How-To: Grow A Pineapple Top From The Grocery Store

Grow A Pineapple Top From The Grocery Store

Did you know a pineapple plant takes up to two years to produce a single fruit and that the fruit may be smaller than the parent plant? You can easily grow one yourself using water propagation techniques at home. It sounds harder than it really is, so go ahead and try it yourself - it’s fun and easy to do!

Step 1: Cut Off The crown/Top Of A Fresh Pineapple

Freshness is key! The longer the pineapple top (also known as the “crown” of the pineapple) can stay alive, the longer it has to propagate roots. You may even find that the crown is already sending out little air roots! Once you have cut off the pineapple top, make sure you peel off the bottom layer of leaves as close to the base of the crown where you made the cut to expose the core. (Pictured above)

Step 2: Immerse the Crown/top in water so that the exposed core is submerged

Make sure you change the water at least every other day (or when it starts to get cloudy.) so the roots can grow quickly. Some of the outer leaves may brown at the tips, but that is perfectly fine. So long as the center of the pineapple crown stays green, you’ll have a high chance of it taking root when you introduce it to soil.

Step 3: After 2-3 weeks of growth roots will appear

I was so excited my first successful attempt sprouting roots, I purchased more when I saw them on sale at my local Costco. I repeated the steps for my latest crown acquisition (Bwuahahaha!) and felt like, “The Mighty Queen Of Water Propagation”.

Step 4: Plant out pineapple crown with 1/4” root growth

Once your crown has a good 1/4” length in roots, it is safe to plant them in some soil. To save space, I used a small 1gal. plastic planter I rescued from the garbage pile during Spring Cleaning week. (You can definitely use a larger pot size if one is available to you.) Keep in mind if you decide to use the same pot size I did, you will need to re-pot within 6 months - 1 year after planting to encourage growth. Otherwise, you are welcome to keep it at this size if you only wish to grow it as a houseplant with no fruit production and just stop here.

Step 5: Re-Pot plant when it outgrows its container

You can plant your crown directly in soil or upgrade to a larger pot as shown here. Once the pineapple crown was transferred to the 5gal. pot, it continued to grow in size (look at the length of those leaf blades!) and after I had accidentally amended it with a flower blooming solution, the crown put out a few more pups at its base. Each crown will produce its own pineapple flower and fruit when the time is right. That’s it! =)