O/T Kona Sugarloaf pineapple pups

[WillsC]

Have quite a few pups available if anyone is interested. I will fill a small flat rate box with them, 10 per box and shipping is included for $25. These are not the grocery store pineapples you are use to. They are in my opinion 10 times as good as the grocery store fruit and easier to fruit in pots. Unlike the grocery store pineapples there is no inedible core, you can eat the entire pineapple. The fruit can get up to 10 pounds. The fruit from the Kona don't ship well so you will never find them in stores.

These are fresh unrooted slips. What I do is break them off let them sit in the air a few days till they callous then just pop them in soil, they root and grow. You will get almost 100% to take. Remember once rooted to fertilize the whorl (center) of the plant as they are a bromeliad. Florida hill is selling them on Ebay for $14 each with shipping.......... I will put some up also if any are left but figured I would give people here first crack.

Just paypal to [email protected] Please include your screen name here in the notes in case there are any problems.

[jmaler]

So, how does this grow, plant now and 2 years from now we get a pineapple? Do they have a chance in zone 8b?

[WillsC]

Yep 2-3 years, all depends on how they are fed and the zone. They make a nice house plant. They can't take any frost or freezes. I grow them around my Blueberry bed as the freeze protection for the BB protects them as well and against the house they are fine also.

[nepenthes]

Expect money soon, Wills. I just need the O.K. from hubby. I want to say I hate you for making me add more houseplants, but who am I kidding. Keep feeding my obsession.

[nepenthes]

Hey Wills, money sent. Thanks a bunch!

[lilfiggy]

sending money for pineapple puppies.

[Erick]

Hey Wills,
Do you still have some left?

[WillsC]

Yep still have a lot left.

[sppsp]

Sweet, paypal sent, Thanks

[jmaler]

I'm trying to talk myself into this.

About what size pot?

If grown totally indoors about how much light is requiried? Are we talking like grow lights? I can do grow lights.

About how much vertical space is needed?

[WillsC]

1 gallon pot to start, later a 3 gallon. If you grow it inside they will take very little light to survive BUT less light will delay fruiting. You might take 3 years? Outside in summer. Vertical not that much, they don't get tall, maybe 24" including the pot??? Perhaps a bit more as it gets big.

[Greg88]

Any special soil requirements around pH etc.?

[nepenthes]

A well draining medium, more on the acid end. I've grown bromeliads and they haven't been super picky. This will be my first time with pineapples, but I don't think there will be a significant difference.

[WillsC]

What he said They like a bit of acid, they grow best around my blueberry beds as they like the low PH overspray and the ammonium sulfate.

[nepenthes]

She, Wills, she. But it's cool.. only because you're giving me a boatload of bromeliads

[Greg88]

Thanks,

[growcrazie]

paypal sent, thanks. I have been wanting to try pineapple. When they get here , I just stick them in soil? By break them off you mean off the plant, which is what you have already done, right

[WillsC]

Yep. The pineapples like to throw slips around the developing pineapple, it is best to remove these small plants. Just let them sit somewhere for a few days in the air but out of the sun or in the sun I doubt it matters as they are tough. Then just push the bottom down in to the soil and they will root, almost 100% of them do. Technically pups are the plants they make around the outside base of the plant, so I guess pineapple slips would have been a better description.

[WillsC]

They will be mailed out on Saturday.

[WillsC]

Sorry all had a delay, the pineapple pups will go out Monday morning, my apologies.

[nepenthes]

Got mine in the mail today. Thanks a bunch, Wills!

[WillsC]

Glad they arrived.

[bigfig]

Wills any chance they will grow in zone 6 ?

[WillsC]

They will grow fine in zone 6 IF you take them in and treat them as a house plant during the winter. Outside in winter? Not a chance.

[hoosierbanana]

What if my house gets hardly any sunlight in the winter? Can they go dormant: no light/no water, like my cactus?

[WillsC]

Brent,

They don't go dormant in the winter but they can handle lower light conditions but it will delay the fruiting.

[nepenthes]

If you have a winter setup for fig cuttings, you should be able to mix some pineapples in without any problems. I was a bit impatient and potted them into 1 gallons without waiting for calluses. I've done this with spineless opuntia with no ill effects.



The pineapples are mixed in with my other plant cuttings on a shelf in my tortoise enclosure. I have no idea what the growth rate will be where environmental conditions mimic that of parts of Brazil. Hopefully I won't be adding any more shelves too soon.



The point of this post was me trying to be an enabler. Get some sugarloaf pineapples, people!

[Greg88]

Got mine yesterday.
Thanks

[jmaler]

Still trying to talk myself into pineapples.

Here is my grow room for starting 250 tomato plants and 50 various other veggies each spring minus the clutter. I am transitioning from tomatoes to figs so should have room for the pineapples. The lights contain grow lights. I can keep the room 50 ish degrees when outdoors is in upper 20's.

What humidity do the pineapples like? I have humidifier i use for smoking sausage.

Water whorl with liquid fert, yes?

Keep water in whorl at all times, yes or no? I have rotted bromeliads before, actually every one I ever tried to grow.

Keep soil moist with water and fert, yes?

[nepenthes]

I've tried to do some reading on this. Apparently, they like to be kept on the drier side. For bromeliads, in general, I used distilled water for the whorl every so often. I don't always keep them filled. I'd say that if you use the same medium for figs (5-1-1-1 minus the lime), you shouldn't have any issues with rot. My environment for these guys are the same for all my houseplants: 70-82F with humidity over 70%. Bromeliads are pretty tough as long as you don't have tortoises trying to knock them over.

[jmaler]

Thanks Alma.

[Fruitaddict]

Hey Wills, this is awesome that you have these. I was on the Big Island for a week and a half, just got home last weekend. We stayed in Waikoloa, just north of Kona. Super beautiful island. We ate a handful of pineapples over there, and all of them were sweet with low acidity. I was gonna ask a seed dealer over there if he could send me some keikis or slips, but now that you have offered, well you are the main man now. Are there more available?