Exotic lovers who do not yet know how to grow pineapple at home will be surprised to learn that it is very simple to do. There is a lot of planting material - in any supermarket you can buy fresh pineapple. It is desirable that it be ripe, without rot and not frostbitten.
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Where and how to grow pineapple on plantations
Pineapple plantations are found in many tropical countries. The leader in its cultivation are the Hawaiian Islands. Here a third of the world harvest of these delicious fruits ripens.
To stimulate fruiting year-round, acetylene is used, which is formed after combining calcium carbide with water. The resulting solution is poured strictly into a leaf outlet, after which the pineapple begins to bloom. After fruiting, the bush dies, for propagation, plants take young shoots of axillary buds and the top of the fetus.
How to grow pineapple from seeds at home
There are no seeds in cultivars of pineapple. Ornamental forms of plants with beautiful coloring of leaves and smaller fruits, which are inedible, are grown in a seed way.
Famous species whose seeds can be bought in the store:
1. Pineapple bract striped. On the bright green leaves, reaching a length of 60 cm, cream and pinkish stripes are visible. The fruits are inedible.
2. Dwarf pineapple nanus. It blooms in spring with delicate pink flowers in the second year of life. Leaves about 45 cm long, covered with silvery hairs. The ripened fruit the size of a chicken egg is inedible.
3. Pineapple coxa mottled.Ripe pineapples can be eaten, they are slightly smaller than in the store, but sweeter and more aromatic. Pink and beige stripes are visible on the leaves.
To germinate the seeds, take a plastic container from under the cakes, make holes at the bottom for draining the water. The tank is filled with a substrate consisting of peat and sand or vermiculite.
Seeds are laid out on the surface, moistened with warm distilled water with the addition of Fitosporin. The container is covered with a transparent lid or bag and put in a bright place. Good results are obtained by germinating seeds on a battery or heating pad.
Without bottom heating, germination takes 2 or 3 months, with heating about 30 days. Twice a day, the greenhouse should be aired, and the substrate should be moistened as necessary.
Daylight hours for emerged seedlings should be at least 14 hours. When sowing seeds in winter, they are illuminated with a fluorescent lamp. The greenhouse is not cleaned.
When leaf rosettes at crops reach a diameter of 5 cm, they are planted in separate small pots. For planting, they buy in the store soil for orchids or bromeliads. You can prepare the substrate yourself from the leaf, garden soil, vermiculite and chopped pine bark in equal parts. Pots with seedlings are placed in packages without closing tightly. For the first time after transplanting, plants shade from the sun.
We grow from the top of pineapple: step by step instructions
For breeding use the top of a ripe pineapple. It is cut off, capturing the pulp by 2 cm, and put in a dark place for 3 to 4 days, so that the cut dried out.
Step-by-step instructions on how to grow pineapple at home from the top:
1. Take a planting pot, make good drainage of expanded clay in it.
2. A loose fertile soil for bromeliads is poured on top, in which a small depression is made.
3. Pour a little water into the hole, remove the lower leaves from the cuttings, cut the pineapple slice with “Kornevin”.
4. Plant the stem in the pit, compacting the soil tightly, cover it with a transparent bag and seal it with tape.
They put the plant in a warm and bright place, air it daily. The best time to plant is spring.
To root, you need an air temperature of 22 - 25 ° C, it is advisable to provide the roots with lower heating by placing the pot on the heating battery.
Small roots appear 2 or 3 weeks after planting. Pineapple roots do not grow in depth, but in breadth. After 3 months, small leaves will appear on the top, this indicates that the stalk has already taken root.
Propagation by root cuttings
After flowering, a fruit is tied. When it ripens, it is cut and taken care of by the plant as before. Most often, after fruiting, the mother plant dies.
During its flowering and fruiting, the pineapple begins to shoot lateral shoots. When the "kids" grow up, they are planted in separate pots, again waiting for flowering and fruits.
Home Care
Pineapple is put on the brightest place in the apartment. He loves fresh air, so in the summer you can take it to the sunny veranda. To increase air humidity (ideally it should be 70%), the plant is sprayed with warm water. The air temperature in the apartment must be maintained at about 24 ° C, in winter at least 15 ° C.
For irrigation take only filtered or rainwater. Watered very carefully, as the soil dries.
In summer - abundantly, in winter and autumn - in moderation. Water is poured along the edge of the pot without falling onto the foliage. In order for the pineapple to grow faster, it needs to be sprayed with Epin once every 2 weeks.
After 2-3 years, the plant will grow a large green mass. And only for 4 years can begin to bloom. Interestingly, a fruit grown at home is much tastier than imported pineapples. It ripens on the windowsill, and in supermarkets they sell half-ripe fruits that are better stored.
For normal development, the plant needs top dressing. Use preparations for orchids and bromeliads.It can be watered with conventional fertilizers for flowering indoor plants, breeding it 4 times with plenty of water than indicated in the instructions.
How to make pineapple blossom
If the pineapple on the windowsill does not want to bloom, it is covered with a plastic bag, 2 or 3 ripe apples are placed under the packet.
After a week, the apples are harvested, and the plant soon begins to bloom.
This is due to ethylene gas, which produces ripe fruit.
The bush is transplanted annually into a large container. Pineapple is very “gluttonous”, for normal growth it needs a lot of nutrients that it can get from fresh soil or top dressing. Capacity for landing should be wide and shallow. The plant that bears fruit is no longer transplanted; if it continues to grow, the topsoil is changed.
Rooting several tops of pineapple in store, after a while you can make a small plantation on the windowsill. It is only necessary to take into account the love of plants for light, fertilizing and high humidity.
