Pineapple plants don't bloom?

I bought eucomis bulbs last year and the grew but not very well. I guess one of them did, but not one of them bloomed. They were all planted in large containers and I dug them up and will try again this year. I fertilize with miracle grow about every 2 weeks, (maybe not often enough). If they don't bloom this year they go over the bank. Any info welcome.

pineapples generally take 2 years before they produce fruit :/

2 years to flower and fruit, another 6-8 months to ripen (if I'm not mistaken). Practically a 3-year venture from lopping off the pineapple cap!

Edit: Followup note. The bromeliad forum has lots of good information on pineapple plants. Please keep in mind that an immature unripened pineapple is toxic and should not be ingested until properly ripened on the plant!

This message was edited Feb 15, 2010 2:35 PM

From the initial post, I believe that sugarbell is growing pineapple lilies (Eucomis) not pineapples

I've never grown these, but since you mention that most of them aren't growing well, that makes me suspect there's something in their conditions that is not making them happy. So I would look at watering (are they getting too much? too little?) and whether they are in a sunny enough area and see if one of those could be the cause. If they were growing well but still not blooming then I would also consider too much fertilizer as a potential issue since you say you're giving them MG every two weeks--too much nitrogen can cause many plants to put out a lot of green growth at the expense of blooms. But since you said most of them aren't growing well then this is less likely.

Oops. Sorry! I thought the "bulbs" sounded a bit odd. Lack of forsight plagues me lately...

ecrane3, You are correct on what I am growing. They are all in full sun, that's pretty much all I have. I will pay closer attention to my nitrogen this year. Hope that makes a difference. Thanks

I'd look at your watering too--although the fertilizing frequency sounded a bit high, as I mentioned previously the nitrogen thing isn't high on my list of suspects because you said most of the plants weren't growing well (too much nitrogen can lead to lots of green growth but no flowers--so I'd expect them to be big and lush and it didn't sound like that was the case). Unfortunately since I've never grown these I don't know what other sorts of things besides proper watering might be necessary to keep them happy--it might also be something like the soil (if they enjoy sandy soil and you've got heavy clay or vice versa). I see that you're a subscriber, so you might try posting in the Perennials forum too, you may find more people that have grown them (if you do start a thread there, I'd make sure to call them pineapple lilies rather than pineapple plants to avoid confusion)