Growing Pineapples in Florida

A few years ago I wrote about growing pineapples just using the left over stalk of the pineapple once you have cut the fruit off. I include the link to that previous post here.  Coming to Fruition - Pineapples

It really is so easy to grow your own pineapples, I thought a follow up blog was in order, especially since we are having such a hot, humid and rain filled summer here in South Florida - the timing is perfect.

So you bought a pineapple at the store and you cut the top off and used the fruit......don't throw that stalk away!!

The  left-over top of the pineapple

Pull the bottom leaves off. I find they come off very easily if you go in a clockwise direction, rather than just pulling them downwards. You want to remove about 2" like the picture above. This is called a slip.


Plant your pineapple slip in a well drained, sunny location. It is important to remember that pineapples grow quite large - both upwards and their diameter can be well over 3 feet - and since they have rather sharp, spiky leaves that will nick a bare leg, so best thing is to not plant them too close to a pathway. Put a little well rotted organic compost in the planting hole. Pineapples do not need much water, they take in water through their leaves and, like the bromeliad family to which they belong, they do not have a very deep root system at all. Don't fertilize them with commercial fertilizer. Check on your slips every day for about two weeks, because any left over pineapple on the root stem can attract critters. If you find it has been dug up, just replant, no worries.

After 3 months your pineapple will look like this.

3 months growth

6 months growth

6 months growth

Somewhere between 18 to 24 months (yes they grow slowly), you will first notice, nestled among the leaves, a little flower floret. That is your 'baby' pineapple!! Then the floret develops into this - see picture below - looks almost like a pine cone, doesn't it?

Above - The baby pineapples loses no time in developing its own little head of leaves above the developing fruit.

Progressing nicely, but it hasn't yet flattened out those buds and is a way from being ripe.

Almost there.....

I tend to cut mine a little early and then let them sit in the fruit bowl with a few apples to ripen it off, otherwise the result is this....

"Aarghhh!!" - chomped on - eewww... who wants to eat that!

Growing pineapples is ridiculously easy, especially in Florida. Indeed, someways south of where we live, in Lake Worth, alongside the lagoon, there was once acres and acres of pineapples.

Do you have any experience of growing pineapples? If so what is your success and failure story?

Coming to Fruition - Pineapples

Several years ago a friend of mine mentioned that the top (a slip) removed from a ripe pineapple can be rooted and will produce another pineapple.


So, over quite a few years, we dutifully planted a few pineapple slips here and there, and promptly forgot about them. Sure enough they rooted and thrived, and in their own prickly, spiny, and somewhat primitive bromiliad way they make an interesting addition to the garden. However, none of them ever bore any fruit.

Then prowling around the garden in January........drum roll please....
....we noticed that several of them had flower-type-something-going-on.


Eventually this floret developed purple flowers, which were very pretty, but I forgot to take a photo of.

April; and finally the pineapple reveals itself! According to the University of Florida IFAS Extension's website (link listed below) the pineapple is ripe when the peel (called a shell) turns from its green color to yellow. As this is also right around the time when squirrels and raccoons become interested in eating said ripe pineapple, I cut mine off just below pineapple, before it started to turn yellowish,  and then I refrigerated the whole thing until the shell turned yellow.



I was concerned that it would be dried out, but when I cut it up......it was so juicy and sweet, and check out that vibrant color!

If however, you decide to let it ripen fully in the garden, the Extension's website suggests covering the pineapple with a paper bag to protect it from being chewed on. I'd go ahead and draw a scary face on the bag just for added effect.... :)

Here is how we got ours rooted and a link for more info is below. 

1)   Cut the spiky top off ripe pineapple. I left a little bit of the fruit to feed the slip.

2)   Peel off the bottom leaves, about 2" worth, to reveal a stalk. Don't use rooting powder, you don't need it.

3)   Plant in garden up to the bottom leaves.

4)   Water regularly, feed, and in approximately 18 to 24 months you will be the proud owner of a garden fresh pineapple.

I am growing mine in pots to give them a good start.


When you go to transplant your rooted slips, be aware that the mature pineapple plant might easily get 3 feet across in diameter. Also the leaves are sharp, so don't plant them close to your walkway.

Good Luck!

Click Here for University of Florida IFAS Extension website