4 Important Tips For How To Harvest Pineapple - Minneopa Orchards

How to Tell if Your Pineapple is Ready for Harvesting

Before we get into how to harvest pineapple, you’ll need to know the different indicators to ensure it’s ripe. Knowing when to harvest pineapple is just as important as knowing how to.

Unlike some other fruits, your pineapple won’t ripen once it’s been picked. Instead, it’ll become soft without growing in sweetness.

Bloom

Once the plant itself has bloomed, you’ll want to wait about 6 months before you even consider picking it. This is because pineapples take about 5.5 months to ripen after it’s bloomed.

When your pineapple plant is ready to produce fruit, you’ll find it starting to grow a cluster of blue flowers. This is nothing to worry about; it means that your plant is healthy, and in a couple of months, you’ll have a mouthwatering treat to sink your teeth into.

Quick note, if you have taken the top of a pineapple and used it to start your pineapple crop, it may take up to 2 years for your plant to bloom.

Color

The color of the pineapple is a great indicator if it’s ripe or not.

If your pineapple appears green, then it still hasn’t reached maturity. A clear indicator that your fruit has started the ripening process is if you see a yellow heugh start to appear at the base of the pineapple.

Suppose your pineapple is about 3/4 of the way yellow. In that case, it’s reached “maturity,” but that doesn’t mean it’s time to harvest pineapples just yet, because all though it’s “ripe,” it hasn’t reached its sweetness potential.

If your pineapple has started to turn brown, then it’s become too ripe and started to ferment.

Scent

Next, check the smell of your pineapple while it’s still attached to its leafy plant. A pineapple has a relatively strong tropical smell when ripe.

You’ll be able to get whiffs of this scent if you get close enough. The scent will be strongest at the base of the fruit, indicating you should prepare for harvesting pineapples.

Sound

This might come as a surprise, but did you know the sound could be a good indicator of when to harvest pineapples?

Much like you’d flick a melon to check what sound it makes before you pick it, you’ll want to do the same to your pineapple.

Firmly but gently, hold your pineapple with one hand and tap it on the side with your other. Listen closely; does it sound solid? If so, your pineapple isn’t ready.