How to grow pineapple in a pot at home?

Pineapples, which first came to Europe in the 16th century, quickly fell in love with the local nobility. Traveling in that era was extremely expensive and lengthy, so plants native to the Brazilian highlands began to be grown in greenhouses and greenhouses. Russia did not lag behind the European powers. Here, for more than a century, outlandish "bumps" have grown practically on an industrial scale in St. Petersburg and even further north, on Solovki. But the steamers that appeared in the 19th century changed the situation, and juicy fruits began to be brought from South America.

This is the case today, but still the interest in growing pineapples at home does not wane. Despite the overseas nature, the plant turned out to be rather picky, and a viable and fruiting bush can be obtained even from a tuft cut from a fresh fruit.

In nature, the culture grows up to 60–80 cm and consists of a small stem, studded with sharp long leaves, a fibrous root and infructescence formed at the top of the main shoot elongating after flowering. It is thanks to this compound fruit, which hides juicy pulp under the keratinized skin, that the plant has become one of the most valuable agricultural crops not only on the South American continent, but also in Africa and Southeast Asia.

In a warm tropical climate, the rosette of pineapple leaves can reach a diameter of two meters. In an apartment it will not be possible to achieve such a plant size, but after 2-4 years, with proper attention and care, an edible fragrant fruit will grow on the pineapple at home. And although you will have to be patient to achieve success, the unusual development of the plant is well worth the effort and time.

To grow pineapple, you can use seeds or cuttings that form on the stem of an adult plant. But the easiest way is to grow pineapple at home from the top, cut from ripe fresh fruit.

How to grow pineapple from seeds at home

Seed propagation is considered the most difficult and time-consuming method. Firstly, you can get seedlings only from purchased seeds. In the fruits sold in supermarkets, there are either no seeds at all, or you can only find their whitish immature rudiments.

The seed of a pineapple suitable for germination has a somewhat flattened semicircular shape, reaches 3-4 mm in length and is colored with a brownish or reddish shade of brown.

Before planting, the seeds are placed between layers of a damp cloth for 18-24 hours and, covered, placed in a warm place. Then, when they swell a little, they plant them in a wet mixture of peat and sand.In order for small seeds to sprout without difficulty, they are buried no more than 1-2 cm.

Containers must be covered with foil or glass and placed in a warm place. It is on the temperature provided to the seeds that their germination and the timing of the appearance of the first shoots will depend:

• At normal room temperature, germination can take from 3-4 weeks to one and a half months.
• If the seeds are kept at a temperature of about 30–32 ° C, the sprouts can be seen in 2–3 weeks.

It is important to maintain not only the temperature regime, but also to moisten the soil in time, and also not to forget about feeding the seedlings. To do this, with an interval of 15–20 days, the crops are fertilized with complex formulations, including the main nutrients and microelements.

When several leaves appear on young rosettes, they are dived, transferring a lump together with small earthlings into the soil for adult plants. Such soil can be made independently by mixing peat, humus, garden soil and sand in equal proportions. To give structure and a kind of protection against infections, crushed charcoal is added to the soil up to 5% of the volume. And part of the sand can be replaced with perlite.

How to grow pineapple from the top at home

If you cannot find the seeds of an exotic culture always and not everywhere, then it is quite possible to grow pineapple at home from the top of a fruit purchased in a store, even without special knowledge. True, it is worth approaching the choice of a delicacy that is destined to be given planting material with full responsibility. Pineapple should be fresh, with a green elastic rosette of foliage, without traces of spoilage, cold damage or wilting. When examining, you need to pay attention to the point of growth of the outlet, if it is rotten, withered or simply absent, it will be extremely difficult to get a new plant.

At home, when growing pineapple, the top of the fruit is cut off with a sharp clean knife, capturing not only the leafy rosette, but the area of ​​the fruit three centimeters lower. If the pineapple is completely ripe, you can carefully unscrew the outlet, holding the tuft tightly with one hand, and the stem with the other.

When the future planting material is received, all remnants of juicy pulp, which can become a source of rot, are carefully removed from the outlet. The short lower leaves are removed to obtain a cylindrical stalk up to 3 centimeters long.

Slices must be treated with a saturated solution of potassium permanganate, crushed charcoal or, which will speed up the appearance of roots, with an epin solution.

To protect the stalk from decay, it is advised to leave the pineapple for drying for a day or two before rooting. Moreover, it is better to hang the outlet so that it does not come into contact with any surfaces. A video on how to grow pineapple at home will reveal all the subtleties of the process and clearly show all its stages.

Rooting is carried out by immersing the part of the cuttings cleared of foliage in water. To hold at the desired level, you can use a cardboard wheel or toothpicks, as shown in the photo.

When the first roots appear on the pineapple, the rosette can be planted in the ground, and you should not bury the young plant above the lower tier of leaves. The substrate around the seedling is gently crushed and compacted, trying not to damage the slightly numerical roots.

Further cultivation of pineapple at home takes place under a film at a temperature not lower than 20-22 ° C. If it is possible to achieve warming of the air and soil to 25 ° C, after about a month, new bright leaves will appear in the center of the rosette.

While acclimatization and rooting is in progress, the pineapple plant is important:

• protect from condensation drops falling on the outlet, causing the development of mold and decay of foliage;
• moisten the soil regularly;
• ventilate plantings, avoiding cooling of the plant.

The pineapple plant pot is placed in a lighted place where the outlet will not be threatened by direct sunlight.

Propagation of pineapple by root cuttings

If there is already an adult pineapple plant in the house, you can propagate it using the daughter processes formed in the lower part of the stem or under the seed fruit, which are easy to break out and root. As planting material, you can use cuttings that have already given several rows of leaves and have reached 15–20 cm in length.

Like a rosette at the top of a pineapple, the stem can be twisted or carefully cut with a sharp blade. The place of the cut must be sprinkled with coal crumbs, and then the handle is done by analogy with growing pineapple from the top at home.

If the root rosette already has root rudiments, it can be immediately planted in light soil from a mixture of peat, perlite and a ready-made substrate for indoor plants.

How to care for pineapple at home?

Homemade pineapple care consists in providing all conditions for the growth and development of the plant.

• For pineapple, it is important to select and maintain a loose, nutritious soil.
• Create acceptable lighting, temperature and humidity conditions.
• Pineapple needs well-organized watering and feeding.

When planting pineapple and caring for it at home, you need to remember that the plant does not have a very powerful superficial root system:

• The soil must be permeable to both moisture and oxygen.
• The pot must provide a decent drainage layer.
• The container itself should not be deep, but pineapple treats wide pots very well.

It is best to grow light-loving southern pineapple at home on southern, western or eastern windows. At the same time, in the summer, when the sun is hottest, it is better to shade pineapples on the southern side, but in winter plants need illumination, which prolongs the daylight hours by 6-8 hours.

In a healthy specimen, young foliage has a bright green tint. And the leaves from the lower rows are not dry and withered, but gray, tight and juicy. With sufficient light, the rosette forms symmetrically.

The lower air temperature limit for pineapple at home is 18 ° C. in such air the plant goes into hibernation. And for active development, the air must be warmer. In spring and summer, the optimum temperature can be between 22 and 30 ° C.

Homemade pineapple care includes regular, infrequent, but plentiful watering, for which they take warm, ambient temperature, settled water.

On hot days, plants are irrigated, but wet foliage on cold days inevitably causes disease and wilting. The same effect should be expected if the pineapple gets cold air from an open window, or if there is a drying effect from a hot battery.

From mid-spring, when an active growing season begins, and until October, pineapples are fed at home at home. The schedule is organized depending on the state of the plant, but more often organic matter and mineral fertilizers are applied every 1-2 weeks.

In winter, feeding is canceled, watering is reduced, and the temperature of the content is also reduced.

How to make homemade pineapple bloom and care for it?

Fruiting time for pineapples begins 2-4 years after the formation of the rosette. True, even with industrial plantings, fruits are obtained by treating the plants with acetylene or acetic acid using a special technology. At home, growing pineapple, such methods are not very acceptable, but even here you can force the obstinate plant to form an inflorescence.

Regular feeding of the plant with liquid organic fertilizer becomes a good stimulant. If the pineapple receives such a top dressing twice a month during the entire growing season, then after 2-3 months you can wait for flowering. Some experts advise spilling the inside of the outlet with a solution of acetylene obtained from a liter of water and 15 grams of carbide for several days.

A similar effect is given by setting a jar with a small amount of water and a piece of steaming carbide next to the pot. During the procedure, it is better to cover the pot with a bag or put it in a greenhouse. Ordinary apples, which release ethylene during storage, can also provoke the plant. For this, fresh apples are laid out next to the pot in the greenhouse for several days.

Most often, to activate flowering, flower growers use fumigation of the plant with ordinary smoke. This procedure should last 10-15 minutes and be repeated 2-3 times in a week.

2-3 months after processing, with proper care of pineapple at home, first the inflorescence appears, and then, after 30 days, the ovary. Fruit ripening lasts from 4 to 6 months, after which you can taste pineapple grown with your own hands.

How to grow pineapple at home - video

Everyone's favorite exotic fruit, pineapple, is known among adults and children. In countries with tropical and subtropical climates, it has been cultivated for a long time and very successfully on an industrial scale, but if you carefully read the claims of this culture, even in the harsh conditions of the Russian winter, you can plant and grow this amazing plant from the top in an ordinary flower pot at home on the windowsill.

Where does pineapple come from?

Pineapple is a perennial herbaceous epiphytic plant with dense, fleshy leaves gathered in one strong, dense knot called a basal rosette. This rosette forms a massive stem with a peduncle at the top. The peduncle is usually formed high, up to 50 cm, with a spike-shaped inflorescence and a rosette with a bracts.

Pineapple has a very exotic look and looks great in a pot.

Pineapple is native to Brazil, although this plant is cultivated in many countries with similar climates.

Pineapple is grown commercially in countries with tropical climates

It appeared in Russia under Catherine II and was grown in public greenhouses.

In the wild, pineapple is accustomed to the bright sun, humid atmosphere and light soil, approximately the same conditions will have to be created on your windowsill for the favorable maintenance of this culture as a houseplant.

Varieties

• Pineapple variety "Caenna" great for home content. The oldest pineapple, popular in the tropics, loved by many for its great taste. The weight of a ripe fruit can be about 600 grams.
• Pineapple variety "Champaka" (champacca) is very often grown as an ornamental plant. Champaca looks really picturesque, like most bromeliads: sharp saw-shaped leaves, resiliently shooting out of one rosette and ripe golden fruits with conical inflorescences of pink shades.
• Decorative pineapples (Ananas Nanas) are very popular among gardening and landscape design lovers, because they have a colorful appearance and look very colorful among other plants. Decorative varieties of pineapples stand out not only with bright bracts, but also with variegated foliage, red shades.
• Pineapple variety Mauritius (mauritius) has excellent transport capabilities and is often grown commercially. In addition, Mauritius has good taste and is also quite suitable for home cultivation.
• Pineapple variety MD-2 Is a pineapple hybrid developed by the Hawaiian Research Institute under a crop breeding program. It is an international benchmark for quality among market products. The resulting hybrid took root and spread throughout the world. The fruit of MD-2 is very sweet, bright golden in color with a low acidity. The variety is resistant to parasites and internal putrefactive processes.

Photo gallery: pineapple can be different too

Video: growing pineapples in captivity

Table: seasonal plant content

How to plant pineapple correctly

Surely every second person who at least once bought a pineapple on the market thought about whether it is possible to grow this crop at home. This is possible despite the fact that pineapple is used to growing in tropical climates. But, before you start growing this crop, you need to choose the desired fruit and root it according to all the rules in an acceptable capacity and soil.

Fruit selection

The fruit that is purchased for rooting the top should be moderately ripe with a beautiful and intact tuft. You should buy pineapple for planting in season - in summer or early autumn, since in winter the fruits are stored in refrigerators and the outlet by the time of purchase may already be frozen and lifeless.

Pineapple seed fruit or crest, should have a thick green foliage, be firm to the touch, and look healthy.

When choosing a pineapple fruit for planting, be guided by the state of the tops

If the leaves began to turn yellow and dry, then it is better not to take this fruit for planting.

The center of the pineapple pulp should be yellow and not too hard. The fruit of the right pineapple usually exudes a pleasant aroma, does not show dents and signs of disease.

Apex separation

In order to separate the top of the pineapple from the fruit, you need to grab the fruit with one hand and the pineapple tops with the other and turn the crest towards you, as if twisting it out of the pineapple. The stem will gently come out of the pulp.

If there are difficulties with twisting, then the separation procedure can be done with a knife, cutting out the leaves from the fruit with the root.

You can separate the pineapple tuft from the fruit by twisting it

You will have to cut it at an angle of about 45 degrees, and then, in order to avoid rot, remove the pulp from the tuft stem and the lower leaves, exposing the trunk.

The tuft is dried in an upright position in a ventilated area for several weeks.

pineapple cuttings must be thoroughly dried before planting

This procedure is necessary for the healing of any damage caused to the cuttings during separation from the fetus. During the time the stalk is cured, nutrients will be concentrated in the rooting zone.

How to root and plant a top

In order for the pineapple top to take root, it is placed in an opaque container with water at room temperature for about 4 cm and left in a moderately lit place without drafts and temperature changes for a week.

The pineapple stalk will sit in the water for several days before putting on tiny roots.

Video: rooting the pineapple top

While the stalk is rooting, there is time to find a suitable soil and pot for the future pineapple.

The capacity will be any flower pot with drainage holes, the size of which should be quite a bit larger than the size of the cutting.

An impressive drainage layer of expanded clay or pebbles, about 4 cm, is laid out on the bottom of the pot, and then a soil mixture consisting of sand and peat in equal parts is poured. It is recommended to carry out disinfecting procedures for the soil two to three days before planting. To do this, you can simply spill it with boiling water.

At the same time, this method of soil cultivation will moisten the substrate and make it the right temperature, since pineapple cannot be planted in cold soil. In such conditions, you can safely plant a tuft without first rooting in water.

Video: planting the tops in the ground without rooting

A tuft is placed in the prepared soil down to the lowest leaves. Around the cutting, the soil must be thoroughly tamped and the future pineapple must be shed well again with warm water. Next, the cutting is sprayed and covered with a bag to create a greenhouse atmosphere.

After placing the pineapple tuft in the pot, cover it with a bag to create artificial tropics.

Such a greenhouse is left in a warm and illuminated place, but without direct exposure to rays, since we do not need the greenhouse effect.

Pineapple will be able to root thoroughly in the soil only after a month and all this time it is not at all desirable to water it, but the pineapple crest will respond to spraying with gratitude.

An excellent substrate for rooting bromeliads is sphagnum moss

Sphagnum moss is an excellent substrate for epiphytes

... It is hydroscopic and breathes well, and when it turns pale at the edges, it becomes clear that it is time to water the plant.

Successful rooting of the tuft entails transplanting the plant to a permanent place, where exactly the same soil awaits it as that which was used for rooting. After transplanting, the pineapple is again covered with a cap for a couple of weeks, kept in a more illuminated place and still sprayed.

Maintenance and care

Since the homeland of pineapple is the tropics, it is accordingly accustomed to light, warmth and humid air. Pineapple tolerates drought stubbornly, and growing it in a room is not labor-intensive and is quite within the power of everyone.

How to care for a decorative pineapple at home

Pineapple is a light-loving epiphyte, so it is best to place a pot with a plant on the south or southeast window, but even if your window sill is perfectly illuminated for about 12 hours a day, then being cold it can destroy the root system of the plant from hypothermia, because you can even water the pineapple only with very warm water. To prevent the roots from cooling, the pineapple pot can only be placed on an insulating substrate or insulated window sill, and it is safest not to place it at all on the window, but place a flower stand or table next to the window.

It is not worth placing a home pineapple too far from the window, it will lack light

Do not think that getting used to the tropics, pineapple will feel great in an apartment with central heating, it is not. This culture does not tolerate heat and dry air, therefore, it is necessary to maintain the air temperature during the day within the range of 22 ° -28 ° С, and at night it should not fall below 18 ° С.

What to feed and water

Pineapple should only be watered with warm or even hot water. Watering is necessary rarely, but abundantly and only after the earthen coma has completely dried.

During the period of active growth of pineapple from April to September, proper watering is a very important condition for maintenance. Pineapples should be watered exclusively with warm or hot water, settled, and best of all with rainwater, which does not contain lime impurities. Watering should be rare, but abundant, and only when the soil is dry.

If the soil is not allowed to dry out, the roots of the plant will rot, and if the pineapple does not have enough moisture, its tips will dry out and the pineapple will begin to lose its decorative effect.

When watering pineapple, you can pour water from above so that it falls into the axils of the leaves and remains there. This moisture will serve as additional nutrition for the roots and ensure the well-being of the plant through evaporation.

Hooligan lovers will love watering the pineapple, as you can start doing it right from the top.

In addition to watering and leaf irrigation, pineapple will be grateful for regularly dusting the leaves with a damp swab.

It is recommended to fertilize pineapple no more than twice a month and a mullein solution is considered an ideal feeding, which is infused in warm water for a day and then diluted 10 times. A liter of the resulting solution will last for a month and a half.

Mineral fertilizers for indoor plants or complex fertilizers for bromeliads are also good for pineapple, but the concentration of dressings should be half as much as according to the standard instructions.

After the pineapple has faded, it is worth feeding it mainly with nitrogen-containing agents for the rapid formation of the fruit.

How indoor pineapple blooms in a pot

The flowering times of home-grown pineapple tend to be unpredictable. About 3 years after planting the pineapple, the flowering period begins, which lasts about two weeks and is accompanied by a light aroma.

The bud forms at the very top of the central stem. Flowers can be bright blue, pink or purple, they can change their shade; are arranged in a spiral, open one after another and only for one day.

Pineapple bloom is inconspicuous and it is unlikely that they will be able to surprise anyone, but this process cannot but impress fans of exoticism.

Pineapple blooms brightly, but very shortly

After flowering, the fruiting period begins, and small fruits are formed that are easy to root. It is worth noting that these rooted fruits will bloom even sooner than their parent.

A small pineapple fruit is able to quickly take root and bloom before its parent.

One fetus left on the mother's socket can grow quite large. Its ripening period can be from three months to six months and depends on the pineapple variety and the conditions of its maintenance. The most favorable period for pineapple fruiting is summer.

After the fruiting stage, the pineapple dies. This is a normal natural process for the bromeliad family.

It happens that even with good care, the pineapple does not bloom. In such cases, you can make it bloom by artificial stimulation with ethylene gas. To do this, five grams of calcium carbide is dissolved in a half-liter container and infused for a day in a closed form. After that, the liquid is drained and only a sediment is left. This sediment is the ethylene solution, which must be gradually placed in the core of the pineapple rosette over the course of a week. A month or one and a half after such stimulation, the plant should enter the flowering phase.

Video: flowering and growing pineapple at home

Pineapple hibernation

In winter, pineapple hibernates, but this does not mean at all that it does not need to be watered. Watering the pineapple should be moderate. One plentiful watering per week or two waterings per week will be enough, but a smaller amount. The soil should not be wet all the time, since the dormant period for pineapple passes at a temperature of about 15 ° C, and at low temperatures, the bay can turn into decay of roots or rosettes.

Top dressing is not carried out until March-April and the lighting will also have to be slightly reduced, as well as the temperature, otherwise the pineapple will not fall asleep and will suffer from a lack of nutrition and heat.

In the spring, the pineapple will gradually wake up on its own: new leaves will begin to appear on it. If awakening does not occur, it is necessary to increase the amount of light and transplant the plant into new soil.

If you want pineapple to stay awake in winter, it is important to provide the plant with additional lighting (at least 10 hours a day) and maintain an average temperature of 22 ° C-23 ° C. In addition, you should continue to feed the pineapple at least once a month.

Diseases and pests

Precisely because pineapple has long and very firmly established itself among other indoor plants, it, just like everyone else, has become susceptible to attack by insect pests. These and other troubles that lie in wait for pineapple in an apartment are discussed in the table along with prevention and prevention measures.

Table: possible troubles and remedies

Photo gallery: what pineapple suffers from

Reproduction of pineapple

Pineapple, as a true herbaceous one, dies after fruiting, but this does not happen immediately and can even last for several years. At the same time, the mother bush during this time gives birth to many small shoots around itself, which can be successfully planted in independent pots. These shoots will bloom much earlier than the grown tops.

Reproduction by shoots

Even before flowering, pineapple forms a number of lateral shoots - basal shoots.

A tiny scion on a pineapple mother's rosette

They can be cut or broken off from the mother's socket as soon as they are about 20 centimeters high. Places of cuts are sprinkled with ash or crushed coal and left to dry for a week in a cool and ventilated room.

Experienced growers recommend adding a growth stimulant such as Epin or Zircon to coal or ash, but this is not necessary.

Shoots should be rooted in a vessel with water or in prepared soil only when the cuts or fractures on the shoots are completely healed.

The optimal soil for rooting is considered to be layer-by-layer. To do this, 3-4 cm of sod land is poured onto the bottom of the tank, then there is a layer of leafy humus, followed by about 10 cm of river sand. This is one of the rooting options, many growers plant shoots in mixed compound soils.

The soil should not be cold, its temperature can fluctuate between 24 ° -28 ° C.

After planting the shoot, the pot is covered with a film or a shoot, but so that the polyethylene does not touch the leaves.

When pineapple shoots take root, they will soon grow.

To do this, you can put supports on three or four sides by sticking sticks into the pot around the appendix.

You need to put a young pineapple in a sunny and warm place with diffused but bright light and a high level of humidity.

Video: transplant of lateral processes

Seed propagation

Seed propagation is not the easiest, but quite affordable.

1. We extract the seeds from the ripe pineapple pulp and wash the material in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Then dry slightly at room temperature. The seeds should be of a uniform yellow-brown color. Pineapple seeds are small enough
2. Preparing the soil mixture for sowing. It should consist of equal parts of river sand, sifted leafy earth and peat.
3. Seeds are sown to a depth of about one and a half cm, spilled with warm water (no colder than 30 °) and covered with glass or foil. The original way of germinating seeds is in a plastic container on a heating radiator
4. For active germination, it is necessary to create conditions similar to those for vegetative propagation, namely bright but diffused light, warm and humid air.
5. It is necessary to water crops regularly, without creating silting of the soil.
6. It is important to periodically ventilate and harden the container with crops, adapting to different temperatures and drier air, raising the cover material.

Seeds can sprout both in the second month and in the sixth: the seed method is therefore considered difficult, since it takes time and patience.

This is what a pineapple shoot looks like at the second leaf stage.

Seedlings can be fed with bird droppings by diluting a teaspoon of dry matter per liter of water, at the age of the third leaf.

A pick of young shoots usually occurs when they reach six to seven cm in height.

Growing a pineapple from its top may seem like an exciting adventure, and the very presence of such exoticism in an apartment can infect friends and acquaintances amazed by the pineapple splendor with this idea.