What Is a Pineapple Ratoon and How Do You Grow One?

A pineapple plant doesn’t die after giving you one fruit. New shoots on the same plant can grow into a second fruit, and that second crop is called a ratoon. Farmers use the same trick with sugarcane, bananas and rice: harvest the top, keep the roots and growing shoots, and let the plant crop again.1Wikipedia. Ratooning

Where a Ratoon Comes From on the Plant

After harvest, a pineapple plant can show four kinds of new shoots:

To find them on your own plant, look low on the stem and at soil level for suckers and ratoon shoots. Pull back or trim a few dead lower leaves so you can see where shoots emerge from the base. A true shoot looks like a mini pineapple plant sprouting from the old stem, with its own tight rosette of leaves growing from a single point, not a separate plant sitting beside it. Home gardeners treat the low, ground-level shoots as the candidates for the next crop.

Slips cluster on the fruit stalk just under where the fruit was. They sit high above the soil, far from the old roots, so they make better cuttings than a next crop.

The ratoon keeps living off the first plant’s roots, including the roots that grow among the lower leaves.6Experimental Agriculture. THE WATER RELATIONS AND IRRIGATION REQUIREMENTS OF PINEAPPLE (Ananas comosus var. comosus): A REVIEW So keeping the old plant and its roots healthy after harvest feeds the next fruit directly.7USDA Economic Research Service. Pineapples: An Economic Assessment of the Feasibility of Providing Multiple-Peril Crop Insurance A ratoon fruits faster than a newly planted top because a twisted-off crown has to root from scratch, while the ratoon starts with roots already in place.

Choosing the One Shoot to Keep

After harvesting the first fruit, remove all suckers and side shoots except one, and that one develops into the ratoon crop.8Horticultural Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service. Pineapple Propagation Shoots compete for the same roots and food, so several shoots tend to give several small fruits or none at all. The shoots you remove don’t have to go to waste, since suckers, slips and crowns can each be planted as new plants.9Acta Horticulturae. What Is a Pineapple Ratoon and How Do You Grow One?

Pick the largest, healthiest sucker low on the stem, because a bigger shoot has a head start on the others. Choose one that is firmly attached, with green, upright leaves. Skip weak, thin or yellowing shoots. If two look about equal, keep the one closer to the soil.

Twist or snap the other suckers and slips off at their base, or cut them cleanly with a sharp knife if they won’t come away, leaving your chosen shoot untouched. Wear gloves, because pineapple leaves have sharp edges and, on many varieties, small spines. Cut the old fruit stalk down too, so the plant puts its energy into the shoot you kept. If you are propagating extras, let them dry for a few days before potting so the cut ends can seal and are less likely to rot in damp soil.10Revista Brasileira de Fruticultura. Production of shoots from ‘Smooth Cayenne’ pineapple crowns with nitrogen fertilization

Feeding and Watering the Ratoon

Feeding is front-loaded. Growers feed the plant right after the first harvest, when the ratoon shoot begins developing, then give very little fertilizer while the plant flowers and the fruit develops.11College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Pineapple Cultivation in Hawaii One fertilizer guide splits ratoon feeding into three doses: late summer after harvest, mid-autumn, and early spring.12Haifa Group. Pineapple Crop Guide13Haifa Group. Pineapple Crop Guide More nitrogen isn’t better: higher urea doses lowered phosphorus, potassium and calcium in young shoots.14Revista Brasileira de Fruticultura. Production of shoots from ‘Smooth Cayenne’ pineapple crowns with nitrogen fertilization15HortTechnology. Characterization of ‘MD-2’ Pineapple Planting Density and Fertilization Using a Grower Survey

For a pot or bed, choose a balanced or fruiting fertilizer with potassium rather than something with only nitrogen. Feed mainly after harvest while the shoot grows, and ease off once the flower appears in the centre of the plant. Follow the dose on the product label, because packaging for pots differs from farm rates.

Water reaches the ratoon through the old roots, so keeping the soil around them evenly moist supports the new shoot. Pineapples tolerate dry spells better than most fruit plants but grow slowly when short of water. Water when the top few centimetres of soil are dry rather than on a fixed calendar. Soggy soil is a bigger danger than dry soil, because waterlogged roots rot and the ratoon depends on them. In cool weather the plant uses less water, so cut back or the soil stays wet too long.

How Long Until the Second Fruit

Ratoons are quicker than the first crop. A first pineapple crop takes 1 to 2 years from planting to harvest, but a ratoon takes about 9 months to 1.5 years, depending on the planting material and climate.16MapMyCrop. Pineapple Crop Guide – MapMyCrop Cooler climates and indoor pots slow growth, and a small kept shoot takes longer to mature than a large one.

Farms trigger flowering on a schedule. In commercial fields, growers force the ratoon to flower at about month 25 after the original planting, roughly 7 months before harvest.17College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Pineapple Cultivation in Hawaii Home growers sometimes encourage flowering by enclosing a mature plant in a bag with ripe apples, which release ethylene gas.

For many months the kept shoot simply grows more leaves and looks as though nothing is happening, which is normal. When the plant flowers, a red-pink cone appears at the centre of the leaves. Small purple-blue flowers then open on the cone over a few weeks. The fruit swells after that, and when ripe it turns golden, usually starting at the base.

Will the Second Pineapple Be as Good

On commercial farms, ratoon crops produced about two-thirds the yield of the first crop.18HortTechnology. Characterization of ‘MD-2’ Pineapple Planting Density and Fertilization Using a Grower Survey Fruit weight in those fields stayed in a similar 1.5 to 2 kg range,19HortTechnology. Characterization of ‘MD-2’ Pineapple Planting Density and Fertilization Using a Grower Survey so the drop came largely from fewer good fruits, and adjusting care can help limit it.20HortTechnology. Characterization of ‘MD-2’ Pineapple Planting Density and Fertilization Using a Grower Survey

At home, a ratoon fruit may come out a little smaller or lopsided than the first, which is normal and doesn’t mean it will taste worse. Flavour usually stays about the same, because it is the same plant and the same variety. Good feeding and keeping only one shoot give the best chance of a full-size fruit.

Sometimes no ratoon appears. A plant stressed by cold or drought may produce no good suckers, so the problem may be the growing conditions. Pests or root rot can weaken the old root system, and a ratoon depends on those roots. If nothing happens, you can still start fresh from a removed shoot or the crown, so the plant is not a total loss.

How Many Times You Can Repeat It

Hawaii farms grow two or three fruits per planting over about 32 or 46 months.21USDA Economic Research Service. Pineapples: An Economic Assessment of the Feasibility of Providing Multiple-Peril Crop Insurance For a second ratoon, the same steps are repeated, with harvest around month 46.22College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Pineapple Cultivation in Hawaii After that, the old plants are tilled into the soil, left to break down, or burned, and the field is replanted.23USDA Economic Research Service. Pineapples: An Economic Assessment of the Feasibility of Providing Multiple-Peril Crop Insurance At home, after two or three fruits, replanting a fresh sucker or crown usually beats nursing an aging plant. Signs the old plant is worn out include crowded, tangled stems with many small shoots, fruit that is noticeably smaller each round, and old leaves browning faster than new ones grow.

To restart cleanly, pot a healthy sucker in fresh, free-draining soil so the new plant doesn’t inherit old disease or tired soil. Compost the old plant rather than leaving it in place, where it can harbour pests. Keep one plant per pot for the best fruit, since crowding recreates the competition you removed.