Recently, I took the crown off of a very tasty pineapple and I'm rooting it in water. Does anybody know the best type of soil to plant the rooted crown in? I have potting and cactus/succulent soil but I'm wondering if I need another type.

One of the major books that got me started into serious hose plant growing was: The After-Dinner Gardening Book, Richard Langer, 1974. Page 30: "....Coffee grounds are high in acid. If there is one thing Pineapples love, it is rich organic acidic soil.... I settled on a mix of 1/2 potting soil, 1/4 humus and 1/4 coffee grounds..." I recommend this book to anyone. See if Amazon has a used copy. Covers mangoes, avocadoes, papaya, pomegranate, dates, yams, bananas, and more. Gene

I had mine in sand & miracle grow potting mix, I had her 4 years and had to give her away because she got so big for my apartment, I put mine directly in the sand mixture and didnt root in water, I wasnt aware you could root them in water. Let us know how you make out.

I've started 2 by laying the cut-off tops on the ground & kind of snugging the soil against them, watered often.

gasrocks said:One of the major books that got me started into serious hose plant growing was: The After-Dinner Gardening Book, Richard Langer, 1974. Page 30: "....Coffee grounds are high in acid. If there is one thing Pineapples love, it is rich organic acidic soil.... I settled on a mix of 1/2 potting soil, 1/4 humus and 1/4 coffee grounds..." I recommend this book to anyone. See if Amazon has a used copy. Covers mangoes, avocadoes, papaya, pomegranate, dates, yams, bananas, and more. Gene

Wow I've never heard of adding coffee grounds before! Dumb question but do you use new or used grounds? Do you think I can add them to the soil late in game? I've had this guy for about a year and while it does have new growth, it doesn't seem to be thriving.

Buy a used copy of the book and learn a lot! Gene

Hi, welcome!
Dawn, it would be used coffee grinds! You can usually ask any coffee shop or restaurant for their grounds. Go ahead and sprinkle them all over the top of the soil. If you can easily work them into the soil in a couple of places that would be great but not necessary! May you be blessed with joy in your life!

gasrocks said:Buy a used copy of the book and learn a lot! Gene

I just ordered a copy of the book.

I've tried to plant ten pineapple tops, and they all died. I tried twisting off the top, peeling leaves back to the little roots, and sticking it in potting soil. Died.

Tried the same thing in water. Died.

Tried cutting off an inch of the whole fruit with the top. Some with rooting powder, and some without. They don't look great, but I still see a bit of green left.

Am now trying one with an inch of fruit, cut off the fruit leaving the root, and then letting it dry out for a week in the dark before planting.

Try to buy pineapples that have not been chilled.

Hey guys,
I bought a pineapple plant that already had a small pineapple growing from it. I re-potted it into a largish pot, and it seemed to be doing well. But now the crown of the fruit is growing huge, and the fruit itself is not growing at all. Does anyone know what could be wrong?

Still struggling up here in Canada lol
Northern Ontario to be exact but I got 2 rooted and growing pretty good except the actual pineapple is dwarfed I think cause it's

cause it's...? Looking very alive & kickin' but we are left hanging. Keep up the great work!

i bought decorative pineapple for xmas for an arrangement sometime ago and couldn't resist trying to root them.
may be 10 days after buying the stem below the little pineapple went mushy, so i cut them off. They all had nice crowns, but 1 was quite small, it didn't make it to the end. but 2 took.
you need to cut the stem may be with 1 inch of the top of fruit, but then remove the pulp and also carefully remove the bottom leaves - you should be able to see little root nubs. It's much harder for them to grow though the leaves, so you definitely need to give them better access.
you can then recut shorter if your roots are far from the bottom.
Next it needs to air dry for may be 4-5 days. Then i planted them in pure moist large perlite and put cling film all around the crowns to stabilize them and keep them firm in perlite and also to keep the perlite moist longer, as it dries up very fast.
and so they sat in their plastic mushroom tub for sev months in part sun. Didn't root for the longest time, and after sev months i had to scrape mold off the bottom and disinfect it in half peroxide solution for 30 sec, put cinnamon then on the bottom too.
eventually they did root in may be 6? months. Then in november i finally transferred them into a mix of peat, coco peat, coco chips, bark and large perlite - very free draining. I keep all my broms and other tropicals in it.

original pineapples dec 2016



crowns sitting in the tub june 2017



mar 2018 - the bigger of the 2 started new growth
i think it's Ananas comosus var bracteatus 'Tricolor'

Fabulous! I love the variegated form & pink pineapples. Do they remain smaller than the "regular" kind?

Hit the jackpot yesterday by scoring about 10 new tops to try to cultivate. Our little town had an annual concert/festival and there was a vendor selling fruit drinks with hollow pineapples being used as the "cup." I noticed a pile of tops behind the tent and asked if I could have a few. They said, "sure, grab an empty box or 2 & fill them up if you want, they're going in the dumpster." I can only house a couple more, so if the success rate is high, I'm happy to share or trade them.

I'm going to do these the way my other 2 (that took root & are still growing) were done, sit on soil surface & push soil up to the sides, water whenever it's been a week w/o rain.

your climate is quite good for that - warm and humid.
my second year growth is much bigger then the 1st year - which is not so good, as the edges are viciously spiky and i do not have room to grow them big. i think they are as big as regular in ground.
in small pots i should hope to dwarf them somewhat.

It sure is!

I got these grounded Wed & it rained yesterday. Wish them luck!




The one I started in June 2015: Its' leaves ARE vicious. I've trimmed the spiky tip off of each leaf. It can't fit through a doorway w/o some of its' leaves bending. Sharing its' pot with Coleus & Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi.

I set two crowns in the soil next to my roses. No special prep to crown or soil. They were in full sun most of time. Both appeared to shrivel up but then began to grow slowly. I just watered deeply as I usually did. This was in California but unfortunately we moved but the pineapple plants were about seven inches round. Other than watering, I really didn't pay too much attention to them.

Jtimmings said:Hey guys,
I bought a pineapple plant that already had a small pineapple growing from it. I re-potted it into a largish pot, and it seemed to be doing well. But now the crown of the fruit is growing huge, and the fruit itself is not growing at all. Does anyone know what could be wrong?

I don't think there's is anything wrong there, if you want pineapple for their fruit, better use enough space and light for them to grow big, other wise they can set fruit, but smallish, like tennis ball size fruit, it will stop growing their size, no matter what you do, but the crown will keep growing bigger and bigger outgrowing the fruit, becoming a new plant, fruit will decay then.... this is mostly what you will have if you grow them in pots, unless you can supply nutrition and light like commercial grower does.
The same thing happen if you disturb it while they are setting their fruits, like re-potting... they keep on growing, they are quite resilient, fruits hanging on but stunted, however their crown will continue growing big...they want to continue on living, forgetting the fruits... they kind of smart.

Altheabyanothername said:Hi, welcome!
Dawn, it would be used coffee grinds! You can usually ask any coffee shop or restaurant for their grounds. Go ahead and sprinkle them all over the top of the soil. If you can easily work them into the soil in a couple of places that would be great but not necessary! May you be blessed with joy in your life!

Hi,
How often should I put coffee grounds in my pineapple plant?

I grew some pineapple tops just by putting them on the soil and they grew like crazy all summer, but the frost got them. It would be better to pot them up if you live in a frost zone.

I have been using coffee grinds for many years. They are pure nitrogen for your plants. They make everything grow fast. You can get them by the garbage bag full at Starbucks or any of the coffee houses. They love for people to recycle them.

If you're adding them to the pots, (the grinds), you don't want to add them too often. Like I said they are pure nitrogen. I would only add a small amount every 2 months and then water it in.