News, Prickly question: Do pineapples grow on trees? (spider, grass, backyard)

[JD59]

It's unlikely that you'll need a ladder to harvest that sweet, spiky fruit.

Do pineapples grow on trees? | MNN - Mother Nature Network

[lifelongMOgal]

Originally Posted by John1960

It's unlikely that you'll need a ladder to harvest that sweet, spiky fruit.

Do pineapples grow on trees? | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Is there really anyone in the gardening section who thought pineapples grew on trees?

[KonaKat]

I have had many people visit my home, wander around in the yard and exclaim "Oh! That's how a pineapple grows?" LOL

[Crazee Cat Lady]

Actually thanks.
Me and my husband were discussing this the other day, and debating whether they grew on trees or as plants. (I felt stupid asking anyone though)

[wit-nit]

Oh wow, and all this time I was wondering when my pine tree would bear some apples...

[Dreison Rhodes]

I do know that, in parts of W. Africa, at least the parts I was in, people will cut the stem off of the Pineapple and place it in the ground, it will grow into a pineapple vine and will bear fruit. Was a pleasant surprise, I really do like FRESH Pineapple, Banana and Plantain, and fresh Mangos are also quite good as well. They also had varieties of melon I have never seen anywhere else that were also delicious.

[davidals]

They are a bromeliad - the same family of plants that includes spider plants and spanish moss.

They belong to the order of plants that includes:

bromeliads (pineapples, spanish moss, spider plants)
grasses
rushes (cattails)
zingiberales (ginger, cardamom, turmeric, bananas)

Those four basic families are DISTANT relatives of each other.

[Wembley]

If I remember correctly the pineapple grows on more of a bush type plant not a tree.

[hamellr]

They are definitely a bush.


(Dole Plantation on Oahu, Hawaii)

[hotzcatz]

A pineapple plant is just like a much larger version of the top of the pineapple. A big pineapple plant will have leaves up to about a foot and a half long so the whole plant would be maybe three feet across. They get about knee high or so and then they send up a central stalk that has the pineapple on it. It is a two year "crop" though, from setting a pineapple top into the ground until you get another pineapple so that might be why they don't grow them in many places on the mainland. Usually late summer is when the pineapples in my backyard get ripe.

There is a "white" pineapple which is sweeter than the more common yellow one although they both have the green bumpy rind which turns a yellow gold color when ripe.

To plant a pineapple, twist the top off. Then pull several layers of leaves off the bottom to expose the little rootlets starting at the base. Push that into some well draining soil and give it sunlight. We put it in direct sunlight here, but I don't know if the islands get as hot as the mainland does. Drenching the soil and then letting it get almost dry before drenching it again would be what the plants are used to around here. They don't really put down big roots, they almost seem to grow along the top of the ground. After the plant fruits, it will usually set up fruit again, although usually the fruits aren't as big as the first one.