Prickly Pear Cactus Propagation

DLEvergreen

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If anyone is interested in buying small quantities of spineless prickly pear pads for feeding to your tortoises, I sell small bulk packages of Opuntia Cacanapa (up to about 24 pads) for the lowest prices that I know of, at least on eBay. Check out my profile on here or on ebay "dlevergreen."
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Elizabeth Tucker

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Prickly Pear Cactus PropagationView attachment 92899View attachment 92900

From a very old cactus, cut a pad that is at least six months old, the older the pad the faster you will get new pads, flowers and fruit. Allow the cut part of the the pad to form a callous. This will take a week or two in warm weather but longer when the air is moist. Be sure to allow more time rather than less, to avoid rot. Sit the pad upright while it forms callous so that it will not curl.
When planting the pad, settle it upright only about an inch deep in a mixture of equal parts of soil and sand. We have found that any soil that drains well works fine. Planting the pad too deeply will encourage rot. Water the pad. Let the soil dry between future waterings. Wait several months before beginning to harvest either pads or fruit, or future harvests will lessened. Generally, the second or third pad to form will bear flowers and fruit, but a pad from an older plant may flower and set fruit sooner than a section from a younger, immature pad.
Remember to plant the oldest pad that you can find. The pads from the grocery store are harvested for human consumption and are young and tender and aren't old enough.
If you prefer more flowers and fruits, give the plants a no-nitrogen fertilizer once a month, even through the winter. During this dormant period, the plants require a bright situation and enough water only to keep the pads from shriveling. The cactus will bloom and set fruit from early spring through the summer, depending on the variety. Each pad can support numerous flowers, each yielding one fruit. Up to 30 blooms have been counted on mature pads, but 8 to 16 is a good number to allow for development of good-sized fruits. The fruits are ripe enough to harvest when the glochids fall off. Twist, rather than pull, the fruit from the pad to avoid tearing it.
These pads were harvested from a plant that is over 30 years old.
These were planted in May 2014.


Sent from Rodney Earl Pettway's iPad using TortForum
Hmm, Looks like you have good collection.......... (y)
 

jskahn

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Does anyone know an EASY way to de-thorn Prickly Pear cactus? My property is loaded with it, but it is not the spineless type.
 

Iochroma

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I u
Does anyone know an EASY way to de-thorn Prickly Pear cactus? My property is loaded with it, but it is not the spineless type.

I use a torch - hold it parallel to the pad - makes the job kind of fun.
 

Yvonne G

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I buy cheap pot scrubbers at the dollar store (like scotch brite) and dedicate one to cactus only. Lightly scrub the pad until all the glochids have been removed. Then toss that scrubber pad so you don't accidentally pick it up again and get more stickers in your fingers.
 

jskahn

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I u


I use a torch - hold it parallel to the pad - makes the job kind of fun.
I buy cheap pot scrubbers at the dollar store (like scotch brite) and dedicate one to cactus only. Lightly scrub the pad until all the glochids have been removed. Then toss that scrubber pad so you don't accidentally pick it up again and get more stickers in your fingers.
Thanks, both great ideas
]
 

Blkjkoknhrt

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Got one started already - Munster eats his "pad" first, he gets some almost every day. It's the green cubes in the middle left...IMG_0660.JPG
 

Anyfoot

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I live in the UK. Have grown fruit n veg for years. Do you think prickly pear cactus can be grown over here in our climate.
 

Anyfoot

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Just ordered these seeds. Opuntia macrorhiza (Blue Morph) - Very Hardy Plains Prickly Pear - Fresh Seeds

Are these any good? Will they take long from seed? Please don't tell me my tort grows quicker. lol
 

Blkjkoknhrt

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I just put a smaller pad callous - end down in a small pot under fluorescent light with regular potting soil and watered well when it got dry. I alsopropped it up with some toothpicks. This is the pic after 2 weeks...dunno if it's a flower or a pad yet...

The other sprouts to the right are carrot greens grown from the top of a carrot. VARIETY! That's what it's about!
 

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J.P.

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I just put a smaller pad callous - end down in a small pot under fluorescent light with regular potting soil and watered well when it got dry. I alsopropped it up with some toothpicks. This is the pic after 2 weeks...dunno if it's a flower or a pad yet...

wow. that is quick. is the cactus under the light 24/7? that may explain the quick develoment. i have mine outside, over a week now and i see nothing. i hope it doesn't take too long before i can feed newly grown pads to my leopards.
 

Blkjkoknhrt

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Yep, as I said, actually plain 100w incandescent bulbs got it started. I just added a cheap fluorescent fixture this week. I KNOW it was this quick 'cause I've only had the tort since Dec14 and started the "Garden" about a week or so later.IMG_0824.JPG Plants growing so far: Spider plants, African Violets, Peperomia spp, chia seeds, Carrot tops and of course, Opuntia.
 

Loohan

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It's interesting to see how small the container needed to plant this pad. I always think they need bigger, but yours seem do well.

Yes! Succulents do not grow roots in response to water; they grow them in search of water. So you want an environment that drains well and is usually largely dry. The energy for making roots comes from the plant's storage.
This is the secret to aloes, BTW. Crowd their roots in small pots. Then you can drench them or leave them out in the summer rain pretty safely.

I haven't propagated opuntia by pads, but if i did, i would use pure vermiculite/perlite and only a trace of 10-60-10 or the like, or maybe even just bone meal.
 

Len B

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Here is a opuntia pad that is all shriveled up very dry and no weight to it. But,c May30.jpg Put in a container with enough water to keep the bottom submerged and 6 days later it has roots growing out the bottom c nors.jpg c with roots.jpgAnd ready to be planted.
 

Yvonne G

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Does anyone know an EASY way to de-thorn Prickly Pear cactus? My property is loaded with it, but it is not the spineless type.

I had a visit from a trucker a few days ago and we were talking about cactus. He said when he was a kid he discovered that if he got cactus thorns stuck in his hand all he had to do was rub his hands in his hair and they came out. Evidently the thorns just fell out of the hair.
 

Alaskamike

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ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1433705391.529577.jpg

These were all started by just sticking a large pad about 1/3rd of the way in the ground and forgetting about them. Optunia without thorns.

They've been in ground about 9 mos.
 

Odin's Gma

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Just ordered these seeds. Opuntia macrorhiza (Blue Morph) - Very Hardy Plains Prickly Pear - Fresh Seeds

Are these any good? Will they take long from seed? Please don't tell me my tort grows quicker. lol
I ordered the same type, along with humifusa seeds. Just put them in dirt a few days ago and have no idea how long they will take, but am really looking forward to having cactus in my yard! Who would have thought there were cactus that were hardy in Minnesota and the UK, right?
 
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