With good care, the ornamental pineapple (Ananas comosus) develops attractive fruits. Our guide will tell you whether you need to cut off the fruit of the ornamental pineapple and how to do it.
In a nutshell
- Cutting off the fruit is not absolutely necessary
- do not use fully ripe fruits for propagation, but use those just before ripening
- Cut off ripe fruit with a sharp knife
- Use the tuft of leaves (stalk) to grow a new plant
- Death of the mother plant after flowering and fruiting
Table of contents
- cut fruit
- The optimal time
- Prune and propagate properly
- frequently asked Questions
cut fruit
When the pineapple fruit is ripe, you can cut it off and use it to grow a new pineapple plant, for example. You can, but do not necessarily have to, remove unripe fruit. But whether harvested ripe or immature, the mother plant will most likely die. Pineapple is one of those bromeliads, which develop flowers and fruit only once in their lives. In this course, offshoots called Kindel develop, which can be planted separately in pots.
Tip: If your ornamental pineapple has not yet formed any buds when the fruit ripens, cut them Fruit and leave the mother plant - naturally supplied with water and nutrients - for a while stand. Sometimes the small offshoots only appear at a later date.
The optimal time
Since the pineapple fruit has a high ornamental value, you can leave it on the plant for as long as possible. The best time to cut off the fruit is when it is ripe and the ornamental pineapple has grown. You can recognize fruit ripeness by these signs:
- Fruit yields to slight pressure
- strong yellow colour
- aromatic fragrance
On the other hand, if the fruits are still green and hard, leave them on the mother plant. Only if you want to use the fruit for propagation should you use it just before it is ripe cut: At this point it has already taken on a yellowish tint, but is still right hard. Medium-ripe fruits are easier to root than fully ripe ones because they don't rot as quickly.
Tip: Pineapple plants do not need to be pruned. Only yellow and withered leaves should be removed, as these rob the plant of too much strength for further growth and for the development of the fruit.
Prune and propagate properly
Cutting the fruit is not complicated. Use a sharp and disinfected knife and be careful not to injure yourself on the hard and sometimes quite sharp leaves. And this is how you proceed when cutting:
- Cut fruit and stalk from mother plant
- Remove stem
- for propagation: cut the top of the leaf off the pineapple
- remove all fruit residue
- Let the stalk dry for a day or two
Then place the stalk in a glass of water, which you should change regularly. Provide light (no direct sun!) and warmth, and the tuft of leaves will soon put down roots. Are these approx. five to ten centimeters long, you can plant the stalk in the ground and get one from the fruit pulled new pineapple.
Tip: pineapple is one tropical plant and therefore requires a lot of heat. Provide a bright location, plenty of warmth and moisture - the substrate must not be wet, but must not dry out either - and install a plant lamp if necessary.
frequently asked Questions
Basically, the fruit of the ornamental pineapple is edible, provided it is really ripe. However, pineapple fruits rarely ripen in our latitudes, and you should also buy the fruits from mother plants bought in stores Better not to eat: These are often treated with toxic pesticides, which you also ingest by eating the fruit take.
Pineapple plants take a few years to develop flowers and then fruit. You can expect about six to eight years until the stalk that has just been rooted is ready and bears fruit. Commercially available plants have often already reached this age, which is why they bear fruit much earlier. It takes about one to two years from the first blossom to the ripening of the fruit.
You grow new pineapple plants from the children that the mother plant develops at the same time as the fruit. These are already (partially) rooted and only have to be carefully removed and placed separately in plant pots. It is best to plant the small offshoots in potting soil or a sand-peat mixture and always keep the substrate slightly moist. The already described propagation via the stalk is a bit more complicated, especially since this often rots through the rooting in the water.
