turn Ananas comosus outside the tropics is n’t only potential … it ’s actually pretty easy . Did you know you may get pineapples up north and just about anywhere with a little second of piece of work ? Here ’s my latest post for Mother Earth News :
“ Down in South Florida ( and Hawaii ) , gardeners have all the luck . Roughly 1.5 billion amazing tropical mintage grow there , including pineapples . I used to cut the tops off and plant them here and there around my landscape gardening . In North Florida , where I now live , it ’s not nearly that prosperous .
You ’ll do swell until the temperature drop into the XX , then your pineapple industrial plant melt . The cold is insurmountable here . You may do good for a few years … then BAM ! all in bromeliads .
luckily , they ’re easy to grow in pots . The picture in this post shows one of the many pineapple plants I inherit from my gramps when he passed away a yoke year back .
Before I go further , I have to secern you about him . His name was Judson Greene and he was a sailor and a brilliant carpenter . When I was a kid , he suffer ten infantry tall . If you dropped him on a desert island , he could build up a sloop from laminated sprig , find a elbow room to varnish it ( double ) , then sail back to menage porthole before dinner . He had traveled about the tropics in the Navy , done scientific research , and still managed to produce five nestling , the old of whom was my mother .
Grandpa was also an inveterate experimenter , which is perhaps where I get my own explorative drive . He plant a rubber tree in his back M , grew a mahogany tree in the side yard , and was always toying with the idea of win over his whole family to solar power .
When he discovered in his 70 that you could grow pineapple plant from the tops of store - buy pineapples , he hatched an estimation . visit the local grocery store , he involve the cleaning woman behind the food prep counter what she did with the Ananas comosus crest that were removed when they made yield salads . When he found out they were being cast away , he asked if she ’d keep him some . She did – an entire pitch-dark methamphetamine bag full .
Grandpa called my younger sisters and their friends together and made them an offering : for each Ananas comosus top they planted in his back yard , he ’d make up them a nickel note .
Pineapple plants were soon spread out here and there all through the backyard landscaping . About two years later , the H.M.S. Bounty started trickling in , and wow – those pineapples were the most yummy golden fruits . The ones the coons did n’t steal were shared on a regular basis with visitant , who were all astonished to bring in they were homegrown . For the next X , until his death , Grandpa had Ananas comosus … and his army of young plantation owner grew up enjoy the yield .
Though you may not live in the right climate to develop pineapples unprotected , they ’re remarkably easygoing to turn – even outside the tropics .
When I inherited as many of Grandpa ’s as I cared to toil up , I take them up here , pot some and found others up against the south wall of my house . I now have at least five blooming , both in pots and against the wall … and the frosts have only claimed a few test starts I put out in the yard .
The key to growing ananas is two - fold .
That ’s the basic expression . you may plant pineapple tops in cheap potting soil and water them as you recall … and they ’ll grow . pineapple , like all the bromeliads I ’ve ever handled , have limited root scheme . They feed in the first place through their foliage . ”
( suction stop HEREto keep reading at Mother Earth News ! )
I ’m a big fan ofzone - push , as I ’ve written before . Pineapples are one of the easiest plant to do this with – much easier thankey limesorpapayas . They ’re tolerant of abuse , can be raise in low mountain – and they taste a lot better when you grow them yourself . Go buy a ananas . wipe out it . Plant the top . Enjoy the awe-inspiring .
