Art's classmate, Morris gave him the biggest, heaviest, juiciest, sweetest pineapple we've ever had and was advised to plant it.
Art's pineapples have been very sweet, but of modest size, unlike Morris' so he decided to give it a try.
We twisted the crown off and Art put it in a bottle of water until the roots grew pretty long.
Then we had to shop for a pot and some dirt because we really have run out of places where we can plant anything.
The pot cost about $4 and the dirt was almost $6. Art then mixed in some local dirt since the pineapples do grow in Hawaiian soil.
As you can see we do have a pineapple that's looking like it's beginning to ripen. It's another miniature fruit. I hope it doesn't feel intimidated.
Art has great hopes for Morris' pineapple. I didn't want to bring up the fact that he's paid $10 in supplies for this one fruit. Granted, we have great expectations for it to produce a monster sized fruit.
Then again maybe that's counting our chickens, I mean pineapple before it pops up.
We twisted the crown off and Art put it in a bottle of water until the roots grew pretty long.
Then we had to shop for a pot and some dirt because we really have run out of places where we can plant anything.
The pot cost about $4 and the dirt was almost $6. Art then mixed in some local dirt since the pineapples do grow in Hawaiian soil.
As you can see we do have a pineapple that's looking like it's beginning to ripen. It's another miniature fruit. I hope it doesn't feel intimidated.
Art has great hopes for Morris' pineapple. I didn't want to bring up the fact that he's paid $10 in supplies for this one fruit. Granted, we have great expectations for it to produce a monster sized fruit.
Then again maybe that's counting our chickens, I mean pineapple before it pops up.
Those roots are incredible! Surely you'll get a huge pineapple eventually!
ReplyDeleteI sure hope so!
Deletewhat a fun process...hope you are rewarded.
ReplyDeleteWe'll find out in about 2 years.
DeleteThanks for the tour of your private pineapple plantation. I didn't know the twisted crown would make such long roots. This demo was helpful, because I would have just plunked the crown in the dirt instead of starting it in water first. (It's been many years since "growing the sweet potato in water with toothpicks to hold it up.")
ReplyDeleteIf you'll talk sweetly to the smaller ripening one, it should feel reassured and encouraged. Maybe Mom will sprinkle some sake on the soil. Maybe they'll cross pollenate, if that's what they do. How DO they make little ones? There's a flower in there before the babies start, right?
I know you've had a lifetime fill of pineapple after your time at the cannery, but your pineapple is still less expensive than the gold ones shipped out of Maui to the mainland!
Good luck! DrumMajor
Wow! That's a good question, DrumMajor. I've never actually paid attention to see how the flowers work. I'll go check the plants out and see what flowers there are... if we have any and take a photo of it.
DeleteI just checked on Wikipedia. I thought I'd read up on this a long time ago, but here it is:
Delete"After 12 to 20 months, the stem grows into a spike-like inflorescence up to 15 cm (6 in) long with over 100 spirally arranged, trimerous flowers, each subtended by a bract. Flower colors vary, depending on variety, from lavender, through light purple to red.
The ovaries develop into berries which coalesce into a large, compact, multiple accessory fruit. The fruit of a pineapple is arranged in two interlocking helices, eight in one direction, thirteen in the other, each being a Fibonacci number."
So there you have it! I'll still keep a look out for the flowers for you.
If expectations count you have a King Kong coming on.
ReplyDeleteI love calling it the King Kong pineapple. I think I WILL refer to it as that from now on.
DeleteYour pot gardening looks delightful and the pineapple is a sweet promise yet to come. Growing pineapple was about the only thing I liked about living in Florida.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet you could grow a lot of sweet pineapples in Florida!
DeleteYou write the funniest stories...I always find myself chuckling. As for the ten dollars spent on materials....well you could have used an old bucket....but no you needed something more upscale lol
ReplyDeleteL...w
As a matter of fact, Art did mention something about punching a hole in one of our old buckets, but I convinced him that we should get something just a teeny bit more.... hmmm... not attractive necessarily, but presentable? I just read online that it was completely unnecessary for us to get good dirt. We should have used some of that extra dirt we have piled around since pineapples like acidic dirt. Hey... maybe this dirt is too good. Well, we'll find out, I guess.
DeleteI sure hope you get a giant one like that beauty of Morris'. But you certainly seem to have plenty of them anyway! I love learning about Hawaii from your posts, Kay. :-)
ReplyDeleteMe too! Me too!
DeleteThink of it as hobby and entertainment expense, not food expense. Watching it grow, building hope, all worth the price!
ReplyDeleteAhhhh.... entertainment expense. LOL! I like that.
DeleteSpeaking of hobbies, Art is now thinking of a mango bonsai. He'll have to learn from you.
DeleteWhat great fun and I love the roots on that pineapple crown. Dianne
ReplyDeleteI was rather amazed myself.
DeleteI am going to do that! What fun!!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that it needs a lot of sun so you should put it by a sunny window.
DeleteI've pinned your rooting pineapple to my Pinterest board, hope you don't mind.
ReplyDeleteNo problem. I believe other people have done the same thing.
DeleteWe have friends in British Columbia who have a pineapple growing this year. It is about the size of the one you call "miniature fruit" — how long do you think Art will wait for his giant one to become giant-sized?
ReplyDeleteK
I think he's figuring on a couple of years. He's got several at different stages here and there. They grow rather well in pots because they have a small root system.
DeleteI wish I could grow pineapple here
ReplyDeleteYou could actually try growing it indoors next to a sunny window. However, if you've got little ones around it wouldn't be a good idea because the leaves are super sharp.
DeleteHa ha, sometimes it is best not to add up the cost of out fruit and veggies we grow. Taste is the most important. Hope he gets a whopper after all that.
ReplyDeleteWe've never gotten one as big as Morris' so this will be interesting.
DeleteOh my, the roots on that pinepple!!
ReplyDeleteOur roots from our pineapples are spindly little things!
Make sure you keep us up to date on this! xx
The roots got long because he forgot about it. :-)
DeleteI never saw such healthy roots! In my limited experience, there is a 50/50 chance the meat of the cutting will rot. But, on the other hand, I have only taken off the top three inches of "leaves," nowhere near as much as you have.
ReplyDeleteWe TWIST off the crown and then just peel off some of the bottom leaves.
DeleteVery interesting! I've never seen anything like your pineapple rearing process. We can learn something new every day in the blogosphere.
ReplyDeleteWe sure do learn a lot from you, Dick!
Deleteblessings....
ReplyDeleteOh that pineapple looks divine. Hmmmm, giving me ideas, i wonder if am up to the challenge?
Just be careful of the leaves because they are extremely sharp and dangerous.
DeleteI love those gorgeous roots and you are surely going to get a huge pineapple..m sure..
ReplyDeleteI don't have a King Kong pineapple but I do have a King Kong Rooster:)
ReplyDeleteWow! Who knew you could do this?!!!!
ReplyDeleteThat's cool! I wanna do that!
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine what this is going to taste like. When we visited Hawaii everywhere we went we ate pineapple and it was so delicious and sweet.
ReplyDelete