Harvest Time in the Pineapple Fields of Mississippi

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I don't think I've mentioned my pineapple-growing adventures on ILC before. Two+ years ago I decided to plant the top of a pineapple we'd just carved up and eaten, and it really did well in this climate. The green top practically leapt out of the pot, and more than doubled in size over the late summer of '03. I let it stay out through the fall, it was still doing fine, then I got caught by a cold snap in late fall, and that one was dead.

So I started over as soon as the cold weather was over last year. It was one of the Dole Super Sweet pineapples, and was in the ground (pot, actually) from May '04 until this morning. When the weather got cool last fall I took it to my parents' house and they kept it in their greenhouse for the winter. I brought it back out in April. It started poking its fruit up soon after that, and this summer has been mostly for the fruit to grow.

― William Paper Scissors (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 16 October 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

About three weeks ago the fruit started ripening from green to yellow, and yesterday I gave it a fondle and it was not quite as rock-hard as usual, so it was time to harvest.

This was right after I clipped it off. I didn't think to start taking pictures until then. I propped it up next to its stem so you could see where its been living.

The patient just prior to surgery. Pill bottle for scale — the pineapple was just a little bit bigger than a baseball.

Surgery in progress.

The operation was a success, and the pineapple tasted great, except for the fact that those super sweet varieties are a little too sweet. This is about two-thirds of the edible fruit — the surgeon and his family had already consumed part of the patient.

So, it's possible, but the yield is pretty small.

― William Paper Scissors (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 16 October 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

But it's gorgeous! There ought to be something decorative you can do with the leaves, they're so unblemished and strikingly mathematical. Was the original pineapple that size, too, or did the new one end up smaller? And what, exactly, did the original planting involve?

― Laurel, Sunday, 16 October 2005 22:26 (twenty years ago)

That's amazing! Can you plant the top from this one and get another one next year? Will the original plant grow you another next year? You could have 256 of them in just 8 years!

― Jaq (Jaq), Sunday, 16 October 2005 23:02 (twenty years ago)

The original pineapple was a big one. I had heard that a homegrown one would be smaller than its parent, but I thought this one would turn out bigger than it did. Grapefruit sized, maybe.

I thought about replanting the top of today's harvest to see if I would get a golf-ball sized pineapple in a couple of years, but I really don't feel like it.

The original planting: knowing that I was going to plant the top, I cut it off about 1/2" further down the fruit than I normal would, so the leaves would have plenty of juice to feed off of while it established roots. I just stuck it in a 50-50 mix of topsoil and potting soil, in the 1-gallon pot pictured above, so that the soil level was about one inch up the leaves. It lived on our back deck in full sun; I generally kept it watered enough so that there was always water in the tray below the pot. I didn't fertilize it last year, but this year I fertilized it twice with stuff made specially for succulents (whenever I made a batch for my cactus garden).

I'll post a picture of the root or root ball after I pull it out of the pot. If it was rootbound, it probably would have made a bigger fruit if it had been in a bigger pot.

(xpost)

― William Paper Scissors (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 16 October 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

Jaq, I was going to uproot the plant and use the pot for something else, but maybe I'll leave it to see if it puts up another fruit. Or better yet, I'll do some google and see if the plant will make another.

I ate the rest of the fruit a little while ago. It made the best pineapple sandwich I ever grew.

― William Paper Scissors (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 16 October 2005 23:11 (twenty years ago)

Heh! - so you could have 256 pachinko ball-sized pineapples in 8 years :) When I was a kid, I remember reading some propaganda from Dole about their pineapple plantations in Hawaii, where the drinking fountains flowed with pineapple juice.

I have some ginger root sprouting - I'm tempted to pot it as a houseplant and see what happens.

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 17 October 2005 00:20 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.