Growing My Own Pineapples!

I started these plants by cutting off the tops of pineapples and rooting them in water (after an interesting "hang them upsidedown for a week" ritual). Some are the usual Maui gold variety, and some are a white variety that I got from my neighbor's plants. White pineapples are hard to find at the farmer's markets and impossible to find in the grocery stores.

They've been growing in pots on my lanai until this weekend when I finally made them a home in the ground. It was not terribly fun digging holes in this lava rubble, and I had to use a pick instead of a shovel. Hauling all that border rock and gravel was also not terribly fun, but it was good, productive, sweaty exercise. And seeing those little pineapples in the ground WAS lots of fun.

I've been slowly working my way around the perimeter of the backyard creating that boulder border for the newly planted podocarpus (that's the fuzzy plant between the pineapples). The podocarpus are 5 feet apart all around the yard (about 35 plants in all). Eventually they will create a tall, dense hedge, but for now I have lots of blank space for things like pineapples.

I have no idea how long they take to develop babies, but in the future I hope to always have fresh pineapples to share with you when you visit.

 

Aloha y'all!