One More ? About Pineapples
 

I have been working feverishly on my small greenhouse hopeing to have it done within 2-weeks! My ? is what is the +/- temps on young pineapple plants? I do live in Illinois but i'm planning on keeping my 8' x 4' greenhouse a nice toasty 60-75 degrees farenheight even over the dead of winter! (which will be outside)

Re: One More ? About Pineapples
 

I have mine outdoors unprotected and our winter temps drop into the 40s regularly.

Re: One More ? About Pineapples
 

Robby, protecting pineapples over the winter in Illinois is a good idea. Keeping the temperature above 60F will be a luxury for them! Depending on the varieties you are growing, setting the minimum temperature to 45F or 50F will be just fine and save you a bundle in heating costs.

Mitchell, I've forgotten: what varieties are doing well for you?

Re: One More ? About Pineapples
 

I only have Smooth Cayenne, Sugar Loaf and Ananas Comosus that has yet to fruit. Of the 2 that have fruited Sugar Loaf is the clear winner in all categories including overall plant health and appearance, fruit production, fruit size, fruit flavor and fruit texture. I'm really impressed with it!

Re: One More ? About Pineapples
 

My Sugarloaf are in 1 gallon pots and growing nicely now and I plan to bring them into the greenhouse over winter. They are growing pretty well right now and I'm thinking I should move the up to 5 gallon pots. But that has me wondering if I can just leave them in pots when I bring them out next spring. How big of a root system do they get? Have you ever dug one up, Mitchel?

A friend from Kona and another from Puerto Rico both say that Sugarloaf is the best. I have yet to try one but their comments motivated me to give it a try.

I'm guessing frost would kill them or cause serious damage. Is that right? Last year was a bit milder with our low down to only 30F or so, but we had at least 30 days of frost even with that. The year before we only had about 10 days of frost but had several days into the low 20s.

Re: One More ? About Pineapples
 

I have yet to dig one up, but the dogs have broken the roots on mine several times by crashing into them so they can't be that strong.

Re: One More ? About Pineapples
 

sin's we live relatively close to each other i thought id ask you were you got the pineapples i keep trying to sprout the tops from the pineapples I'm getting from the Green grocer but there always way dry so id like to get some plant material any suggestions on sours that won't cost me hafe the national debt to get (have you seen the tipical prices that every ones charging for shiping now!!!! WOW)

Re: One More ? About Pineapples
 

I bought mine on ebay several years ago before the shipping costs became outrageous. They came from sellers in Hawaii.

Re: One More ? About Pineapples
 

I got my Sugarloaf as small TC plants from Wellspring on eBay early this year. I think 4 plants cost me something like $15-$20. They are now about a foot tall and have been growing at a good pace for the past month or so.

The only concern is that I won't know for some time if they were correctly labeled. Wellspring does a very nice job of packing but at least one banana I've bought from them has been mislabeled.

Re: One More ? About Pineapples
 

I obtained my Sugarloaf pineapple from bananas.org member Sunfish here in San Diego.