Papaya Vs Pineapple

As I shop around for my grocery of the week, I stop by at the fruit and vegetable section and grab one pineapple for and 3 solo papayas for my alkaline supply. Wow, the price of these local fruits are not cheap anymore. I always assumed that they're reasonably priced until I make a point to actually read the price tag. That's why all the more reason why we should try to grow a plant or two in our backyard. I am planting these 2 fruits now, and hopefully in no time, I can reap the 'fruit' of my labour and enjoy the great taste anytime you want all year round.

The pineapple, however is not as convenient to grow. One, it took longer times to bear fruits, between 1-2 years (!!) and secondly, it bears fruit one at a time. So, at the moment, I am only planting one pineapple as a trial project, or hobby, whatver!


The second picture shows (if you can see) some roots sprouting from the pineapple crown. I think it takes almost one months to get to these stage. I plan to plant it infront of my house as a decor plant.

The papaya, on the other hand, is more viable. You can have a tree and they can bear numerous fruits for you. You can find some benefits of the papaya in my posting here.

As you can see, the papaya plants is growing healthily in the nursery pot. That batch is about 1 and half month old. I am yet to find out when I should start planting it on the ground, and the exact location in my backyard.

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.