Cacti from Vegas!

[pugsandkids]

I was in Vegas last week visiting family. Imagine how excited I was when my Aunt presented me with cacti from her own yard to bring home. I've gotten them potted (in our PNW typhoon ) and am wondering how to go about feeding them to the torts. Do I cut a pad in half? Only pull full pads? Just wait for new growth and feed those?
I know they need to take root and grow, but I'm so pleased at the idea of feeding cacti I've grown!

 

[Yvonne G]

I would place one pad into each pot. Eventually, when it starts to grow, one pad will make a big plant. The ball type is an echinopsis and probably wouldn't be good to feed. If you don't care to grow a plant, then you can feed those pads, but I would grow plants from the pads and feed pads as the plant gets too big.

 

[Yvonne G]

Interesting...I asked my friend, Google, if echinopsis can be fed to tortoises. One of the responses he gave was this one:

http://www.cactusstore.com/category_553/Tortoise-Food.htm

Has nothing to do with echinopsis, but interesting if you want to buy opuntia to plant and feed.

 

[pugsandkids]

Yup, I need more pots to plant each pad separately. They'd been wrapped in newspaper and then ziploc'd since my Weds flight, I figured some dirt was better then no dirt.

 

[Tom]

Interesting...I asked my friend, Google, if echinopsis can be fed to tortoises. One of the responses he gave was this one:

http://www.cactusstore.com/category_553/Tortoise-Food.htm

Has nothing to do with echinopsis, but interesting if you want to buy opuntia to plant and feed.

$3.50 a pound??? Holy cow!!! I need to start selling this stuff! I could be rich! My tortoises have eaten thousands of dollars worth of cactus this summer!!!

 

[pugsandkids]

$3.50 a pound??? Holy cow!!! I need to start selling this stuff! I could be rich! My tortoises have eaten thousands of dollars worth of cactus this summer!!!

Oh ya, it's all I could think of hiking around Red Rock. Look at all the tort food!

 

[Shaif]

I've paid $15 a pound for opunta! You are lucky if you can grow it!

 

[saginawhxc]

$3.50 a pound??? Holy cow!!! I need to start selling this stuff! I could be rich! My tortoises have eaten thousands of dollars worth of cactus this summer!!!

I've been buying from a source online and paying just over $30 for a box that is about 10lbs.

Nobody seems to carry it here in Michigan.