Absent For A Bit ....

I am away for a little while working on a few or more episodes for The Adventures of My Space Alien Alter Ego story ... will return (to Earth) soon!

Notice: Blogger has screwed up and lost a bunch of photos out of my blog! They are replaced with a gray silhouette of a human head. I will eventually get them replaced with the correct photo, it may take a while to find and fix everything. So some of my stories don't make much sense without their photos, sorry for the inconvenience.

esbb

2012-07-30

My First Pineapple Harvest !!!

I was able to get 203 grams of edible fruit (less than a half pound) from my first pineapple fruit grown at my house. It is smaller than what I can get at the groc store, but tasted marvelous, probably the best ever!!!


I have two more fruit that are just getting started. It took this one about 6 months from the first appearance of the fruit until completion, and about two years before that just to grow the plant. The entire amount of dirt used was about 3/4 of the volume of a Folger's Coffee can, 34 oz size. I just planted the top from this picture in a slightly larger can, (it is outside, I will find the size later...) so maybe more dirt volume will give a larger fruit? The plant was only outside for about 1 1/2 months of its 6 month fruit producing time period, so probably more direct sunlight would help, but I don't have a greenhouse, only a sunny double wide glass back door that faces west.

I am pretty sure that the amount of energy that I eXpended in the process of caring for the plants, watering them, transporting them between the inside and outside twice a year, vastly eXceeds the amount of food energy that I gained by eating the pineapple. Plus my wife ate one fourth of the pineapple, and I am saving one fourth for someone else. At least I didn't spend any money on water - they live completely on a diet of rain water. No wait, I think I spent $10 on the large water collection barrel, but that eXpense is spread out across the grape vines and the orchid as weLL. I store water long term in leftover 2 quart jugs from V-8 juice. So I do use some city water to clean those out .... $$$

15 comments:

fmcgmccllc said...

I am impressed. Maybe mama will let you have more indoor growing space after she tastes the luscious fruit. How did you decide on exactly when to harvest? Did you sing any Elvis or Don Ho songs while harvesting.

esbboston said...

fmcgmccllc: I wasn't sure when to harvest it, but I thought that it was getting about the right length of time so I compared the color of my pineapple to the ones at the groc store. Mine appeared too green until just a few days ago there was a small amount of yellowish orangeish ness on the bottom on the north side, and then about a week later it was 2/3 covered with that coloration. I noticed cracks starting to appear between the segmentation yesterday and some beetle trying to eat my pineapple ahead of me! So it was machete time ...

esbboston said...

Oh, I forgot, no Don Ho or Elvis tunes. It was a non-musical event. Next time I wiLL do better. What type of fruit is it in the Sponge Bob Square Pants song? I have already rewrote the lyrics for that song once, as Absorbent Robert Rectangular Trousers, I believe it is a blog post from five years ago titled "A.R.R.T.".

Joanne Noragon said...

My eight year old granddaughter may want to move to Texas to grow pineapples in her backyard.

Shelly said...

Now that is totally cool. I don't think I know of anyone who's ever been able to grow a pineapple before-

esbboston said...

Joanne: I grow them outside from June-August, then indoors for nine months. They get a couple hours of direct sunlight per day before the evening.

Shelly: I have never heard of anyone in a non-tropical region growing pineapples, and I was reaLLy looking forward to seeing if it would produce edible fruit in the strange climate and smaLL bucket of dirt that I use. After the end of this summer season the Folgers Coffee cans may have eXperienced enough UV degradation so they may require repotting. I had better get to drinking more coffee from the larger Folger can! I did have one f the larger cans in order to get today's pineapple top going again. Now I just have to wait 2 1/2 years to see if it makes a difference.

Rob Z Tobor said...

I am seriously impressed Mr ESB by your efforts and patience.

Interestingly back in the Victorian times the landed gentry used to grow pineapples in large greenhouses build against a south facing wall. But these greenhouses were heated and manned by servants...

Not really the same level of skill as your good self..

I am just about head off to be prodded by a doctor who will then decide if I am normal or not. I think I am

esbboston said...

Rob: I hope the doctor does a proper prodding to determine the needed restoration routine of The Rob. I had forgot about the Victorian pineapple growing in greenhouses. I need to get a proper time schedule in place to monitor your pineapple plant photographicaLLy. I was thinking about adding more pictures to the same blog post over time to easily see its progress.

Rob Z Tobor said...

the doc says I have a virus and I must ride the storm. So I am up and down, but I am finding it difficult to think so I have abandoned the blog for now.

There was a time when my body would throw these things off. I think God never thought things through when he gave the old all the wisdom but the youth all the decent bodies....

Aysh said...

Yayyy congrats! I've been waiting for this day since the first time you blogged about planting your pineapple plant! It looks fantastic. Did it taste better than the store bought ones?

Badger said...

It looks wonderful!

Pearl said...

What?! Pineapple grow outside?!

:-)

Hard for this Minnesota girl to comprehend that!

Pearl

esbboston said...

I just realized that because I now have a total of five plants and if each one produces roughly the same size amount of edible fruit, then 5 x 200 = 1000 grams. It takes about a thousand days from start to harvest, so that means my daily average production is 1 gram for my entire plantation.

Julie Hutchinson said...

OMG I've been so absent lately. You've written heaps...

esbboston said...

Julie: Yes! Heaps! Glad you are back, you were missed ... Hope your winter is pleasant.

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