Pineapple Tops

Here are the pineapple tops that I have growing in some pots in the yard. I'm a little bit obsessed with these guys these days. I'm still fascinated with the whole process and I eye up the pineapples in the store and wonder if there is an empty pot at home.  I have 4 growing right now, but I see many more in my future!  When I first plant mine, they do get quite a bit brown before they perk up and start throwing out new bright green growth. The one up top is a few weeks old.  The one just below was planted a month or two ago. You can see the new green growth in the center. 

I think I'm gonna trim these guys up and take off all of the brown leaves. They don't look so hot in these pics but they seem quite happy in person.

The plant below is the oldest of them all, probably a good 3 months old. You can see lots of nice new green growth coming from the center.  I look forward to watching them slowly grow, even if they never produce a pineapple they'll at least be really nice tropical plants!

Free Plant With Purchase of a Pineapple

Did you know that a pineapple plant at a garden store costs $8.99?  Do you wanna know how to get a free pineapple plant? Of course you do! Well, each  and every pineapple purchased in it's whole form comes with a free pineapple plant. You heard that right, the pineapple you're looking at has both a delicious yellow edible center and the beginnings of a beautiful pineapple plant. All you do is pull the top off like this:

Now, go ahead and eat that yummy bottom part, I like mine in a blender with some rum, but you do what feels right for you :)  So, on to the free plant!  We're talking about the spiky green topper laying there.This guy:

You take hold of it any which way you can and start pulling off the very bottom leaves. You'll see that they overlap so just start pulling off row and after row, and you get:

ROOTS! Isn't that fantastic!  I still can't believe it, I had no idea that hidden under a few rows of leaves are honest to goodness roots, roots, roots!  Now that you have the roots exposed you plunk the topper into a pot of soil (or the ground) and water it in well. It's not necessary, but if you're not going to plant it right away, you can park it in a glass of water like so:

Go ahead and try it. It's so cool to see that first row of roots appear.   Now I'm itching to get my hands on another pineapple.....