Do you know the pineapple plant??

Pineapple is one of the plants that I have been planting in my backyard since 2015 - when, for political-economic reasons, the worst crisis ever experienced by me or the elders of my family in life began.

The reason I set out to sow, stemmed from the various situations that began to engulf every individual that inhabited this interesting nation.
There was an important moment in the lives of everyone, or almost everyone, that began to press us; and that was the serious loss of value of the official currency in Venezuela. This situation accelerated in 2015, when we began to hear the term "hyperinflation".

In addition to that, another phenomenon never seen in the country in previous years or that I have known about through any contemporary history book, was that in 2016 some individuals appeared, whom the common citizens called bachaqueros: they were people who suddenly became controllers, traffickers and sellers - illegally and shamelessly - of food and staple products, which were not to be found - for a long time - in any supermarket in the country. At that time, it was not surprising that 1 kilogram of pasta, which had a maximum retail price of 26, was sold for 1,000 in cash. (Now multiply that amount by about 5 million people and consider the 100 note as the highest denomination note. Well, "that's how bad it got".

So, visualizing the uncertain future in the short term and taking the opportunity to plant some banana trees - musaceae family - given to me by a close neighbor, I started to develop my planting experience. Nothing easy! But it was a test of character and temperament strengthening, because, crops in real life are not like in facebook's FarmVille (in a few hours).

And that plant that you see in the first photo is one of the primigenias that I planted without knowing that, in a well prepared land it would take a year and a quarter to a year and a half, to begin to see the fruit of so much effort; plus the time of maturation of the same (time that I have never determined).
But the patio of the house is made of red clay to make baked bricks, like the ones Ignacio threw at the crazy cat. A very hard soil in dry season; so much so that a floor breaking tool REBOUTS, but in wet season (we see two seasons in our country) it is a butter; and... without nutrients for the plants.

Back to the subject, that plant with that fruit as you will see is from 2017 and in order to get it, had to spend about a year and a half and then, wait for it to mature.
Neither notions I had of the characteristics of this plant, therefore, I did not know of the care that I could offer it to obtain a better fruit.

Here we can already see that the pineapple is taking color, but still without a good size. In fact, the peduncle is very thin and therefore weak to support a fruit of greater volume and weight.
Note: the peduncle is what holds the fruit and joins it to the stem or branch.

I repeat that I have never taken the time between its appearance and the time of harvest. I only pick it when I notice that the plant is trying to place it gently on the ground and it already has a more yellowish hue.

I remember that this pineapple was not big at all. It weighed less than 600gr including the crown, which was bigger than the fruit, with a faint flavor and not very sweet. It was the first pineapple grown in the yard, but not the first plant.

I tell them that once, while shopping for fruit, I saw some that had many children in the crown and decided to bring one home. When I arrived, I began to remove one by one each son; they were as small as a marble and, I arranged them in various parts of the yard without any foresight. I just placed them and left them alone, watered them every day and several of them stuck.
The pine cones, in my opinion, are very resistant and willing to spread under any circumstances.
And this was part of the result:

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This photo is from January 4, 2022.

Sister plants competing for space and nutrients 1.

1. That red on one of the plants attached to the wall, means it is flowering, therefore, there is fruit.
2. of all those plants, there were about 12 of them, I could only see 3 fruits and it was in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. The rest of them died and the ones that I could rescue, after the fruiting ones died, I took them out and redistributed them about a year and a half ago. That is to say, those plants under those conditions, took a little more than 3 years to bear fruit.

Now I am going to show you a pineapple whose flower is coming out and is the one that motivated me to write this post.

This plant has me proud and I wish to multiply it. I'm going to try to upload the evolution of the fruit so we can go see.

Why am I interested in it?

1. It is the plant that has had the greatest height and width. It measures almost 170cm of my height approximately and 150cm wide, compared to the first ones that only reached about 80cm in height for the same, more or less in width. And I planted it right next to the great-great-granddaughters of the pineapple in the initial photo.

2. The peduncle looks quite thick (about 30mm diameter maybe); I haven't measured it, as the plant doesn't let me access it so easily and it's not fully exposed either, although today 1-02-23 I touched it to remove some dirt at the top.
   Just by observing it, I have expectations of a larger fruit than those harvested so far.

3. The leaves have good color and no lesions are visible, and I attribute this to the organic fertilizer I have been preparing.

4. The plant is so big that I had to wedge it at the base 6-7 weeks ago, because it was drooping. I also don't know if it flowered because of the stress generated by that whole situation.

How am I going to multiply it?

1. It is possible that in the crown and/or at the base of the fruit, close to the peduncle, there may be shoots coming out.
2. On the mother plant itself, some offspring will grow below or among the leaves it has.

And here I share with you an analogy of my own: if mammals are jealous with their offspring, do not doubt that plants are too. They accept whatever conditions arise. They do not run away from anything or anyone. But they defend themselves with the much or little they possess.
They are born ready to fulfill their cycle and to perpetuate themselves by propagating their species. That fruit is their offspring; therefore, it is normal for them to defend it.
Believe me, I respect them as the living beings they are. Before entering their space, I ask their permission and speak to them gently. And I really feel that they understand and let them in.
When they have their pineapples planted try to enter with care, but without speaking sweetly to them so that they can compare when they do it by addressing them with love...