Photo: Kat Pearson.
BY KAT PEARSON, GIRL IN THE GREEN
Surely most people like pineapples. Unless they’re on pizza, in which case it’s swords drawn. But let’s not go down THAT particular path. Pineapples exude tropical holidays – fresh slices wedged on the side of your cocktail (or mocktail) or tiny triangles adding a bit of zing to a fruit salad. Delicious.
Did you know that the pineapple you are savouring took anywhere from 18 to 24 months to grow? Definitely patience-testing – but that being said, they don’t require any interference during that time, so you can set and forget.
Pineapple plants (Ananas comosus) are a member of the Bromeliaceae (bromeliad) family. They come from the Brazilian region in South America and their genus name, Ananas, means ‘excellent fruit’ in the Indigenous Tupi language.
The fruit is a compound fruit – the flower head has lots of individual flowers that each form a little fruit that then fuse together to make the pineapple we know, and at the top of the pineapple fruit is the start of another plant! The original plant your fruit grew on will die, so that more or less leaves you with a perpetual pineapple situation. Unless, of course, you’re lucky and your plant produces pups or ‘slips’ (baby plants) at the base, which can also flower and grow pineapples.
Pineapples are a non-climacteric fruit, which means they don’t ripen after you pick them. They may continue to soften, and the chlorophyll (green colour) will fade, so they might get more yellow, but technically, they will not get sweeter. This means that pineapples grown at home are the best, because you can wait until they’re golden yellow and perfectly ripe to give you the most excellent fruit!
To grow your own pineapple, take the top leafy section off a store-bought fruit, peel off the bottom few layers of leaves, and sit it in a saucer of water until it develops roots. Then, find a sunny spot to plant it (either in the ground or a pot) and water it a few times until it’s established. Wait two years, testing your patience particularly over the last six months from the beginning of your flower (very exciting) until the fruit is perfectly ripe, and then be devastated when you realise there’s a rat-sized hole in the other side and you need to start the process all over again. So, maybe plant a couple for backup…
