How to grow a home pineapple
Homemade pineapple looks impressive and creates a special atmosphere in the room. If you know some of the subtleties, it is not difficult to grow it.
How to grow pineapple at home?
This perennial plant is native to the tropics and is not grown in the middle lane in the open field. It grows up to 1 m in height and can be 2 m in diameter, but indoors it is usually smaller. On a short trunk there is a rosette of long, belt-like leaves, on which many tubular flowers appear, and six months later, a large brown compound fruit with a green bunch on top develops.
Pineapple at home is an ornamental plant.
It is difficult to get an edible fruit at home, but you can achieve high decorativeness in the following way:
- Preparation of planting material. To do this, you need a rosette of leaves cut from the top of a ripe fruit. Wash it in a solution of potassium permanganate, sprinkle with ash and dry.
- Landing. Pour the drainage layer and a mixture of humus with peat, sand and turf soil into a small pot. Make a recess in the middle, pour a handful of charcoal and lower the socket into it. Drizzle and cover with plastic wrap.
- Rooting. Maintain in a temperature of about 25 ° C and good lighting, constantly moisturizing. After about 2 months, leaves begin to grow, roots appear.
If pineapple is already growing in the apartment, you can use cuttings cut from the peduncle, cuttings or seeds for reproduction.
Flowering occurs 4 years after planting, the plant develops normally if conditions are suitable for it:
- Well lit place. On the south window, the leaves will become fleshy and dark, their tips will turn red a little, the rosette will thicken. Additional lighting will be needed in winter.
- Constant temperature. Keep it indoors in the summer from 22 to 30, and in the winter about 20 ° C. At a temperature of + 18 ° C and below, the plant begins to ache and may die. Increase the humidity by placing the pot on a layer of expanded clay filled with water.
- Regular watering. This is especially important in the summer heat. Pour water into an outlet, spray. In spring and summer, feed with mineral and organic fertilizers. Perform winter watering once a week at the root.
- Rare transplants. Pineapple does not tolerate them well, so change the pot only as a last resort, when the roots are overgrowing.
- Flowering stimulation. When smoked, the plant is more likely to bloom. Cover it with plastic wrap, put embers next to it. Perform the stimulation three times with an interval of 10 days.
After the inflorescence appears, the fruit ripens in 3-4 months. It is impractical to choose a specific variety for growing, since it partially loses its characteristics indoors.
When grown at home, it is difficult to get tasty fruits. For an apartment, it is rather an ornamental plant with an exotic and spectacular appearance.