# Pineapple Plant Repotting HELP!



## GoatNamedDunn (Jun 20, 2008)

I got a fruiting pineapple plant as a gift. The second day at home the fruit was to heavy for the stem of the plant and bent the stalk. The fruit died, unfortunately. So I removed the fruit and kept the plant. I keep this poor plant in my windowsil and its the sorriest looking thing. I've forgotten about it for a weeks stretch but its a trooper. The tips are brown and some have spots were it looks like it got sun burnt. Poor plant 

Today I went to water it and I noticed it had a new growth coming at the bottom of the old plant. It needs a bigger pot, so is it okat to go ahead and do so?


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## culpeper (Nov 1, 2002)

Your plant may or may not fruit again. It's easy to propagate a pineapple. Just buy a fruit with leaves attached, twist off the leaves, remove a few layers of leaves from the broken-off bit of the stalk (just enough so that it can go into the soil), and away it will go. Being a bromeliad, it doesn't need to go very deep into the soil - just a centimetre or two will do it. 

You can repot your plant at any time. Just remember that pineapples are tropical plants, so they need plenty of heat, plenty of sun, and plenty of water. 

Here in the subtropics I have several pineapple plants grown that way. They get surprisingly big - about a metre across, or more - so a windowsill isn't exactly the ideal position for it - especially so close to glass which can easily burn a plant.

There's a secret to getting the plant to fruit. After 7 years of waiting, waiting, I eventually learned the trick to it. There are 2 ways - (1) gently but firmly poke a stick into the centre of the plant - the bit that holds the water. Move the stick up and down several times (like 'having sex with it'). Or (2) when watering your pineapple, put your hose onto a hard jet, and hose right into the centre of the plant. Either way, you're stimulating the plant to produce fruit ('forcing' it), and it works.


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## GoatNamedDunn (Jun 20, 2008)

(like 'having sex with it'). 

I'm sorry but that made me burst out laughing!!! This plant right now is really small, so the windowsil if fine right now (its a pretty wide windowsil anyways). I read that a bigger pots measurements should be about 6 inches bigger than the previous? Does that sound right?


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## Cason (May 28, 2007)

I start mine in sand.


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## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

6" sounds about right for repotting.

I have had great luck potting mine up into 5 gallon buckets, using used coffee grounds instead of potting soil. Yours sounds a little small yet for a bucket, but hopefully it will get that big in the next year or two.

Good luck- fresh homegrown pineapple is one of life's great luxuries.


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## GoatNamedDunn (Jun 20, 2008)

Thanks. It is only about about a foot wide from farthest tip to tip. The only trouble I have to get it to refruit is that the hard stalk that was left behind from the fruit in the middle of the plant. I can't seem to remove it, and I don't want to damage my plant by ripping it out.


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