Wednesday, August 06, 2008

More growth.

Some of you may remember from my container garden post last year that Andy and I try to grow things in our little back patio. We're not doing terribly well, because it's a very small space and it's quite shady. But, we've gotten a handful of cherry tomatoes in the past few months and our herbs save us a lot of money. Nacho is ambivalent about the catnip plant we got for her, but she does enjoy the cat grass. We've recently gotten creative and reclaimed the decorative garden beds at the front of our unit to plant chillies and thyme (where they actually get sunlight).

One plant that we've managed to keep alive for about two years is our pineapple. When we lived in the share-house we stuck the top of a pineapple into the ground to see what happened. When we moved out of that place we stuck the pineapple into a pot and brought it with us. It came with us to our first unit, and then it made the move again to where we are now. This is what it looked like last August, when it was one year old and still fruitless.

Just a few weeks ago Andy said he was thinking of chucking the pineapple plant so we could use the pot for something else. It's big and spiky and doesn't even give us any fruit.
That threat must have been some good motivation because shortly after that conversation I looked outside and saw some pink leaves. Well, you can imagine my excitement when I saw this in the centre of our pineapple plant...

A tiny fruit! I don't know how long pineapples take until they're ready, but in just a week it grew noticeably.
Okay, maybe it doesn't show so well in the photo but it has grown considerably. Hoepfully it won't be too long until it's ready!

14 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Your plants are gorgeous!

Bianca said...

Wow! I didn't even know that's how pineapples grew. I thought maybe they grew on trees. That looks so cute.

Anonymous said...

Hey lucky you didnt thorw it out Pineapples take 2 years to fruit! and you will only get one fruit of a plant!

Looks good though! Be sure to put up a photo when you harvest!

Anonymous said...

I think I remember that from my Hawaii trip - 2 years! We went to the Dole pineapple groves - it smelled like a pina colada. I love your pineapple plant.

Vaala ◪ said...

Wow, that's impressive. I've never seen a pineapple plant before. I hope it bears delicious fruit. I reckon we'd kill a plant if we tried growing something here since I just realised I've left my orienteering shoes out on the balcony in the pouring rain for the last 4 days (for about the millionth time)! Ironically I'd put them out there to dry but as usual I've managed to forget about them!

Kati said...

Wow, that's amazing! I've heard it takes pineapples a long time to grow. Hopefully yours will mature soon!

tofufreak said...

pineapple! that is so cool! and it would definitely be exciting if it actually grew and became large. I've never seen a pineapple plant in real life, but hope to soon.

Vegan_Noodle said...

How cool!! This gives me hope that maybe our avocado tree (which we've had for years) may someday produce an avocado. Can't wait to see the big juicy pineapple!

Steffi said...

wee! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the pineapple!

Anonymous said...

I was thinking about potting the top of one of my pineapples one time and after looking online, I learned it takes about 3 years for it to grow 1 pineapple. So I'd say your little plant there is right on schedule! Hang in there.

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

no way! I love how it looks exactly like a pineapple top... except huger. good luck with the wee fruit!

The Vegan Snorkeler said...

A baby pineapple!!! Even if it does take a long time to grow, it's so pretty!

Groover said...

I always put the pineapple tops in the garden, just because they looked so pretty, but we never watched what happened. I didn't know that this actaully works. Maybe they are having a pineapply farm in that Cairns backyard now? :-)

Unknown said...

100 foot diet pineapples! Cool! I wish that would work here!