Pineapple tips
23h 5m ago by lemmy.zip/u/LilRed in gardening
So I just read a couple months ago that you can reuse a pineapple top to grow a pineapple plant. I'm attempting to do this myself at home and I started rooting it in water on May 9th. It's looking ready to be transferred to soil in a pot. I've got the clay pot, I have soil, I bought a pH tester for water and soil to make sure the pH levels are on point. How often should I be watering starting out and also when should I be fertilizing? I'm growing indoors with a grow light in a controlled temperature climate.
Any steps I can take or missed that I should do, tell me what's up.
Update 6/17/2026:
I potted the rooted pineapple crown in soil. I'll keep posting more updates here as I patiently wait for my plant to grow me a fruit.
Watering frequency depends on your environment. You want to keep the soil relatively moist. Fertilizer about every month but you can get away without if your soil is otherwise ok.
I found pineapples to be much more in need of sun than water. Yes, they do need water, but it’s not going to develop or ripen a fruit without lots of sun. That said, a fruit can literally go a year or more developing without harm to it. Never particularly fertilized it, though I’m trying that now to see if it makes a difference. In theory the same plant can fruit multiple times, but I find that after a few years they start looking really scraggly so I’ve decided that when they do, I’ll plant them outside in the spring and hope I get a fruit before the first frost in the fall. Pineapple plants are deer resistant!
I live in places where pineapple grow best, and currently have a row of different varieties(that i don't know who are what) in my garden, with a few of them fruiting. Since yours are indoor with climate control, i'd say water heavily but infrequently, maybe once in 2 or 3 day depend on said temperature and humidity. From my understanding they're pretty resistant to draught, my area has been 32-34°c most of the year since forever, and i only been watering them every two day or so if i can help it. My soil is very clay-ish so it can retain water, but also not drain very well. Lot of grower advice to not overwatering it to prevent root rot. Fertilise it once or twice a month.
They love sun so you have to have long light on period(8 to 10 hours, up to 12 hours if you wanna follow the equator day/night cycle).
Pineapple crown will take a looooooong time to grow, shortest 2.5 year, mine took 3 years for some to fruit naturally, others still not fruiting yet but i'm in no rush. So about 3.5 years for it to harvest.
Once the fruit is growing, there might have slip growing out from the base of the fruit. Cut those off to stop the energy going into that and fully focus on the fruit. Once harvested, don't cut it down, wait for the sucker to grow, then cut it and plant those the same way you do with the crown, they will grow a bit quicker, lot of grower said around 1.5 years for it to fruit but i haven't experienced it yet.
It's not a hard plant at all, just need a lot of patient.
My current routine right now is I've been using a 1 pint mason jar to fill with distilled water until it just touches the base before the leaves. Changing out that water every 2 days since May 9th. I'm going on my 6th week this coming Saturday the 20th and the roots have gotten pretty long. I use a grow light on the warm setting with a 9 hour timer that comes on 10 minutes before 9am and goes off just before 6pm. I make sure that the room temp is at least 71-74°F and the humidity is at least 60%. Living in TX I feel like it's too hot to keep it outside since the range for pineapples should be 65-85°F and it's been in the 90s and going to be 100 soon. I could start keeping it outside at night since it only drops down to mid 70s, but my controlled climate seemed to do pretty good for rooting in water.