• 1). Start the pineapple plant in an 8-inch clay pot. Clay pots are absorbent and help ensure good drainage. Pineapples don't like "wet feet," or too much water settling around their roots.
  
  
• 2). Place a piece of curved broken pot over the hole in the bottom of the pineapple's pot. Put one half-inch of gravel over the pottery shard and fill the pot about two-thirds full with a good potting soil and some organic compost.
  
  
• 3). Place the crown in the soil, cover the base with the remainder of the soil and tamp it down firmly around the base. Keep the central leaves of the crown free of soil.
  
  
• 4). Scatter some solid plant food on the surface of the soil and wash it into the soil with water.
  
  
• 5). Wet the soil once a week. The crown should root in 6 to 8 weeks.
  
  

Transplanting

• 1). Transplant the young plant when it has outgrown its pot. Begin by wetting the soil then gently loosening the soil at the edge of the pot with a spade. Minor root damage is inevitable, but try to inflict as little as possible.
  
  
• 2). Hold the pot in one hand and the leaves of the fruit in the other and slowly separate the pot from the plant.
  
  
• 3). Plant the pineapple in a 5-gallon pot, fill it up with some more soil and compost and tamp around the base. Water the plant thoroughly. Wet roots will help to prevent transplant shock.
  
  
• 4). Continue to fertilize every two to three months.