that's called a &quot;ratoon.&quot; it's a new pineapple plant. it will probably make a pineapple one year later than your larger plant. you can leave it where it is, or you can carefully break it off and give it its own pot. </p>
<p>I live in southeast AZ and have a lot of growing time. So, I got a little pocket book some years ago that showed how you can grow &quot;free&quot; plants. The pineapple directions said, when the pineapple plant is at least 2 ft tall, and if you put an apple with it, and enclose it in plastic, the gas created by the apple can cause the growth of the fruit. I goofed and hacked my plant with my weedeater one day and....... bye-bye plant. :( My question is: if I manage to get the plant to produce a fruit, is that the only one it will produce, or will the same plant grow more than one pineapple? </p>
<p>My pineapple is growing its 3rd and 4th fruit right now.</p>
<p>each plant only makes one fruit, but after the fruit is harvested, the mother plant makes several offsets (plantable sprouts) before it withers and dies. if they sprout from the stem just under the fruit, they're called &quot;slips,&quot; from between the leaves, they're &quot;suckers,&quot; from the roots, they're &quot;ratoons.&quot; not all pineapple varieties make all kinds of offsets, but each variety makes at least one kind. these offsets (in addition to the crown) are your next generation of plants. </p>
<p>some people are saying it will produce a second time but not a third. I grew one and it fruited this year. Will keep the plant in the ground and see if it does again. In the meanwhile, I will plant the fruit i just got and start another. </p><p>Wouldn't hurt in case it doesn't fruit again </p>
<p>hi jeanN16,</p><p>yes, pineapples can be grown from seed, but you will need patience (five or more years from seed to fruit) take the little brown seeds from your pineapple and rinse them in cool water. place then on half of a paper towel. fold the other half of the paper towel over them, making a &quot;taco&quot; with the seeds between the sides of the towel. put the towel and seeds in a quart (or larger) ziplock bag so that it lies flat. add a couple tablespoons of water - enough that the towel is thoroughly wet. seal the ziplock and place it in a sunny window. be sure it stays wet. in a month or so, the seeds (maybe half of them) will sprout. when the little plantlets are about a half or three quarters of an inch, gently plant them in some screened (no large chunks), well draining potting or garden soil. at this point, a styrofoam coffee cup with a hole in the bottom is about the right sized pot. keep the baby plants moist. as they get bigger, move them into larger pots - maybe once a year. pineapples like sun and warmth, they don't like wet feet (soggy soil) or frost. once established, they are tough plants. foliar feeding with a dilute application of liquid fertilizer once or twice a month will help. </p>
<p>bought a pineapple to try and grow it. when I cut it up I found some brown seeds. are these viable to grow. first time I have ever seen them. </p><p>thanks jean</p>
I just started mine, progress is going very good. Excited to see what happens and how much food I get. Thinking of transplanting this in the ground I live in Nevada I'm hoping the climate is good for it.
<p>Actually, the process is going very well.</p>
<p>It is either a bromeliad or a pineapple plant...they sort of look alike, but one produces a pineapple, the other a flower... Hope it is a pineapple plant...</p>
<p>Pineapple themselves are bromeliad plants but they are a certain bromeliad that bears fruit</p>
<p>Y'all should go the next level with it, you can online order white organic pineapple from Kauai, bada boom bada bing, grow that one. Mean da white one.</p>
On a pineapple tour of the Dole Plantation here in Hawaii, they said once a pineapple is harvested it doesn't get any more ripe. Also, the color of the pineapple doesn't determine ripeness either.
Any1 have any luck with these in the UK?
<p>Hi Victron</p><p>I started mine 2 years ago and it has given a fruit. I live in Surrey. </p>
<p>We have had one growing since December 2014. We are in Australia Central NSW Coast and it is doing well. We have been covering it during winter nights. Its doing well.</p>
I started this one Feb 2015
<p>Is a lot of direct sun too much for pineapples? I have 2 in pots and was told they like a lot of sun. But one of them the leaves have white streaks like plants get from sunburn. I am just trying to figure if it is too much sun or something wrong with my plant. Both of my plants are in the same area that gets sun all day one looks great. Thanks for any ideas.</p>
I so happy that my pineapple is starting to come in. Can't wait to see how delicious it will be. My first homegrown pineapple
<p>In early 2014 I purchased a small pineapple from a local grocery store. I cut off the green top and put it in a planter with fresh potting soil. It began growing new leaves right away. During the cold weather I kept the planter in a sunny window of my house. When the weather warmed up I placed it outside on my deck. I did not bring the planter back in until early fall. The plant produced a small bud last month. And in the space of 6 weeks it has grown into a miniature pineapple.</p>
<p>My Aunt and Uncle live in Canada and they grew Pinapples so it can be done anywhere :)</p>
<p>How do you plant a pineapple indoors</p>
<p>wow... cant wait to get started. thanks for the information... I have a friend who has a pineapple plant and it is beautiful. I hope to have as much success as her, and yourself. </p>
<p>I have several growing in pots inside my house as I live in Georgia and I don't set them outside until April when it's warm enough for them. I started mine by twisting off the meat and peeling back the bottom leaves and then shoving down into soil. they started just fine within a few weeks began to grow. So I've had one for over two years now but I have never seen it produce a Pineapple. So, I will try the adding of a cut apple to the center to force it. but I am curious do the Hawaiians have to replant their Pineapples after every second fruit? I've seen those Pineapple fields, how is this possible? </p>
i grew pineapples once in brazil, i rubbed some rooting hormone one the base befour planting. i havent had any luck in the uk yet though
<p>i have in a greenhouse last year still growing in front room window had to put the pineapple top under a clear plastic tub (doubles the heat) potted it when the root grew did this last year mid summer had couple of weeks of heat helped brought it indoors for winter but yeah can grow in uk started to grow a second head dont know why always thought they grew one head </p>
I tried to grow one once...and the damned armadillos took it away in the middle of the night!
<p>I live in Mississippi and the opossum took the same plant twice so I just gave up and pot planted and bring them inside at night.</p>
After you pick the pineapple does it grow another one? Or does it just die and you need to plans another?
<p>A friend of mine gave me two pineapple tops. She put them in dark plastic bags and put them in the refrigerator. They were probably in there for two days. Anyway I brought them home and put them on the counter. I forgot about them for a day or two. When I realized this I just knew they were goners. I put them in the fridge anyway and forgot about them again. When I found your instructions I decided to give it a try. There wasn't any flesh left on them. So I started pulling off the leaves. I immediately saw roots that had already started growing. So I just put toothpicks in them and set them in a jar of water. I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I was just wondering if keeping them in the plastic bags kept them moist and that is why they started rooting on their own.</p><p>And thank you for your instructions.</p>
i usally wait until my second year of growth before i force my plant to produce fruit. to force it to produce fruit, you slice up an apple(red apples), then place the slices near the center where the fruit will bloom.the apples give off a gass when deteriating, that forces it to bloom and produce fruit.
that is so cool to know!

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