How to grow pineapples

[@RaisingFour]

Hi Adam, I came across an old video of yours showing a camellia. I have them lining my driveway on both sides. My husband cut all the branches off the bottom half of a few of them about 4 years ago and they have not grown back. Would you mind giving me advice on how to grow them back? Is it possible? Thanks so much.

[@AdamHWoodhams]

Hi Jessica, often if you trim off lower branches, on many plants, they won't grow back if the trunk is over-shadowed by the foliage above. This is the plant being 'economical' - no point in expending energy regrowing branches and leaves in a place that doesn't get sunlight. It's a wee bit of a difficult situation really as it may be a bit hit-or-miss to get them to grow back. Fact is they may have now decided that they don't need branches any more and nothing short of a mega-prune will trigger them. You could prune the top hard and get some light into the trunk but there's absolutely no guarantee that will work & you could be left with short camellias for a while... The issue is whether they actually have the right sort of buds or tissue dormant in the trunk. These sort of buds are generally called epicormic buds. Many plants do have these and they can be triggered by shock or stress but if the buds aren't there there's nothing to reshoot if you get my drift. You may find the best solution is a design one - underplant with some suitable sized plants to fill the gap. Sorry I can't be of more help than that.

[@thaiphanvevo]

Great video! It's pretty cold in Melbourne but so I don't reckon I'd be able to grow them here. :'(

[@AdamHWoodhams]

You could likely grow the plants but you may not get fruit @Thai. I've seen people getting nice bunches of bananas growing in Melbourne so there is hope!