Pineapple Crazy

I have been amazed at how easy it is to grow tomatoes, peppers and avocados here in Hawaii as compared to Tennessee. I have also had a good deal of success with growing native and tropical plants. One fruit that I was particularly interested in sprouting is the pineapple. The steps to doing this are fairly interesting. You take a pineapple fruit with the stem still attached. Make a fruit salad, or soak the fruit in vodka and mix with tonic water--whatever you do to enjoy it. Meanwhile, you take the detached stem and plant it in some soil. Water it and give it lots of sun. Legend has it that after three years you will have a baby pineapple. The fruit grows up out of the stem (with another stem attached, it is kind of fractal in nature).

I had planted a pineapple stem back in August. I was beginning to tire of waiting for it to grow and mature. I began to despair that I would never be able to wait the three years required to grow my own pineapple. I even considered uprooting it and using the pot to plant something else.

That is, until I brought home a pineapple from the store. I compared the stem of the freshly purchased fruit to the stem I had planted. It is evident that the stem I planted has grown considerably! How could I have forgotten that slow and steady wins the race? My hope and optimism are completely renewed and now I can't wait until August 2014-ish when my baby pineapple emerges. I have also been spurred on by walks around my 'hood where I spy neighbors who are working on the same pineapple project, and whose fruit are more mature than my own. Seeing the future of the pineapple sure is exciting!