Growing pineapple plant yourself – care instructions

Fully sunny locations should be avoided until the young, self-grown plants have formed roots. This is important because too much moisture would then evaporate and the young plant or tuft would dry out.
Later they should get a sunny spot all year round. It should also be warm, at temperatures between 24 and 30 degrees. In winter, temperatures should not drop below 15 degrees. The plants can be sprayed with lukewarm water from time to time for optimal humidity.

When choosing the location, it should also be taken into account that the pineapple grows very expansively and accordingly requires a lot of space. Good ventilation should also be ensured.

Substrate

• The pineapple does not make any great demands on the substrate.
• Above all, it should be loose, permeable and slightly acidic.
• Loamy and sandy soils are suitable.
• A mixture of peat and quartz sand or of leaf earth and peat is also possible.
• The pH should be around 5.
• Mineral, lime-free, compost-based soil can be used as a peat substitute.
• The pineapple is only repotted when the substrate is deeply rooted.

Watering and fertilizing

Immediately after planting, the pineapple should be kept slightly moist. When the first new leaf has formed, the substrate can be a little more humid. Later in the summer, the pineapple should be watered regularly, preferably with preheated water. Drought leads to brown leaf tips in pineapples.

In contrast to other bromeliads, water should only be poured directly into the rosette from time to time, because the plant reacts sensitively to standing water in the leaf funnel. In particularly hot temperatures, it is advisable to also spray the leaves with water. The irrigation water should not be too calcareous, so rainwater is best. It is only fertilized in the summer, every 14 days with a liquid fertilizer. This should have a high phosphate content as possible, which supports fruit formation.

Fruit formation and harvest

The pineapple fruit is a so-called dummy fruit and consists of around 100 individual fruits that have grown together. It develops from the flower stem and reaches its typical shape after about 6-8 months.

A fruit does not form until after three years at the earliest. Cross-pollination is not required for this. It usually takes between three and five months for a pineapple fruit to fully ripen, then it should be yellow and exude a pleasant, delicate scent. Fruits that ripen in summer have much more aroma than those that ripen in winter. Compared to fruits available in stores, those from our own cultivation are usually tastier.

The pineapple fruits are ready for harvest when they give way under slight pressure. The pineapple should absolutely ripen before harvest, as these fruits do not ripen afterwards. The ripe fruit is cut off with a sharp knife. The remaining plant should not be disposed of immediately afterwards, as it can still produce saplings even when it is obviously dead.

Overwinter

The pineapple is not frost hardy. If the plant is exposed to frost, it sheds the leaves and dies. As a result, it should overwinter in the house frost-free. The location in the winter quarters should be bright, if possible by a window, at temperatures not below 15 degrees.
The ideal temperature in the cold season is between 16 and 20 degrees. Water should only be poured sparingly during the winter. Despite everything, the root ball must not dry out completely. After the hibernation, the pineapple must slowly get used to the sun again and only be put outside when it is milder at night.

Cultivation

• You can grow your own pineapple using seeds, leaf tufts or Kindel.
• The tuft of leaves is the upper leafy part of the pineapple.
• The plants that you want to use for cultivation should be fresh.
• The tuft of leaves should be large, fresh green with a fresh, light green heart.
• The tips of the leaves inside the stalk should be deep green.

Growing from leaf tufts

Growing with leaves is usually the easiest and most promising. First, the leaf head of a fresh pineapple is cut out of the fruit with a sharp knife. Then the entire pulp at the lower end of the leaf tuft must be carefully removed as well as the lowest leaves. To prevent the stalk from rotting, it must now air dry for about 2-3 days.

After this drying time, the stalk is placed in a glass with water to root. The stalk should be a few centimeters deep in the water. It can now take some time for the first roots to form. If roots can be seen after a while and are at least a few millimeters long, the stalk can be planted in a pot with a suitable substrate.
For the best possible conditions, it is advisable to put a cling film or a translucent plastic bag over the pot and attach it to the pot with a rubber, for example. The whole thing is now placed in a warm and light to partially shaded place and not kept too moist. The plastic bag should be removed from time to time for a short time and the whole thing ventilated to prevent the substrate from going moldy. Now patience is required again. As soon as the plant sprouts in the middle, this is an indication that it has grown and that the cultivation has been successful.

You can also plant the tuft directly in the substrate. Care must be taken that it is not planted too deep, the lower leaf wreath should not be covered with substrate. Initial brown tips are nothing to worry about. However, if the heart turns brown, the cultivation has usually failed.

Growing by sowing

Growing from seeds is also possible, but much more tedious and difficult. In addition, with this cultivation method, no single-variety plants are obtained and the period until the first fruit is formed is significantly longer. The seeds of the pineapple are under the skin of the fruit, but not all fruits available on the market have seeds. Seeds from large and ripe fruits are particularly well-ripened and therefore more germinable.
The reddish yellow to dark brown seeds are about 5-15 mm below the shell. Before they are sown, they must be washed off thoroughly, otherwise any remnants of the pulp could hinder germination. After washing, the seeds are placed in a glass with water for about 24 hours and then spread on moist potting soil and lightly pressed.
Now the whole thing is covered with foil and placed in a warm place at temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees. It can take a few days to several months for germination. In most cases it takes about two months. The germination rate for pineapple seeds is around 50 percent.

Cultivation by Kindel

Sometimes so-called small children (shoots or offshoots) form at the foot of the mother plant. In order to be able to use them for cultivation, they should be around 20-30 cm tall. If they are big enough, they can be carefully separated and planted in a peat substrate and watered well.

Here, too, foil or a translucent plastic bag can support the growth. In a warm place, strong roots form relatively quickly and the offshoot develops into a full-fledged pineapple plant.
Growing a pineapple via Kindel can also be successful in hydroponics. To do this, the Kindel are separated from the mother plant and placed in at least 12 cm high hydroponic pots with coarse expanded clay.

Diseases and pests

With optimal care conditions, diseases or pests rarely occur. In spite of everything, the pineapple can be attacked by scale insects, spider mites or the pineapple bubot, which can transmit pineapple wilt, among other things.

Pineapple gub

The pineapple gullet is the most dangerous pest for the pineapple plant, as it transmits the dreaded pineapple wilt. The mealybug sucks on the roots of the plants, causing them to die. Ants, which are attracted by the honeydew excreted by the pineapple bubbly, also make a major contribution to the spread of this disease.
First of all, you should separate infected plants from others. The natural enemies of this mealybug include ladybirds, wood wasps and the gall mosquito. If the infestation is severe, however, these are not sufficient. Then it is advisable to pot the affected plant, then rinse it, including the roots, thoroughly under running water and plant it in a clean pot with fresh substrate. If the infestation was too strong, the affected plant can usually only be disposed of.

Scale insects

If you look closely, you can recognize an infestation with scale insects by small, brownish, upwardly curved labels. As a rule, however, an infestation is not recognized until relatively late. If this is already advanced, it shows up in the stunted leaves, which change color and fall off.

Here, too, infected plants should be isolated to prevent them from spreading. The only remedy here is usually special systemic remedies that are commercially available in the form of sticks or sprays. The pests should not be scraped off, as the larvae are located under the shields, which would then spread over the plant.

Spider mites

Spider mites on the plants can be recognized by fine webs, slight smear marks and yellow, red or red-brown small dots. Spider mites also suck up the sap and can damage the plants as a result. An infestation is often caused by insufficient humidity. Correspondingly, an infestation can be counteracted by regular spraying with water.

To combat a slight infestation, it is often sufficient to thoroughly shower the affected plant with lukewarm water after the substrate has been covered. Otherwise, the use of predatory mites can be helpful.

Conclusion
The pineapple is one of the most popular and tastiest exotic fruits. But the plant also has a high ornamental value. If you want both, you can easily pull the pineapple yourself. If you pay attention to fresh and healthy starting fruits and optimal cultivation conditions during cultivation, you can soon call a pineapple plant your own and with a little luck and patience harvest tasty fruits.