Of course, you won’t have to feast on indoor pineapple (Ananas), because this is an ornamental plant, but you will definitely be able to surprise your neighbors by having such a miracle on your windowsill. With decent care for indoor pineapple, you can get a fairly large fruit, little different from a real fruit.
How to care for indoor pineapple and how to propagate this home plant, you will learn below.
Family: Bromeliads, photophilous, moisture-loving.
In room conditions, crested pineapple (Ananas comosus) is usually grown – a large terrestrial plant with a very shortened stem and a rosette of rigid linear xiphoid leaves (it can reach 2 m in diameter and 1 m in height).
The leaves of a houseplant pineapple are gray-green, grooved, strongly narrowed towards the top, completely covered with scales, and lined with sharp spines along the edges.
Flowers with pinkish-purple petals are arranged in a spiral in dense spike-shaped inflorescences and are covered with wide cup-shaped bracts.
As can be seen in the photo of indoor pineapple, after flowering, a compact golden-yellow fruit, similar to a cone, is formed.
There is also a variegated variety – “Variegatus” with green-cream longitudinal stripes on the leaves, turning pink in bright light.
The pineapple bract (Ananas bracteatus) looks even more elegant with bright striped green-cream-pink leaves.
Pineapple has a powerful positive energy. This is a plant of renewal, spiritual awakening. The presence of pineapple in the house will make life diverse and colorful, emotionally rich, festive.
Houseplant care pineapple at home
Pineapple can be grown on the southern and southwestern windows at a temperature not lower than +18 ° C in winter. When caring for indoor pineapple, the plant is watered abundantly in spring and summer during the period of active growth, sprayed and fed once every two weeks. In autumn and winter, watering is reduced, but the earthen ball is not brought to dryness. Pineapple is transplanted annually in the spring by transferring to a larger container. A soil mixture consisting of leafy soil, soddy soil, sand (2: 1: 1) is well suited for planting.
Reproduction of indoor pineapple
Reproduction of indoor pineapple is done by seeds or rooting of the apical shoot. To do this, the “sultan” of the mature seed is cut off, capturing the “heel” (a piece of pulp 0.5-1 cm thick), dried for 2-3 days and planted in sphagnum with a slight depth. For the formation of roots, heat, regular moderate moisture and time (3-4 weeks) are necessary, after which the seedling can be transplanted into the soil mixture described above. It is possible to reproduce and separate offspring, which are formed at the base of an adult plant.