Pineapples are one of the most successful fruits. The reason is logical: it is diuretic, refreshing, full of liquid and, also, whenever you get it, sweet. That is why it is common for many to be encouraged to plant it in a pot or in their garden with the aim of having a pineapple. But, How long does it take for a pineapple to grow? Can such a plant be grown at home?
If you are already curious and want to know how to plant a pineapple, the time it will take for the plant to grow and, later, how long it takes for a pineapple to grow to eat it, then we give you the keys to all this.
Planting a pineapple, can it be done?
When you buy a pineapple, what you want is to get home, put it in the refrigerator and, after a few hours it cools, take it out, split it and eat it. Yes? It is common. However, do you know that with the part that you don't eat you could have a plant? Well yes.
Also, you can plant it once you know if it is good or not. That is, if the fruit you eat is rich (for sweetness, texture, flavor, etc.) then you can get down to work. Of course, first of all you should know that really what is going to be planted is the crown of the pineapple, that is, the area of the pineapple leaves. In case you are to cut that part to be able to put it in the refrigerator.
The steps you must take to plant a pineapple are the following:
- Clean the crown part of the pineapple. It is normal that some fruit remains, that is not a problem. But you do have to remove the leaves closest to the base. Now, you will have to let the plant dry (if it can be the other way around) for a week.
- After that time, place the crown with three toothpicks stuck in a bowl of water. Why the chopsticks? They are the ones that will help you to hold it so that it does not fall completely to the floor of the container, but remains in suspension, one part wet in water, and another not. You should place this in a very sunny place, but not in direct light.
- Change the water every three days so that it does not produce mold or lose nutrients. You will have to do it for several weeks, until you see that the roots of the plant are enough to transfer it to a pot.
- Use worm humus or coconut fiber to mix it with peat so that it has good drainage, as well as helping the roots to develop without encountering resistance.
- At the time of watering it, do it with a sprayer, since this way you will not drown it in water.
- As it grows you will have to change the pot to have a chance of developing a pineapple.
How long does a pineapple take to grow?
Unfortunately, and even if you really want to eat a pineapple of your own harvest, the truth is that you will have to wait a while. We would rather say. It takes the pineapple plant, hopefully, between 10 and 14 months for the fruit to ripen and be eatable. That is if it bears fruit, since some may take time or even not give you fruit.
There are other species that are capable of taking almost 3 years to add a pineapple, and to that you must add the time in which it must grow and mature in order to collect it.
Therefore, the answer to how long a pineapple takes to grow is between a year and a little over 3 years. Make it profitable? It will depend on the patience you have, but also on what we will tell you below.
How long does a pineapple take to ripen?
If you have been lucky and your plant has given you flowers, the most normal thing is that, next, the fruit arrives. But this cannot be harvested immediately, it takes time to mature. And how much is that?
The truth is that it takes at least 4 months to mature. You will realize that it is ready to be harvested when you see that half of the shell is yellow. The other can stay green, but if you already have half of it in that hue, you can separate it from the plant.
How many pineapples does a pineapple plant produce?
Know that a pineapple plant only bears one fruit for each stem. Depending on the variety or species you have, the plant will develop between one and three stems throughout its life, which means that you will have, hopefully, three pineapples.
If you have the pineapple plant in a pot, then you do not have much chance of having 3 pineapples, but it only develops one stem, and it will give you a pineapple in about 2 years. Now, if you plant it outside, there will be a better chance of having 3 pineapples, and its waiting time is shortened to a year and a half.
This can make you wonder if it is profitable or not to have such a plant, since with all the time it takes for a pineapple to grow, you can end up losing the desire to eat a pineapple from your harvest.
How are the pineapples you can get?
Another key point when it comes to knowing how long a pineapple takes to grow is related to their size. The The first pineapple your plant gives you will always be the largest. The next ones you throw in, they will always be much smaller, even smaller than those of the greengrocers.
That does not mean that they are worse, sometimes they are even better; However, you will end up eating it much sooner and it will become more of a delicacy that you can only taste every x time than something you consume daily (unless you plant a lot of pineapples and you can have fruits from different plants).
As you can see, the waiting time to grow a pineapple is quite high, and that can frustrate your illusions of eating a fruit "from the garden". But you just have to be patient to get it. The results are well worth it. Have you ever eaten a pineapple collected by you? What do you think?