Pineapples everywhere

I say it about a lot of fruit, but pineapples are really one of my favorite fruit.

When I started out with a few pineapple tops, I could never imagine how my pineapple crop would snowball. Once it starts fruiting, most plants produce two or more little offsets on the fruit stem, these can be wrenched off, left to dry a day or so, then planted. I leave the parent plant and it generally produces suckers that fruit faster than any other means of propagation. Within a few years, I have more than 50 plants scattered throughout my garden, anywhere there's a little spot, I stick it in.

No one living in a subtropical climate has any excuse not to grow pineapples.

Pineapples are undemanding, beautiful and offer up a feast in 2-3 years. No store bought pineapple can taste like a ripened pineapple right from your garden.

For the last few weeks , we've been eating one or two pineapples from my garden every day . Most were sweet like candy, with a hint of coconut. Some were less sweet, but for the treasure trove of minerals, vitamins and fibre, who cares. Some are fist sized, some are large like their store bought parents. It likely depends on how much water and nutrient it received.

Nothing is easier to grow, just twist off the top, let it dry a day or two, then make a small hole, stick it in and tamp the soil around it. I don't do anything special, no watering, fertilizing, nothing. They just grow, take their time. Once I plant them, I leave and forget about them, until one day, they suddenly start flowering and within a few months offer up their prize.

The picture below is my new pineapple patch where I removed the dead banana plants, most of these are tops from the fruit we've been eating, some from offsets and a few store bought tops.