Grow Your Own Pineapples

I have written about many unusual plants during my time as a blogger, but this has got to be a real novelty.  You can amaze your friends and family by serving them up a delicious pineapple that you have grown yourself here in the U.K!

Some of you may have grown various Bromeliad plants as houseplants.  The pineapple plant (Ananas Comosus) falls into this category. It will thrive on our warm windowsills, such as a kitchen, and is also perfect as a conservatory plant. Your very own pineapple will form above the spiky leaves.

Maybe some of my readers have been lucky enough to travel to warmer climes where you have seen pineapple plantations.  These plants are exactly the same variety as the commercial growers use, ensuring the best tasting fruit that are sold in our supermarkets. Every plant is supplied with a pineapple already growing on the plant so it can be guaranteed to fruit this year.  The only work you will have to do is give it a little water and feed. Like other Bromeliads, they like a little water in the cup of the leaf rosette as well as in the compost.  This will help to provide humidity.

The pineapple is ready to harvest when it becomes plump and ripe.  It should be around the size of an orange. At this time the pineapple can be removed from the plant ready for eating.

Usually offsets appear at the base of your plant that can be removed and potted individually.  These will often fruit in the following year. Alternatively new plants can be raised by cutting off the leaf crown and potting up in compost.

Pineapples require good light and do not like to be allowed to get too dry. Having said this, they do not like to be left standing in water.  Feed with a very weak liquid fertiliser throughout the growing season.