Cactus Pads

[TriciaStringer]

i got these for about $4.75. Is that a good price? Also, one of the employees said it takes a very long time to grow cactus. I thought I read that they grow pretty quickly. I’ll be putting some of them in full sun. What is your experience with growing them from a store bought pad.

 

[wellington]

They run about 98 cents a pound in my area.
They grow fairly quick in my opinion. They should root and grow. I would cut the stem end off so the new roots could possibly start quicker.

 

[Tom]

I have the best results when trying to grow second or third year pads, rather than tender young pads like those. Those are the ones I feed to the tortoises.

If you want to grow your own, the best thing would be to find some growing nearby and cut some older larger pads off of those. Then plant several of them. If I plant 10 at one time in the same area, 2 or 3 of them will take off like crazy, 2 or 3 won't grow much at all, and the rest will be "average". I have about 40 cactus stands now and about 10 of them grow like crazy. I have to cut half the stand down every year. I feed buckets of pads to all my tortoises all summer long.

 

[Redfool]

Nopales are 5 for a dollar at my local Latino produce store. 2 blocks away.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Hey Tricia...we routinely purchase pads like this for our Sully every week or so. A pad here a pad there, etc. Sully loves it. Two or three years ago, bought a handful with the aim of growing a few pot fulls. Planted about 5 or 6 pads in pots and waited....they never died....eventually put up a few new pads BUT not enough to break off and feed on any regular basis. It might be like @Tom noted..that these young pads are not the best starter pads... but, based on my experiences with these market center pads, i would pass and go with more established pads as starters.

I had made some hypertuffa pots and they looked well in these natural looking pots, just nothing grew fast....so, go with more mature pads and you will probably be happier. Happy Torting!

 

[TriciaStringer]

I know I didn’t get them for 98 cents a pound, but not much more. I will have to ask around. I don’t see them growing here very often.

My 19 month old sulcata really loved it though. Super excited to broaden her pallet. The teenager loved it too but he eats anything offered.

 

[Maro2Bear]

We all arent as fortunate as @Tom or @Yvonne G or Len in Virginia to have wonderful pads of cactus....the market ones are pretty cheap and easy.

Here are a few pix of our pathetic pads......

They just havent thrived...

 

[TammyJ]

We all arent as fortunate as @Tom or @Yvonne G or Len in Virginia to have wonderful pads of cactus....the market ones are pretty cheap and easy.

Here are a few pix of our pathetic pads......View attachment 240934View attachment 240935

They just havent thrived...

Awww. Keep trying with them! Sometimes its too much water.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

They are easy to grow.
Any of the old pads that fall on the ground start to throw down roots.
But I have two pots about 5 feet apart. Planted with a single store bought pad each. Watered the same. Cared for the same and one is about 5 feet tall now and probably 4 feet wide. The other is less than half as large.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Awww. Keep trying with them! Sometimes its too much water.

Nagh.... i know how to start and grow most plants. These were normal pads, left to dry, planted in pots until they put out their first shoots.. took a long long time. None died, none thrived. They have been growing now for lets say three years...very very slowly.

• The ones i took snaps of look wet ‘cause we had monster thunderstorms all day yesterday....but...they are normally minimally watered.

I think I’ll a try a new source!

 

[daniellenc]

Nagh.... i know how to start and grow most plants. These were normal pads, left to dry, planted in pots until they put out their first shoots.. took a long long time. None died, none thrived. They have been growing now for lets say three years...very very slowly.

• The ones i took snaps of look wet ‘cause we had monster thunderstorms all day yesterday....but...they are normally minimally watered.

I think I’ll a try a new source!

I tried last year in sand and soil. It’s too humid here spring and summer and winter too cold. For my one guy I’ll pay my $1 and change a pound at the Latin markets lol.

 

[TriciaStringer]

I tried last year in sand and soil. It’s too humid here spring and summer and winter too cold. For my one guy I’ll pay my $1 and change a pound at the Latin markets lol.

I’m going to try but the amount of rain and humidity we get here may prove difficult. I remember a Hispanic family living around the corner with some but they moved and the new owner got rid of them from the yard. I wish I would have thought to get some.

 

[RosemaryDW]

i got these for about $4.75. Is that a good price?

I don’t think you can do broad price comparisons. Cleaned cactus is $2/lb near me and 3lb/$1 at a large Mexican market in Los Angeles, an hour away.

I’m another member with very slow growing pads; they were quite tiny when I got them. Fine for one Russian, not so much for a Sulcata!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I’m going to try but the amount of rain and humidity we get here may prove difficult. I remember a Hispanic family living around the corner with some but they moved and the new owner got rid of them from the yard. I wish I would have thought to get some.

I seriously doubt that it's any rainier or more humid than it is here. And cactus grows here like a weed.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I've told this story before. So I'm sorry to those of you who've heard it already.
I had a house with a large stand of very bristly cactus in one corner of the yard. I hated it.
One day I decided to chop it up. I hacked it up with a machete. Then ran over it several times with an industrial lawn mower. Done!
But then, to my horror. Almost every piece of the cactus over an inch long started to drop roots and grow into another plant.
It took many months to finally get rid of MOST of it. But driving by that old house today, you can see a lot of cactus there.
THAT is how hard it is to grow cactus here.

 

[CarolM]

I've told this story before. So I'm sorry to those of you who've heard it already.
I had a house with a large stand of very bristly cactus in one corner of the yard. I hated it.
One day I decided to chop it up. I hacked it up with a machete. Then ran over it several times with an industrial lawn mower. Done!
But then, to my horror. Almost every piece of the cactus over an inch long started to drop roots and grow into another plant.
It took many months to finally get rid of MOST of it. But driving by that old house today, you can see a lot of cactus there.
THAT is how hard it is to grow cactus here.

Whahaha. Maybe we should all try that method instead. And bang we will all have cacti growing, well.... like cacti [emoji23] [emoji23]

 

[TriciaStringer]

I seriously doubt that it's any rainier or more humid than it is here. And cactus grows here like a weed.

That’s great to hear.

 

[Hugo's Home]

We all arent as fortunate as @Tom or @Yvonne G or Len in Virginia to have wonderful pads of cactus....the market ones are pretty cheap and easy.

Here are a few pix of our pathetic pads......View attachment 240934View attachment 240935

They just havent thrived...

I would transplant them into new larger pots. At least 15 gallon if you really want them to grow, larger pots are better. Fill with a really sandy compost/coco coir succlent cactus mix and get a really mild cactus fertilizer. They will explode! they really need larger pots to thrive!

 

[Tom]

In the past I grew some in pots and they did okay here, but they do better in the ground.

I do think climate has something to do with it. Cactus use a different kind of photosynthesis than other plants. Its called "crassulacean acid metabolism" (CAM). They have a different method of growth and it requires high heat and lots of sun. Different varieties of succulents thrive in different climates. The cactus I grow here probably wouldn't do well in Maryland, and the varieties @Turtulas-Len grows in Virginia, might not do as well here.

 

[Len B]

I grow cactus in pots and planted in the ground. The in the ground do better than the potted ones.But I have one type that does very good when potted and fantastic when planted in the ground. Here are 3 of the potted plants ,2 are in concrete planters and the last is in a plastic pot. The last pic is some planted in the ground. During the last very cold and wet winter in the Wash DC area I only lost one complete plant. Had some damage to a few other types though. The type in the pics are not spineless but I'm getting 8 to 10 inch new growth pads that don't haves spines yet for Walker my sulcata.to eat. @Tom, I Believe everything I grow here would grow where you are but you may need to water them doing your growing season for them to thrive.And @Tricia Stringer, when your out and about keep a lookout for cactus growing in your area and if you see some just ask for a pad or 2. That is how I got most of my different types.