How to Grow Pineapples from Tops:

Cut off the leafy top of a pineapple about half to 3/4 of an inch below the leaves and remove some of the lowest leaves that surround the base. Set the crown in a container of water to establish roots before planting. Once roots emerge with this method, plant up to the base of its leaves in a sunny spot in well drained soil.

Watering: Water pineapples well when newly planted to help roots develop, but once roots are established, water about 1 inch per week.

How to Grow Pineapples from Seed (most difficult):

Occasionally you will find seeds in a very ripe yellow fruit.  Look for the small black seeds about three-eighths of an inch in from the outside edge. To germinate, gently wrap in a wet paper towel, put into a plastic zip bag and keep it in a warm place. It will take about six months for the seeds to actually sprout, at which time the tiny plants can be planted in growing pots where they can be nurtured until they are big enough to transplant into the garden.

How to grow pineapples from Suckers:

While pineapples are growing, they sometimes sprout tiny plants below the soil, along flower stalks, or between the leaves. These can be removed to start new plants.

Regardless of how a pineapple plant is started, it will take between 18 and 24 months or longer before it bears its first fruit. It can sometimes fruit again once or twice more at approximately two year intervals before it no longer produces fruit. The reason it takes so long for a pineapple to form on the plant is because it takes about 200 flowers to form one fruit. Every segment that can be seen on a pineapple skin was once a flower which turns into a kind of berry and then combines with the other berries created from flowers to form the complete fruit.

Fertilizers:

Diluted Bromeliad or fish emulsion fertilizers are best suited for pineapple. Coffee grounds are a good fertilizer during the leaf production stage as coffee grounds release nitrogen as they decompose. However, after flowers start to form, do not apply nitrogen fertilizers as they will slow the flowering process.

Recipes:

Most enjoy the luscious juicy taste of a fresh sliced pineapple but there are many recipes where the fruit can be combined with other fruits in a salad or incorporated into cakes.

Pineapple upside down cake is a favorite:

Preheat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). In 13x9-inch pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter. Arrange pineapple slices on top of the brown sugar. Follow directions to make yellow cake batter (from box or use your own recipe) substituting water in recipe with pineapple juice. Pour batter over pineapples and bake until toothpicke inserted in center comes out clean (about 45 minutes).

NOTE: There is a variety sold here in Belize called Hawaiian that is the sweetest of all pineapples and the leaves are not serrated....submitted by POB Board Member Dottie Fuecht