Gardeners Supply Plant Care & Gardening Advice/Tips/Secrets @ HortChat.com®

12 comments to Propagating pineapple plants

• Kitty

  February 9th, 2009 at 6:20 pm · Reply

  I read the very informative comments on how to grow pineapples. I have just harvested 2 very fine pineapples and wonder if it is better to remove all of the new shoots from the mother plant and plant them or to leave one on to get another fruit. Will this fruit (from left on shoot) develop sooner than the ones from the planted shoots? If not, it would seem that planting is the preferred method because I assume that the fruit will be larger. The two that I just harvested were just as large as the grocery store pineapples that they were grown from. Also very sweet. If I remove and plant all of the shoots from the mother plant, should I dig up and discard the mother plant? I live near Key West and plant my pineapples in the garden.

  Hi Kitty
  The mother plant will not produce any more pineapples so you can dig it up and discard when the shoots are removed. You can also wait for the shoots to get half the size of the mother plant and then transplant them individually. The only thing is that you will have to be sure the shoots you transplant have the start of some roots. Here’s what I found. I had a mother plant with 4 shoots on it. After they reached 1/3 to 1/2 size of the mother plant, I left 3 in the pot and removed one to another container. The one in the container grew faster and larger. It did not have competition from the other siblings. The intersting thing was that when I exposed the 3 shoots in the pot to ethylene to get them to bloom, all three developed flowers. The fruit will be tiny and not worth eating. I would think that it would work the same way in the garden. If you remove all but one shoot off the mother plant, you should get another pineapple that will be smaller but will take less time to develop (that’s what they do on pineapple farms to get a second crop). I’m assuming that the individual shoot will take longer but produce a larger pineapple. I would try it both ways to see what results you get. Look under Growing pineapple for additional info.

• admin

  February 10th, 2009 at 4:31 pm · Reply

  I live in Hawaii and have 4 pineapples (started from tops) bearing fruit. My question is will the plants bear again or should I dispose of them after picking the fruit?

  They can bear fruit again. Once the first and largest fruit has ripened, it may produce several shoots called suckers. Leave one or two suckers on the plant which should produce a second smaller fruit. After that they are discarded although if the plant remains healthy, you can try for a third fruit.
  Source:hawaii.edu/pineapple

  We purchased a well established pineapple plant from a nursery. It seems to be doing well as it has produced a new shoot at the base of the plant. My main concern is the bottom leaves of the plant are browning, mostly at the tips to half way down the leaves. Should these be cut off or just left alone and if they should be cut off, should I cut the whole leave or just the brown? Any help on this would be appreciated. Carrie

  The shoots are new baby plants called pups, eventually they can be separated from the mother plant. You can remove the unsightly brown leaves and trim the tips if they bother you. The green part of the leaf is still providing food and energy to the plant so you might as well as leave it until its completely brown. It sounds as if your plant has gone thru a blooming /fruit production cycle and is now producing new plants.

• Chad

  February 10th, 2009 at 4:42 pm · Reply

  Hello. I started a pineapple top in march in a glass of water. After a couple of weeks it got roots and I planted it. After a month or so a new shoot started off the side and a few weeks later another started off the opposite side. The top itself didn’t do anything, but it is still green (its lost a couple of leaves only). Now I have 2 shoots (suckers?) that are about 12-14 inches high and doing very well, but the plant is becoming pot bound. My question is when I repot (should I do this now?), should I separate one of the shoots and pot it separately? Also, I’ve never fertilized the plant. Should I start now or wait until spring? Thanks!!

  The best time to replant is in the spring, when the pineapple will be ready to start growing again. Then you can also separate the side shoots and repot them. Fertilize in the spring.

• admin

  February 10th, 2009 at 4:46 pm · Reply

  Ike Beal
  May 24th, 2008 at 9:33 am · Reply · Edit
  Fla Keys here. Been growing pineapples for about 6 yrs. Have 20/25 fruits each season. They bloom around Feb each year. Makes for great eating in July.They are in various settings as I learned that after 2 yrs they don’t have the same wonderful taste. I plant some pups, tops and leave some plants to grow on the mother plant from the pups. Even won best in show two years ago. This year I’ve had several die in the same pot as I have used in the past. Lately, half grown fruit have fallen off the mother plant. (Maybe due to the dry conditions) Is there any possibility to replant these half grown pups and fruit? No roots as they have been fed from a small stem from the mother plant.
  Great site and information!!!!

  You should be able to root the half grown pups in water and then pot them up or try potting them directly in well drained soil. I would think the Fla Keys humidity will help them root easily. The only part of the fruit I would try to grow is the top leaves. Good luck

• admin

  February 27th, 2009 at 11:56 am · Reply

  Hi Kris,
  I have a question about Bromeliads but could not find a page to post it, so am using this page!
  I have 2 Bromeliads; one is the mother plant with an additional baby that is barely 2″ in growth. The other is a pup I separated & repotted, which has grown to almost 4″ in height. It shows no signs of blooming & I was hoping you could advise on how to speed things up. It has a tank which I make sure always has water. Plus I moisten the soil every week or so depending on how dry it looks. I have used Miracle Gro once a month on the soil & was wondering what else I could do to get some beautiful blooms.
  Also, the mother plant seems to be slowly “dying”, with leaves every so often turning yellow & limp. Is there anyway it will re-bloom? Or should I discard it once the pup is large enough to be re-potted.
  Thanks!

  Hi Ray
  Once the mother plant is done bloooming it will not bloom again. Instead it will produce “pups”, baby plants that can be separated when they are about 1/3 the size of the mother plant. The “pups” take out nourishment from the mother plant which will gradually die. You will have better success with transplanting if the pup is 1/3 size and has some roots on it. If not be sure to firmly prop up the plant in soil so it doesn’t fall over and provide humidity to speed root development. You can improve humidity enclosing the potted pup in a plastic bag for a few weeks. Plant your bromeliad in well drained soil consisting of one part each;peat, bark, coarse sand or perlite.
  Several factors such as maturity, light, temperature can affect bromeliad blooming. Like pineapple plants, they can also be coaxed into bloom by exposing the plant to ethylene gas. Before you proceed pour out any liquid from the cup.

• Wanda Dean

  February 28th, 2009 at 10:21 am · Reply

  Thank you for all your information on growing pineapples. We live in the tropics and have had a delicious fruit from one of our potted pineapples. I did not separate the suckers soon enough and now the mother plant is producing another pineapple. Will it hurt the mother plant to remove the suckers now? My concern is that there will not be enough nutrition in the pot for the mother plant and the 3 suckers.

  Hi Wanda
  I’m assuming that the 2nd pineapple is being produced from the slips produced on the main stem? If you remove the suckers carefully without disturbing the roots you should be ok. Be sure that they are large enough to separate from the mother plant (1/3).

  One way to separate the suckers is to cut or twist them off with a sharp knife, dip the cut surface in fungicide and let it dry for a few days. When dried, trim the lower leaves and plant in sandy soil mix.Keep the newly planted sucker at 70F (21C) until rooted.

  The other safe option is to remove 1 sucker and leave the rest on the mother plant. Your second fruit will be smaller than the first one. If you decide to leave them all, they will continue to grow at a slower rate. Feed the plant with a balanced fertlizer every 2 months to suppliment the nutrients.

• linda kozak

  May 1st, 2009 at 6:05 am · Reply

  i have a pineapple plant that has produced one fruit it is in a small pot is it safe to repot it ,it also has a sucker

  If the fruit is on the plant, on would leave it alone until it ripens and then repot the sucker. If you really want to put it in a larger pot, do so carefully as not to disturb the roots. You might want to separate the sucker at the same time.

• Nate

  May 11th, 2009 at 12:56 am · Reply

  I have a pineapple plant and produced a pineapple vary nice sized. It then grew 2 babies; the babies did not get bloom until September 3 weeks before I moved back to pa from Florida. I kept the plants indoors with grow lights but lost both around Christmas. They just stopped growing. I continued to water them in hopes to get babies, it is now warm enough out that I have moved them outside but I still have no babies. Will I get babies from them or is all lost?

• jeremy

  May 12th, 2009 at 1:53 pm · Reply

  I have 2 pineapple plant that i have had for about 2 years and i have not gotten any fruit yet. But I have had (3 on one) and (4 on the other) shoots coming out of both of them. but the shoots are not coming from the bottom, they are coming out of the top. My question is can i transplant them. I have other plants that do have shoots that are coming from the bottom,but the ones from the top will not have roots. Thank you

  Hi Jeremy
  You can still transplant the shoots from the top. Plant them in well drained soil and keep them moist so that they can grow some roots.

• Dr. Mohammed Selamat Bin Madom

  August 24th, 2009 at 2:07 pm · Reply

  Hi there, I wonder how did you all manage to get the pineapple plants flowered?. Were they all flowered naturally or induced by ethephon, carbide etc?.

  The apple (ethylene exposure) trick works for me. http://hortchat.com/info/coaxing-your-pineapple-to-bloom

• laura

  August 31st, 2009 at 6:41 pm · Reply

  hello i put a pineapple top in water and it began to grow some roots. but then the leaves started turning grayish and wrinkly and dry-like and stiff. what is the cause of this and please , how can i save my plant? i live in zone 6a but keep my plant indoors by a windowsill with plenty of light

  Hi Laura
  Sometimes the pineapple top will turn gray and dry-up. I think it has to do with how old it was and if it was exposed to ethylene. Lack of humidity can also be a problem. Since it has roots, plant it in some well-drained soil and put the pot in a clear plastic bag to increase humidity. Place it in bright indirect light. If it doesn’t improve in a few weeks, then I would start over. I had the same problem and tried again.

• Fred Kwandras

  September 25th, 2009 at 4:38 am · Reply

  Hello, My Pineapple plant is now going on 4 years old with no baby yet. Two weeks ago the first sucker has come up, and is growing quickly. We live in the midwest Chicago area, and follow the general watering and
  nutritional needs for the plant. My question is; When should I bag the plant to make it flower and produce a
  baby? It is now the end of sept. here and it will be coming in for the winter. Thanks; Fred

  Hi Fred
  Winter is a great time to force bloom. In nature, pineapple usually develop flowers in late Dec./Jan when days are short and temperatures are cooler (55-65F). I force mine in Jan/Feb and it worked. You can try forcing earlier and if you don’t see any results, try again later.

Copyright HortChat.com © 2009 - All Rights Reserved