It is true that pineapple plants can only produce fruit once but they can make more fruit. While the center of the pineapple will never grow again there are actually 3 other ways to get fruit from one pineapple. One way is to wait after it fruits and collect the seeds. Seeds would be the hardest way to grow a pineapple. The second and probably easiest way is to wait for it to fruit and then collect the pups it produces to make more pineapple plants that will all grow fruit. The third way to to propagate the top of the pineapple plant and grow another pineapple from there. In this blog we will go over the steps of how to propagate a pineapple plant from a store bought pineapple.

Step 1 – Picking the right pineapple is very important. The pineapple you pick should be organic, because non-organic pineapples have been sprayed and produced not to grow. How ever organic isn’t everything. You Also need to get one that has beautiful green leaves with no signs of rotting or damage.

Step 2 – Once you have picked a healthy organic pineapple you have to cut the top off. Being careful not to cut to much of the base off of the leaves, you want to cut the top and fruit off of the base of the leaves. If you cut to much you will cut the root system off and if you don’t cut enough you will leave some fruit in and that will cause the plant to rot before it roots.

Step 3 – Once you remove the fruit rinse off the leaves and base and let it dry and scab over at the base this could take a day or two but it needs to heal and scab over so that when you plant it, it will not rot.

Step 4 – Now that the base has scabbed over you want to remove two to three layers of the bottom leaves by gently pulling them off. This will help expose the roots so that they can grow.

Step 5 – Place the base of the leaves into a small jar or glass of water. Make sure to not fully submerge the leaves in water you only want the base of the plant in the water. Also do not submerge the heart of the plant (the small leaves in the center of the leaves) in water.

Step 6 – Place the plant in a bright sunny and very warm window.

Step 7 – When the bottom leaves toward the base of the plant start to turn brown or dry out or even look like they might be rotting pull them off the plant. Do this every 3 to 4 weeks or as needed to help the plant grow and to keep away rot.

Step 8 – Try to not replace the water unless absolutely necessary. The pineapple plant will start to make a rooting hormone and if you change the water you will get rid of that hormone and possible stop it from producing roots. Instead keep the water fresh by adding fresh to the water already in the jar every week. Or when the water level looks to low. If you fill the water and the level doesn’t do down or the water looks to cloudy you can pour out half of the water and add fresh water to it every week until the water looks fresh again, but try not to replace the water completely. You should start to see roots within 6-8 weeks or a little longer if it’s winter.

Step 9 – As soon as you can see a nice root forming plant it in soil so that the root doesn’t rot. The best soil types to use for pineapple plants are sandy loams.

Tips: If you buy a potting mix the best ones to use are cactus and citrus mix, and tropical plant mix. You can also use orchid mix as a base and mix in peat, sand, and perlite. For fertilizer a liquid based citrus plant fertilizer is prefect even though pineapples are berries. You want to use a citrus fertilizer because pineapples are high in vitamin c and citric acid is one of the main acids in pineapple.