Pineapple Plantation

Gravel, sand, potting soil, glass containers

I washed the glasses and dried them.  My pineapples were ready, but I'm not making home-grown pina coladas.  Just checked on line.  It takes two years to grow a pineapple from a root cutting--two years in sauna-like temperatures. All I have is tiny pineapple seeds.

Ready to be pushed into the soil

One "large" seedling (visible) and several sprouts
that still had no green.

Today all my excitement is channeled into planting those itty, bitty seeds with their itty, bitty leaves and even smaller roots and creating my very own pineapple plantation. Granted it is small.  It's in those four drinking glasses that were headed for the trash because the glass had turned cloudy.

In the years it will take before these plants make fruit
there will be plenty of time to find more space of them
and adjust their heat.  Better check the thermostat.

The whole plantation sits on a south window sill hoping to gather whatever sunshine breaks through in February, March and April and all the other months that include overcast skies and rain here in Oregon.  I have no idea where this will lead.  I'm fairly certain, however, that my Things I get to do today--planting pineapple sprouts--was a delight shared by few, if any, other people in Oregon. Regardless, I was thrilled enough for all of you!

This Salt Lamp Thing

Solid Salt.  Soothing, cleansing, calming.

The light shines through it.  It is one big chunk that looks like a rock--about a foot high including the stand .  It is, indeed, pure, solid salt.

But why?  Well, it makes a pretty night light.  Salt is used to preserve in the food world and to cleanse in the medical world. When you walk on the beach or shore of the ocean, it relaxes and heals.  That what salt does.  That's why.

A salt lamp in your house keeps the stress energy low, can make it easier to sleep (I would have it on during the day in the bedroom and off at night), and helps promote harmony by clearing away cranky energy.  In a pinch, it can be used as a consistent heat source to germinate seeds.  Come to think of it, since the pineapple seeds have been on the salt lamp, the mold stopped!

My two lamps were gifts, so, once on my Things I get to do today, all I did was plug them in.  Bet you could find one on line.  Shipping could be an item since they're heavy (as a rock).  Check your local alternative book store.  They can help you find this salt lamp thing.

Grow Your Own Pineapples the Easy Way

Pineapple incubator!

Trumpets!  Fanfare!  The impossible has happened from something that I didn't know existed.  Admittedly not knowing about pineapple seeds is my fault.  Under different circumstances, I could have known about these little black specks. See post "Pineapples Have What?" from 10/20/12.

I had collected a half teaspoon of the seeds, determined to make them sprout.  Personal determination has nothing to do with the will of the life in a seed.  It sets its own timetable which said three or four months. Sources on line gave several suggested ways to help the life in the seed explode into a plant.  I chose the "damp paper towel in a baggy" method.

Cutest Babies you've ever seen, right?
The seeds are about 1/8" long.

The baggy went on top the refrigerator, which in the old days was a warm place.  That's different now.  After six weeks I moved the baggy incubator to a warmer, more consistent heat source, the top of a salt lamp.

And today, while chatting on the phone with my sister, I casually inspected the baggy to check for any signs of mold (the only thing yet to grow in there).  Her ear is probably still ringing from my wild squeals, "Wait! Wait!  You are not going to believe this!  They are sprouting!"

After settling enough to explain "what" was sprouting, I realized that there is a new item for Things I get to do today:  set up a plant nursery for a dozen baby pineapples plants.  And this is just the beginning.  Who said it would be easy?

Pineapples Have What?

Seeds on the cutting mat and on the fruit

Am I the last one to know?  Things I get to do today found me in the kitchen preparing a pineapple.  My usual procedure is to slice off the bottom, slice off the top, slice off the sides in strips.  The little brown eyes can be ignored or cut out or munched around or munched up when it is served.  This time the pineapple was different!

Around some of the eyes were flecks of dark brown.  When I scraped to remove the fleck, it got bigger and squirted out an object that looked like a fat, curved flax seed.  No way! The more I scraped, the more seeds I collected. Since when do pineapples have seeds?

Seeds popped out.  One seed with just its tip showing

An on-line investigation showed that pineapples do, indeed, have seeds, that others were as surprised as  I was, and that you can actually sprout the seeds and grow a pineapple plant. Five years to harvest it said.

High germination rate I'm told

You know me.  I'm all over this one.  We are going to grow pineapple (plants)  and I'll keep you posted.  If I'm still blogging in five years, I show you the home-grown fruit.