Planting a pineapple
Pineapple is grown from planting material supplied by the plant itself. Use the crown (the leafy top) of the fruit you purchased at your grocery store. Later, your plant will produce other planting material. (More about this later.)
Preparing a crown
Remove the crown from your pineapple by twisting or cutting it off. Any adhering flesh should be trimmed off its base, or it might rot after planting. After trimming, cut the bottom of the crown (its stem) until you see root buds, which are small round structures visible around the perimeter of the stem base. Remove as little tissue as possible to avoid cutting into young stem tissue. To make planting easier, you can also strip off some of the lower leaves, exposing up to about three-fourths of an inch of the base of the crown. The small brown-colored bumps below the leaf scars are root primordia (the beginnings of roots) and there may even be a few short roots at the base if the crown.
After trimming and stripping, place the crown upside down in a dry, shaded place for about a week (5 to 7 days) before planting. This will permit the cut end and the leaf scars to heal and prevent rot.
Planting
The easiest way to grow a pineapple is in soil. Use a good light garden soil, mixing in up to 30 per cent well-composted organic matter. A commercial potting soil will also work well and will assure a disease-free potting medium.
Start your pineapple in an 8-inch porous red clay pot. Later, when it outgrows this, transplant it to a 12-inch pot, the largest size you will need. Plastic posts can also be used, but extra care needs to be taken to be sure adequate drainage is provided and plants are not overwatered.
Be sure there is good drainage since pineapples do not like "wet feet." Provide drainage by placing a curved piece of broken pot over the hole in the bottom of the pot. Over this, add about a half an inch (1 centimeter) of coarse qravel. Then add your soil.
Tamp the soil firmly around the base of the crown at planting. Avoid getting soil into the central leaves of the crown. It is possible to start, and even grow your pineapple in water, but nutrients -- which can be purchased at a gardening store -- must be added. Ask for a hydroponic fertilizer, a soluble mix that contains all of the essential plant nutrients, and follow directions for shrubs.
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