Puppy sitting

Plants reproduce in many different ways. People most commonly know the method of pollination. In this method, pollen from the male part of a plant is transferred to the female part of a plant. That sperm travels down tubes and fertilizes an egg. Plants produce colorful, nice smelling flowers to attract various insects that help them pollinate. However, pollination is not the only way that a plant reproduces. Propagation is another method that plants use to create more of their species. Various plants use a type of propagation to reproduce, the creation of pups! Pups are essentially plant babies. The host plant will start to grow tiny offshoots that can be separated, and replanted. This method doesn't involve the cutting of part of a plant necessarily. It more so involves separating a plant and replanting it.

Pineapple is a common example! In the image above, there is an older pineapple plant that is dying off due to disease. It is growing offshoots of pineapple pups, which will be replanted for further pineapple harvesting. You're probably wondering how someone might do this... well here are the similar steps to separating your pups from your plant.

First, remove your plant from its pot. You're going to want to try to clean off the roots, as they may be a bit compacted like in this picture. I've found that soaking them in water helps them to loosen a bit, which is good for separating pups, which can oftentimes have roots of their own. Make sure you're getting as much of the dirt off of those roots as you can. Doing so will allow you to separate your pups easier.

Next, you're going to gently pull the pups off of the original plant. Make sure to be cautious, as you want to keep the root systems of each individual in tact. Once you've successfully removed each individual pup, you will pot or plant them as normal. For pineapples, I'm taking special steps to plant it, as it requires special conditions. I'm using Organic Cactus Mix from Espoma, as I find this soil allows pineapple plants to thrive.

I will simply repot each individual pup in soil, and look after it. Oftentimes, replanting greens can result in transplant shock, which is when the plant is shocked to death after being in a new environment. In situations like these, its important that you fertilize as needed, and make sure you're giving your plant the proper amount of water and sunlight.

Once you've completed all these steps, you should have some nicely repotted pup plants and one healthy original plant. Feel free to give these pup plants to friends and family as I am doing, or simply keep them for yourself and watch them grow into full plants of their own!