The Empire of Rob

My friend Rob Z Tobor of the UK has had difficulties getting a pineapple plant to start, so I have dedicated my youngest plant to him, and named it Rob. I also decided to set aside that portion of dirt (one Folgers Coffee can) as British soil, so we can start an Empire of Rob, or whatever name Rob chooses. So it has an embassy quality to it, as weLL as being a plantation. It is located near my plantation of three pineapple plants. They are aLL currently outside during the months of June through August. The rest of the year they come inside my house near the glass back door. This is similar to how Hong Kong was created I think and there are stiLL several chunks of the British Empire stiLL scattered across the globe.

My wife has a quantity restriction of only three pineapple plants inside the house, so come this September I may have to disguise the smaLLest one, Rob, as something else. Maybe she won't notice for a while. Or perhaps I could get rid of my wife(?). 

(haha...hahahha-h-hah) 

Maybe I wiLL have a real greenhouse by then.

A picture of Rob the Pineapple Plant

It is about 3 inches tall at the highest point

A picture of my pineapple fruit

It is currently 3 1/4 wide by 3 3/4 tall, not including the green blades

Update: 2012.07.28 - The pineapple fruit is now 3 3/4 inches wide by 4 tall, and has picked up some yellow-ish-orange-ish coloring on the north side at the bottom. So that is how much it has grown in about three weeks.

Update: 2012.08.27 - The pineapple plant (on the left rear) that is part of The Empire of Rob has longer leaves, a couple of them are about 8 inches. The pineapple plant on the right-front is from the top of the pineapple I harvested recently.

YEA!!! Something Exciting Enough To Wake Up My Wife In The Middle Of The Night

I let the Cooper outside at 11 PM at the back door.

I just happened to look down inside my nearest pineapple plant, and instead of more leaves, there is a pineapple growing! Actually, I think it is a bloom at this point. This will be the f1rst time that I have had a plant try to produce a fruit, so far they have just been giving me leaves.

So I rushed to the bedroom and woke up my wife so she could also come to see it. Pineapple Plant Party Time!!! She was only about 10% as e_Xcited as me. She asked me, "how can it grow a pineapple in just that little bucket of dirt?" It is currently growing in a Folger's Coffee plastic coffee container, the 33.9 oz size, and that is only 2/3's filled with soil.

In all my eXcitement trying to take a photograph I completely forgot about the dog being outside! I think Tamie must have let him back inside, yeppa, he is in the other room. I managed to damage only two orchid blooms while trying to shoot this pineapple plant, going through three different lens on my Sony Alpha 350 before I found the right one to work properly in the dark with the camera flash. I will try to get another picture in the morning with natural light and a tripod.

Link to Wikipedia Article for Pineapple

Update 2012.03.02: Photograph

Update: 2012.03.08 - Approx 2 weeks - Pineapple is now about an inch across and high.
Photo by iPhone 4 S

Pineapple at 5 weeks and 4 inches tall