Question
QUESTION: I have about 14 Pineapple plants. Two years ago I started getting a white or light grey fuzzy looking stuff growing on the leaves. Looks like little tuffs of cotton. I also have leaf spots on the plants. The last pineapple I picked was really covered with this white fuzz. I went to my local nursery and they sold me a All Seasons Spray Oil. Also says on the container, Horticultural & Dormant.
I treated the plants with this oil and over time it still comes back. Now I haven't had a fruit in a long time and there is no evidence of one coming on. It must have killed the production of fruit or the cross pollination of the plants. Can you help?

ANSWER: Hi Dave,  If you grew your pineapples from tops of plants, they could take three years to fruit.  If you take the plants from the sides of the plants they will produce in one year.  The only spray I use is 100 per cent pure neem oil, which does not was off, offering your plants more coverage.  It alters the flavor of the leaf and bugs go elsewhere.  The other sprays need to be re applied after rain or sprinklers hit them with water.  You could hit the plants with a hard stream of water with your hose and clear them off then apply the spray.  It is organic and the only thing I use at my nursery..kathy

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QUESTION: I did use pineapple tops. I was getting fruit from them. I averaged one or two a year. Unless I need to wait longer for my plants to start producing again. It just seem to have stop after I treated them with the oil. I don't have any sign of any new fruit coming on. It seems long over due. Do pineapple use pollination to create fruit? Do they have to be cross pollinated with each other? Does any of this oil treatment stop or block this process? Is there any fertilizer that I should be using to help promote the fruit? I seen one time that some one recommended a small cap full of fertilizer down into the center of the plant. I have been using a very light fertilizer mix, every other watering.  What do you think of this?
Thanks for info on this and thanks for the previous info. Dave

Answer
Hi Dave, Have you thinned the plants?  Plants too close will slow down the production.  Do not believe the treatment injured the plants, they put an apple not fertilizer down the center of the plant to make it fruit sooner.  Thinning your plants may be the issue here.  Treat them like a bromeliad  very little water as they collect water in their tops.  Some slow release fertilizer in the ground around them in the spring (March)  and last but not least and insecticidal spray like Neem Oil.