got one of these from the online nursery, had a little pineapple on it. Pineapple got ripe(golden, stem below brown and dry) so I cut it off. Will the plant grow another pineapple on its own or do I have to do something to help it along?
Pineapple (ananas comosus)
Each crown of your pineapple plant will only grow one flower (pineapple). Now the plant will grow pups around itself, and each of them will eventually bloom. The good news is you will have more baby plants soon. The bad news is it usually takes nearly two years for each new plant to flower.
Fyi, you can take the top of any pineapple fruit that you buy at the grocery store, and stick it in the ground, and it will grow, bloom and produce fruit. Sometimes the grocery stores will give you pineapple tops when they have cut the fruit up to sell as fruit salad etc. I got a trash bag full of tops years ago and planted a border of pineapples to keep a neighbor's dog out of our yard. Worked great, was pretty and easy care, and produced fruit (which the raccoons love).
There's a lot of different varieties of pineapple, some will produce a number of suckers, some will only have one. But after fruiting, with the top you get 2 new plants at least. They need to be kept at a higher temperature to start flowering but commercially they usually gas them to initiate flowering. This can also be done by sprinkling a bit of calcium carbide on them, especially if your temperatures are too low for them to do it naturally. I have one variety which has very bright red fruits. Looks spectacular, but it has horrendous thorns to go with it.
I had read that about the tops of the plants, so I potted up the top of my baby pineapple. Would they make it thru the winter here in zone 7b if I planted them outside.?
Well, maybe. IF you don't get too much more cold weather they might be fine. If you do get a cold snap, I'd find a spot in the garage, or at least throw a blanket over them.
I'd also put them on the south-facing side of the house, protected from cold, drying winds.
This message was edited Jan 26, 2012 10:49 AM
In the normal course of events they do need consistent warmth to flower. They will, however, grow at lower temperatures, but without flowering. I used to have agricultural notes which gave the cut off temperatures, but can't find them. They're not that large a plant that you wouldn't be able to put some sort of plastic dome over them during cold weather.
Pineapple plants cannot take a freeze. I had several growing that we started from grocery store pineapples, a few years ago. We got one pineapple from one after three years. It takes months to grow the fruit to a decent size!
The others died in the freeze a couple of years ago.
Generally tropicals, like plumerias, etc. don't like it below 50. It is best to bring them in if possible, or cover them.