But, now it's beautiful again, and I love being outside and seeing all the fabulous things that have survived the Arizona "tough love" program. One of my favorites is this:
If you're not well-traveled in Hawaii or other tropical regions, you may not recognize these. They are in fact pineapple plants. And they are EASY to grow. (So easy that I can grow them in the summer. That's beyond the realm of easy and edging into ludicrously simple territory, that is.)
If you'd like your own pineapple plantation:
- Take a nice fresh pineapple from your local produce market. (Nothing that's been chilled, because that may prevent growth.)
- Go ahead and prepare and eat the pineapple. No waste and yummy dessert: the best of both worlds.
- Take the crown--the leafy, spiky top that you cut off to eat the fruit--and remove any fruit or peel that may remain on it. You only want the spiky bit, and anything else on it will just rot and make a mess.
- Take the crown and put it into a bowl of water--a cereal bowl will do.
- Set the bowl in a nice sunny spot and keep it watered.
- Within a couple of weeks roots should start to form. You can then take the new plant and pot it or put it into the garden. (All of ours--we have four now--were started in pots and transplanted.) If you put them outside, remember to give them a little shade if you live in an intensely hot area--like us--and no matter where you live you will have to protect them from freeze and frost damage during the winter. Kept indoors in a large pot, in a northern-lighted room, one will produce fruit (one pineapple--this is not a high-yield plant!) in two years. Outside? Well, I'll let you know if it ever gets that far. But in the meantime I have some interesting plants and the hope of a taste of paradise.
