A PEMBROKE man has shown Pembrokeshire beats Yorkshire when it comes to growing juicy tropical fruit.

It was recently reported in the Daily Mail that Yorkshireman Edward Simpson grew a pineapple from a single slice in eight years.

A previous story in the national press has seen that figure improved, with a Cornish graqndmother successfully growing a pineapple in just six years.

Now Nick Kift, 61, of Worra Keebens (corr), Lower Lamphey Road has managed to grow his pineapple from the top of a Tesco-bought fruit in just two years, using nothing more than ordinary fertiliser.

Nick thought nothing of his impressive feat of horticulture until reading the recent article in the national press.

“When I saw that I thought surely something like that cannot make a national newspaper.”

Nick and his wife Helen, both retired psychiatric workers, whose house name is an anagram of ‘we are bonkers’, are no strangers to growing vegetables and fruits, having previously cultivated chillies, onions, and runner beans, but this is the first time they have had success with the pineapple.

Nick said: “Most people cut the top off and plant it in soil, but you’ve actually got to twist the green bit off and put it in a glass of water, you’ve then got a good root stock.

“I used nothing special at all, just ordinary compost and left it growing in the conservatory.

“I just think it’s perhaps a tad warmer here than Yorkshire, and the conservatory gets really, really hot.

“It’s Pembrokeshire-1, Yorkshire-0.”