Hi, I have an ornamental pineapple plant that I bought about 9 months ago. It has grown a lot and it now has 2 shoots that are growing on each side of the original plant and they are over half the size of it. The plant seems to not be doing very well and some of the leaves are dying. Should I separate these new shoots and plant them on their own? How should I go about this?
From the picture your plant appears to be Ananas comosus ‘Champaca’.
The offcets, or pups, of Ornamental pineapple can be grown into new plants as follows. When the offsets are about one-third the size of the main plant remove with a sharp knife and plant in an acidic potting mix at the same level as the offset was attached to the main plant. If there are roots try not to damage them when transplanting. If not they will develop later. If the offset has no roots you will need to stake it until the roots develop. The offses should be watered after planting and kept moist. Once roots and new leaves have developed feed with an all purpose fertilizer once a month. Keep the new plant out of direct sunlight for a week or two to allow it to recover from transplant shock. After that put the plant should be kept in a bright sunny location as pineapples like a lot of light.
You should also be feeding your mother plant with an all purpose fertilizer as this may be why it seems unhealthy. Make sure you water regularly, but allow the soil to dry out between waterings. Overwatering may be the reason some of the leaves of your plant are dying.
Good luck.