Can you grow and fruit pineapple in south Texas? Absolutely! The plants need to be brought inside for winter, but you can definitely grow your own pineapples. This one was grown from a pineapple top from a fruit from the grocery store. You can use tops from the grocery store, but you will get smaller fruit. However, the resulting fruit is so worth it! This was the best tasting pineapple I’ve ever had, and I’ve been to Hawaii and had fresh pineapple there.
These plants are usually grown in cooler weather than San Antonio has, so keeping them protected from afternoon/evening sun is essential. This applies to many fruits that you can grow down here.
Pineapples are bromeliads and as all bromeliads: they fruit and then die. They will send out side pups, for the next seasons plants if they are healthy and in ideal locations. My pineapple took a couple of years to fruit so starting plants every year for a couple of years will give you a yearly supply of pineapples.
Keeping them outside in a cold frame with heat tape is a fantastic choice, however if that isn’t possible for you: you can bring them indoors over the winter.
I have purchased pineapple plants. They get more sun than the one that grew this fruit. They aren’t happy. So I plan on moving their pot onto my porch and seeing if that is the problem. When we have months over 100°F, you will find a lot of plants will put up with that heat, but only if they have protection from full sun.
Having pineapples under my covered porch ended up making them happy with the bright indirect light, but they grew slowly. Expect this from these plants.
Like with my low chill cherry trees: shade is essential to comply with the things you can’t change this far south in Texas (which mainly are the conditions that revolve around the incredibly high temperatures.) Other tropical fruits, (like bananas and pomegranates) can deal with both full sun and our heat, but they stop growing over about 90 degrees and do not flower over the summer, even with unlimited water and fertilizer.
The trick to growing in Texas heat is staying aware of how your fruit is reacting to your conditions. Keeping fruit in pots, is a great way to start plants, even large ones. Watching for heat stress, and burns from direct sun: will show you how much sun you can get away with and where you can expect to site your fruit permanently.
Once you get a robust plant: place an apple slice or a banana peel in a bag surrounding the center of the plant. The ethelene gas emitted from these fruits will signal the pineapple to send up a flower. Your fruit will be ready to pick when it yellows and is fragrant.
So: I do recommend trying your hand with pineapples in south Texas, with extra concentration on siting situations. Light and heat must be factored in to create a healthy plant.
Meet you out in the garden for the best pineapples ever!
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Crazy Green Thumbs 
I am a HUGE fan of pineapple!
I wasn’t that big of a fan until I grew my own. Amazingly good! Thanks for stopping by!
How odd that they want to be cooler than they are in San Antonio. It makes sense that they dislike frost, even mild frost, but it seems like they would crave warmth. I suppose that I underestimate the heat there.
Our highs this week were 108-110. That’s not the “feel like” temperature either. Our full sun will scorch a lot of plants that are usually sun loving. Add that heat to our humidity, and being in the sun is awful. There are a few things that don’t like this heat no matter how much water they get. The majority of my garden just wants a ton of water. But some plants aren’t even happy with that. Thanks for coming by! Always glad to see you!
When it gets that warm here, the lack of humidity is actually what makes it so uncomfortable for plants that like warmth. That is why palms that are so happy in Florida are not seen in Southern California. Actually, most of the palms that are common in Southern California do not perform well in the humidity of Florida.