
DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997                TAG: 9703150076

SECTION: HOME                    PAGE: G4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ROBERT STIFFLER, GARDENING COLUMNIST 

                                            LENGTH:   45 lines

GARDENER GOES ALL OUT TO GROW PINEAPPLE

EVER BUILD A greenhouse around a pineapple?

Oscar Richard did.

It wasn't easy, but after three years, he has a pineapple growing in his Virginia Beach yard that's almost ready to pick and eat.

Richard, a retired military man, got the urge to grow pineapple during travels to Hawaii.

He was never stationed there but has visited frequently with his wife.

He says he learned the proper method for growing pineapples from native Hawaiians.

Most literature on growing pineapples says to cut off the top, put it on damp sand and it will root.

Richard says that's the wrong way.

Instead of cutting off the top, you twist it off by hand and then put it in water to root.

Until last winter, he kept his pineapple in a pot and brought it indoors before a freeze.

In 1996, he decided it would probably grow better in the ground, so he built a mound of good soil in his yard, took the plant out of the pot and put it into the soil.

``It took two months for it to adjust to the new surroundings,'' he said.

Then came cold weather.

``I took 2-by-4s and built this little house around it and covered it with plastic film,'' he said. ``When I saw it needed more than a plastic house to stay warm, I put an electric heater in with it.

``But it sure shot up my electric bill.''

Now, he is about to harvest his first pineapple.

``Why do I go to all this extra trouble?'' he asked himself. ``It's all for the fun of growing.''

Richard is clearly a man who relishes the challenge of gardening.

He also saves his poinsettias from year to year and has been successful in getting them to bloom again. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ROBERT STIFFLER

Oscar Richard uses a makeshift greenhouse and a small electric

heater to grow his pineapple outdoors in Virginia Beach.