Lou DeFranco and his wife, Esther, have lived in Peachtree City for 20 years. Since moving to the area, the couple has attempted to grow pineapples. After purchasing a pineapple at the grocery store, they would cut off the top and plant it inside and move it outside several weeks later. The plants were used mainly for decoration but recently one of the plants produced a pineapple.

“A little bud just popped up around 4-6 weeks ago,” said Lou, a retired construction engineer. “Then we started noticing new growth and the lavender flowers on top.”

The DeFrancos have not doen anything special to help grow the pineapple. They water the plant when it is dry, but they have not given it fertilizer or fed it anything special. The warm weather has certainly helped the plant and the pair plans to move it inside when the weather gets too cold. They estimate that it will take another four to six weeks for the pineapple to be ready to eat.

“I just want to see how far it goes and see what happens,” said Lou, who was understandably excited that their little project has finally bore fruit.

“If this catches on and continues, we may just have a pineapple ranch,” said Lou.

“Maybe we can change the name of the city to Pineapple City,’ added Esther with a chuckle.