How nice! How old are these plants?

I planted them out last season, but I moved them from elsewhere. And they were mixed ages anyway. So a bit hard to say. But from about one to two years old.

Cool! Only 1-2 years old and they're bearing fruit. I have a few here. I think more than 2 years old, but not fruiting yet. So, what do you feed them with?

I'm not regular with fertilising but when I do it's a weak solution of fish/seaweed fertiliser. My neighbours get huge pineapple fruit. They fertilise regularly, but I don't know what they use.

The pineapples are putting on some good growth, but still a fair way to go yet. There's 11 now so hope they don't all ripen at once.

Lucky- I have two three year old pineapples that get full Southern California sun and they have not bloomed. They are beautiful, but no signs they want to reward me with fruit.

Pineapples like very acid soil, adding a lot of leaf mulch helps with this. Mine start flowering in winter and fruit ripen by start of summer. Maybe next time round yours will start.

"I've read" that putting apple slices down the center of the pineapple plant is supposed to induce fruiting. I tried it years ago and it did work for me.

It's the ethylene gas produced by the apples that initiate flowering in the pineapples. The gas is also used commercially to ripen fruit, although they use gas bottles of it and not apples slices. But the effect is the same. You want to do it at the right time of the year (or have it in climate control conditions) and for the plant to be reasonably mature otherwise you'll get dwarf fruit.

Yes, on the apple. Try an over ripe apple (or slice of one) on the center of the plant & cover it with leaves or a brown paper bag to trap the gas a little bit.

pineapples like being fed every three months. even with fertigation and row cover, commercial growers feed every three months. before fertigation they used 8-8-8 granulated garden fertilizer.I start plants in a 3 gal. pot with 2 tbs. 8-8-8 mixed in and gradually increase to 3 heaping tbs. I re-pot at 9 months to a 16 inch pot, pre-fertilized. give them a tbs. of epsom salts at 6&12 months. you can let the soil dry down 3-4 inches. they absorb water at the leaf axils so just need sprinkled durind dry weather. they Hate wet feet. these were started last summer. ignore the sweet potato vines.

I fertilise mine every few weeks or less with diluted fish/seaweed fertiliser.

Well, they're getting to the size you often see them being sold in shops. But I think there's still a good few weeks before mine start being ready for picking.

I started picking my pineapples. Walking past them there was a strong sweet fragrance. So decided better to get them before all the animals did. Picked 9 so far and only a few left to still fully ripen. Going to have to plant out more in the sun. These are in shade most of the time and the fruits are a bit smaller. But the taste is exquisite.

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Awesome photos! Got me wondering if maybe I should be doing something different with mine to get it growing as nice as yours are? It's definitely not rootbound as I've checked the soil ball and they roots aren't even filling it out yet.

Thanks Dan. They like acid conditions, I often joke they'd grow in battery acid (exaggeration of course). I've read they can go down to a pH of 4.5, which is way below what most other plants can tolerate. The best I've grown were in deep leaf litter from Acacia trees, the pH there was 5.3 and they thrived. Also (irregularly) give them weak fertiliser, usually seaweed or fish emulsion, and on the leaves (foliar application). And the other thing they need is plenty of sun.

Thank you for the prompt reply; it just so happens that I have some battery acid on hand lol. I use it to lower my city water before irrigating, as it has a naturally high pH from being sourced out of limestone aquafiers and because of the carbonates added to it. I'm thinking they'd like to be watered with water that has some in it? They sound sort of similar to blueberries in terms of their love for acidity.

I also have some fish emulsion on hand, although not much, and access to unlimited seaweed. In the past I've made liquid seaweed fertilizer by dissolving it in a bucket of water over a couple weeks, seems like I need to do so again.

And we're not short on sun, being The Bahamas of course. In fact I just brought home a successful citrus air-layer last week and still have to keep it in shade despite the season being winter. High 70s and 94% humidity will do that :)

Thank you again for your reply, I appreciate the knowledgeable recommendations. Please feel free to throw in any other cultivation advice you find worthwhile!

An update! Funny this is that about a month after posting this mine flowered :)
Here are some photos of it, when I noticed the flower Feb 12th, and it's growth up to about now:

I do need to take another picture, the individual sections are less flower-like now and more stout and filled out. I've noticed that the stem it's sitting on appears to have sort of brown scarring or lesions on a part of it, like a patch. Do you have any experience with that? So far it doesn't seem to have affected the fruit or any of the slips. Also the tips die back a bit but I'm not sure if that's do to over or underwatering? Thanks again! These are great fun to grow.

I forgot to mention that I have another one flowering too, although the plant has spent its life in just a 2-3 gallon pot so the fruit is a lot smaller than this one, the pot of which is 4 or 5 gallons I think.

It's looking good. If the marks on the stem are only on the surface and don't appear to go in deep I wouldn't worry. Could have been some mechanical damage or minor insect damage. The tip die back could be from too much water, they are very drought tolerant. They're bromeliads and don't have much of a root system. Most bromeliads have a root system to support/anchor the plant rather than feed it. Most nutrient uptake is through the leaves. That's why I give them foliar fertiliser.

Okay thanks; I had it on our pool patio but now that we're starting to get some rain I moved it under our porch. The stem issue might have been due to the water as well who knows. How often do you water your potted ones?

Here's an update; the pups n the fruit itself seem to still be growing well so hopefully that stem mark remains an non-issue. How long do yours usually take from flower to harvest? I think I noticed it in February :)

Okay thanks; that pegs this one for the middle of July or so. You mentioned on another thread that you have 30-40 tamarind trees; how large is your lot/growing area that you are able to contain all these tamarinds and pineapple and presumably other plants?

The block is 9.17 hectares. Part is creek and creek flats, part a swamp (separate from the creek area), part mango orchard, some open grassy areas, plus garden areas and a small dam. The dam, 30 metres by 28 metres when full, is the centre piece of my rainforest garden and is surrounded (and mostly shaded) by a lot of trees. I uploaded photos of my garden on this thread:

Rainforest Garden

Looks great!

Looks good, but still a solid green. July is still probably a good estimate for it.

Mine only produce the pups when the fruit's been removed. But there are a lot of different varieties of pineapple