is this opuntia?

[tyguy35]

hey just need an id help is this opuntia if so how do i go about the spikes getting them off without killing the plant. I have a few stuck in me from a week ago haha

 

[Tom]

I'm not sure if that is opuntia or not, but either way, I would not mess with it. Get yourself some SPINELESS opuntia. It still has little glocchids and sometimes a few tiny spines, but those are easy to deal with. To remove the millions of spines on yours, you'll need to singe them on an open flame after you cut the pad off the main plant. Good luck handling it. I use a fork and a sharp knife to handle my fully spined organ pipe cactus.

 

[tyguy35]

I'm not sure if that is opuntia or not, but either way, I would not mess with it. Get yourself some SPINELESS opuntia. It still has little glocchids and sometimes a few tiny spines, but those are easy to deal with. To remove the millions of spines on yours, you'll need to singe them on an open flame after you cut the pad off the main plant. Good luck handling it. I use a fork and a sharp knife to handle my fully spined organ pipe cactus.

Oh I know this one scares me. I'm just having trouble finding some spineless anywhere. I have a guy I'm ordering from but just the pads do you think I could grow one from a pad he send me?

 

[Tom]

Yes. Get some cactus soil mix from the garden center or just use some dry sandy soil from outside, if you've got it. Stick a pad about 1/2 way into the dirt vertically, and leave it alone for a month. No water, no nothing. Put it in the sun and leave it alone. After a month you can water a little. How often you water after that depends on your climate. Out west here, I have to water mine once a week in our hot dry summers. Most people in the south don't ever need to water them.

These things are REALLY easy to grow.

 

[tyguy35]

Yes. Get some cactus soil mix from the garden center or just use some dry sandy soil from outside, if you've got it. Stick a pad about 1/2 way into the dirt vertically, and leave it alone for a month. No water, no nothing. Put it in the sun and leave it alone. After a month you can water a little. How often you water after that depends on your climate. Out west here, I have to water mine once a week in our hot dry summers. Most people in the south don't ever need to water them.

These things are REALLY easy to grow.

Awesome I will give it a try. I bury the pad completely right?

 

[Jacob]

Bury it half way to 60 percent in the ground and leave it as Tom mentioned in the sun.

 

[Itort]

That is an Opuntia . Opuntia is a large and widespread genus of cactus. The one you are looking for is Opuntia ficus-indicus burbanki.

 

[wellington]

I have some planted in the ground and some in a pot on my porch. I cut the dry end off, the smaller end and then plant in the ground about half way. The ones on my porch have new pads growing the ones in the yard don't look as good. I think the dirt in the yard is a better dirt then the dirt that was in the pot. It was left over from last year and had hens and chicks growing in it. I think the plainer the dirt the better.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

It may be a species in the genus Opuntia, but I don't think it's one of the dozen or so species commonly known as prickly pear cacti. In any event, as mentioned above, it's much safer to feed your tortoise the spineless prickly pear cactus, Opuntia stricta.