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I recently came back from a trip to Hawaii and brought a Hawaiian Pineapple home. I twisted the top off, trimmed off a couple inches from the bottom, and let it dry for about a week. I started planting it and it’s been about 3 weeks now and the leaves has turned more yellow and dead. I’m not sure what I am doing wrong but I don’t want to give up. Is this plant lost or do I still have a chance? I don’t have a green thumb so this is all new me.

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  • Two questions: was the top “fresh”, i.e. dark green and firm and did you water the pot when you planted the pineapple top and afterwards?
    – Stephie ♦
    Commented Oct 7, 2023 at 21:02
  • Yes it was fresh and very firm. I watered the top and then the soil. I would let the water dry out on the soil before re-watering it. @Stephie
    – Sally
    Commented Oct 7, 2023 at 21:15
  • It looms like insufficient water to me
    – Rohit Gupta
    Commented Oct 7, 2023 at 23:04
  • Soil cannot be clay, but gritty and airy sand or such - cactus potting mix. Replant. If there is no core 'stem' at center base, you cut off too much. Why is the center empty of new leaves?
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Oct 9, 2023 at 1:18

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Pineapples are an epiphytic plant which require very careful watering. In fact they need high humidity but low soil moisture. They have a low transpiration rate (lose water slowly) and take what water they need mostly from the air, with the roots just acting as an anchor point. Too much soil moisture and the plant will suffer.

So it is good that the plant was allowed to dry down. The cluster of leaves you see have done their work so dying off is natural and now buds should appear at the base which will become new pineapple plants. The task now is to allow the existing leaves to die away and encourage the new plants appearing at the base.

Make sure the plant is in very free draining soil, get the humidity really high, keep checking the base for suckers and thin these out once they get going. Likely if the suckers do not appear then the plant is unhappy in its environment, most likely too cool and not enough humidity. Generous watering will not help!

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