EVEN a gardening expert like Jamie Durie would struggle to crack the code of the Redland Bay pineapple mystery, such have been the mixed responses to February's story about Richard Butler's mutant fruit.
Opinions were split in calls and letters received by the Redland City Bulletin, with some agreeing that finding a pineapple without a top was as rare as hen's teeth and others arguing that there was nothing special about it at all.
Thorneside resident Michael Yonwin has joined the debate since the story went to print, saying that during his forty years of growing experience the phenomenon had occurred twice in his own garden.
Like Mr Butler, Mr Yonwin said he could not put his finger on what had caused the deformity and believed it to be a natural occurrence.
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"I asked around a bit to see if anyone had seen any down at the fruit shop and that sort of thing and they didn't know anything about them," he said.
"I usually grow the pineapples in 20cm pots because they don't mind being pot-bound.
"I know that the professional growers use a lot of fertiliser on pineapples so I feed them every Wednesday morning with a little dilute liquid fertiliser and they seem to do very well that way.
"I grow quite a lot of them because I like pineapples and most of them grow perfectly normally. It is just in these two cases that they have come up without tops."
Mr Yonwin said he was hoping to come across more deformed pineapples in future.
"Wouldn't it be lovely if you could get it as a distinct variety," he said.
"There would be a real market for it because they wouldn't take up half the room that the pineapple with tops do."
Mr Yonwin said he had stumbled upon a number of other oddities in his garden over the years.
Among the rarest of his finds was a grapefruit with insides like a navel orange.
If you think you can crack the pineapple mystery, email jordi.crick@redlandcitybulletin.com.au.
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