Plant & Grow a Pineapple Top: Take Two!

Today we wanted to pop in with an update on our homegrown pineapple plant — you heard that right, we've been trying our hands at growing a container pineapple indoors here in Virginia over the last several months, and it's going surprisingly well:

This whole project began almost 2 years ago when we first tried to regrow a pineapple from the leafy top scraps of a pretty dried out fruit. Being completely honest, that experiment didn't go so well and after several weeks of trying to breath new life into that plant, we called it a lost cause — but that didn't stop us from trying again!

We were so intrigued by the idea that it's possible to regrow a pineapple from the top leaves, we simply couldn't let it rest. Rumor has it, a successfully rooted pineapple plant can take up to 2 years to produce fruit. Here's a really nice shot of what one looks like firsthand from our friend Alice's Instagram travels in Sri Lanka over the summer:

Pretty crazy, right? It almost looks fake!

The original concept and method for regrowing a pineapple from its top turns out to work really well, but the trick for our latest success was in using a fresher green top, instead of one that had already dried out.

As a refresher on the process, we just twisted the green leafy top away from the pineapple fruit, chopping the fruit to enjoy and setting the top aside to regrow another plant from:

We prepared the top for regrowth by peeling back a few layers of leaves around the base, then gently sliced the end of the base where any remnants of fruit remain (this base will be resting in water, so we didn't want any fruit left to mold or rot):

From here, I just rested the base in a couple inches of water in one of our finest glasses, I mean, solo cups and just let it be by the windowsill, changing the water every few days:

As you can see, the leaves began to dry out significantly over the few weeks we left it in there, but despite the initial drying out, we began to notice small roots making their way out from the base:

Once the roots were about 1/4" long, we planted the top in a planter nested with well draining organic garden soil:

After bringing the planter inside, I decided to cut away any portions of dried leaves and it was at that point we could also see very slow, but new green growth making its way up through the center of the pineapple base:

From there, we've just continued to water the plant regularly, letting it hang out with our other indoor plants in the office near our front window:

That last shot above was taken in May, so over the past 5 months, we've seen about this much progress:

Not bad, eh?

From starting the top in water to where you see us now has probably taken the better part of 8 months. If the plant continues to grow, we should see it sprout a pineapple over the next year or two. This has definitely been more of an ornamental plant and growing experiment for us — while we'd be thrilled to get a pineapple from our efforts over time, we're just excited to be able to say we have a pineapple house plant in general!

What about you? Do you live in a climate where pineapples grow freely or would you try growing one from the top for fun? I have to admit, before trying to grow a plant ourselves, I didn't actually know pineapples grew from plants in the ground, one fruit at a time — I naively assumed they grew on trees.

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