Starting on the Pineapples!

Ok, here's the tricky part...my first question before I learned anything about planting pineapples. Where are the seeds? Is it in the 'eyes'? Must be very small.... where is it??

That was how ignorant I was. I always took it for granted that pineapples are there anytime you need it. Sometimes I take a lot, but after a while when I start to have this raw toungue or itchy throat, I'd stop taking it for a while. So eating pineapples is seasonal for me, even when its available all year round. But I just love pineapples on pizza or in my sweet and sour fish dish. It also tastes good in ikan gulai assam rebus. And pineapples tarts...! That's another topic of passion...er, I mean, discussion.

So back to the question, how do you plant it? Here's what I found. Pineapples are actually bromeliads, and so it does not have seeds. It is related to Spanish moss and some interesting ornamental plants. These ornamentals are interesting in that they absorb water and nutrients from a water-tight reservoir formed where the leaves come together, or by absorptive hairs which cover the Spanish moss and similar bromeliads, allowing them to draw water and nutrients from the fog and dust in the air. Amazing, isn't it!

Pineapples reproduce using "pups" from their base. Once a pineapple plant flowers and grows a fruit, that plant will never produce fruit again, unless it has shoots from the mother plant.

So, from my 'research', you need to cut off or pull out the crown fron the fruit by twisting it off. In my case, I just chopped it up. Peel the fruit, and eat the flesh.... or save it in the refrigerator for later indulgence. Remove the excess flesh and peel of some leaves from the crown, about 1/4 of the leaves to leave a base to the crown. You can either soak this base in a glass of water, or plant it in the pot or straight to the ground. I decided to try the first option. It'll be interetsing to see the root sprouts.

This one looks real yummy, isn't it? Well...it was!

Waiting......waiting.......waiting.........

Pineapples may be the healthiest fruit around. It contains enzymes that help you digest protein. So when you eat a lot of meat, go BBQ-ing, it's a good idea to eat some pineapples or drink some juice.

This delicously tangy fruit are also full of Vitamin C, omega-3 fatty acids, beta carotene and other nutrients as well. Pineapples also contain bromelain which has is anti-inflammatory and may decrease blood clotting as well.

The only 'challenge' I see is this fruit is that it takes 1-2 years to fruit, which means I won't be enjoying the 'fruit of my labour' fast enough and repeats are also tough because I don't have a plantation size backyard to grow it for a whole year round supply. So, unlike the papayas, its still back to the supermarket to enjoy pineapples. Thus, this one plant is to be my trial plant and a hobby, apparently.