Self-sufficient-farm diary #3: pineapples

Next after the bananas were the pinapples. When I arrived the others already had planted some.


This is done by twisting of the green top of a pineapple fruit and just planting it in the soil. Currently me and my girlfriend live alone on the finca, which unfortenatle led to some works not beeing done in time. Same with the pineapples. They were totally overgrown. Also, it did not like the way they were planted. They were really close together and close to the bananas. Almost in the shadows of the palms.

base situation

My goal was to stretch them out, making it easier for them to get their nutrition and put them more in the direct sunlight, they like.


First I started preparing the soil. This will be a pattern, which will repeat itself. The soil on the property is really acidic. I really need to do a test to know for shure, but my guess is around four to five on the pH-scale. We mix the soil with charcoal. This raises the pH and secondly puts carbon in it. Effects, that we welcome, since most plants grow best at a neutral pH (7) and carbon is next to nitrogen and phosphorus the most important builing block for growth in a plant. We also mix in bokashi, a compost made out of house waste mixed with micro-organisms and fungi. I tried to raise the fields a little bit for better drainage, which pineapple like. I read online, that most commercial farms plant them in a 30cm distance. I choose 40cm to give them more space to grow and less competition for nutritions. Lastly I put cut grass around them to stop the weeds from growing. And again, I have to wait for my first fruit. But one has to be really patient, since it can take a plant several years to produce a flower and then again about six month for a fruit.

finsihed result

Pineapples in my opinion are also a really easy fruit to cultivate. The only downsides beeing them taking so damn long to produce fruits and that they take up to one squaremeter of space, making it hard to grow them on a balcony or in a small garden in a city. Also, we tried reproducing pineapples bought from a normal supermarket, so we do not even know, if it is possible to cultivate them or if they might be hybrids. So let`s wait and find out.






Update 10 days later:

I just saw the first flower while casually checking wether everythings okay or not.
It seems as if the at least this one is able to reproduce :)




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Location: Costa Rica

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