[gardeners] pineapple
penny x stamm (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 10 Oct 2000 23:54:17 -0400
.
Jimmie and I harvested all the green tomatoes today, and he
dug up the pineapple. Because of all the rain and the total
summer cloud cover, my little pineapple did not grow very
much at all, not like last year's. But it is perfectly shaped
and adorable, and very fragrant. Jim brought it over to the
tomato patch and put it down, and I let out a mighty scream --
some animal or other had eaten the rear half of the fruit
right to the middle! The front was picture perfect. I am
devastated . . . I carried that little baby inside cradled in my arm,
took out the carving knife, sliced away all the rear tooth marks
well into the healthy flesh, removed the outside husk, and
ate the whole thing down. Kept thinking about rabies, but
after due consideration decided that I had lived a full life, and
the devil take the hindmost. . . . I'm still here.
On Saturday I checked out the pineapple I had given to Jim's
cousins in New Jersey, and it has doubled in size, plus it is
growing THREE baby plants out of the fruit stalk! It is a
sight to behold. She is going to try to root them indoors over
the winter, for fun.
I think you all know that the pineapple top I rooted last fall from
my own delicious fruit raised in the garden is now 5 ft wide and
3 ft high, and can no longer fit on top of the fridge. I finally found
a home for it at the Women's Prison in Bedford, NY where they
have both a heated greenhouse and a hort instruction program,
led by one of my Master Gardeners. Some of the inmates there
raise puppies for the Seeing Eye Dog Program, and others raise
geraniums -- and any other seeds which are donated -- to use
on the grounds of the prison. They will swap their produce with
the public, but are not allowed to receive money in return. They
must be paid in fertilizer, or mulch, or chemicals, or tools, or
some kind of hort product. Interesting, isn't it?
Of the two artichokes I had planted, the first produced only
two chokes, and they were not even one whit better than what one
buys in the market. I guess I had expected some kind of taste
enhancement.... With the second plant, some marauding varmint
ate the heart out of it in early July, and it took over 6 weeks to grow
two chokes from a new growth center. Both of them were bizarre
specimens: altho the choke profile appeared normal, there were
only one quarter as many leaves on each one, all in-curved. No
heart at all, only double choke. And so tough that they required
50% longer cooking!
I think I'll go back to cauliflower -- at least that we've done well.
Penny, NY zone 6
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