Buying prickly pear cactus

[gnappi]

Sorry for the long first post, so much to learn. I'm New member here, and new to cactus, if I say something silly, please be gentle, and try not to laugh too hard.

A few months ago I had a L-O-N-G wait on AAA road service for my motorcycle with a flat, and walked around the interstate cloverleaf. I found this little cactus (no more than 2' tall) growing through a fence with fruit all over it. Like a newbie I tried to avoid the glochids to open it up and taste it but got a bunch stuck in me. But the fruit was sweet and juicy but small. I need to schedule a trip back there to get a couple of cuttings.

Well, that started me on a "tuna" hunt, and being in Florida I'm a somewhat accomplished exotic fruit grower. BUT... Florida is pretty wet and I need to get over my learning curve on prickly pears.

Here are my problems acquiring and getting into these great little fruits.

I haven't found a single local nursery in South Florida that sells pear bearing fruit, just the little mini colorful ones (without glochids) for terrariums.

Online there's a plethora of selections, but the ads are less than informative. The ads generally miss one or more of the following details.

1. Believe it or not whether or not the flowers mature into edible fruit.

2. If they DO say it bears edible fruit, they invariably do not describe the fruit... seed content, sweetness, size, color, season and or geographical suitability.

3. Details on the mature size of the plant and or how manageable it is to keep without spreading like wildfire

4. Rate of plant growth

5. How much water can they take and survive, an important bit of info for me.

6. Approximate time to fruit from a single pad sized cutting.

For example, one online cactus supplier has MANY (~2 dozen) cactus, many featured in bloom, GREAT other details, but only one (Opuntia engelmannii) is said to have edible fruit. Some say it's a prickly pear (O. scheeri, O. violacea ) one says "orange tuna" (paraguayensis) no edibility statement? Taste? sweetness? Are ALL prickly pears and tuna edible?

You would "think" that since you don't pay a "per character" fee for a web page that ads would be overflowing with information, this is not the case. As a matter of fact there is no standardization on ANY site on plant details, I think that they missing sales.

I would think something like this would be the norm?

Plant mature size:
Plant color:
Growth habit: Slow / Vigorous
Flower color:
Fruit size / color:
Fruit edible?:
Fruit seed content:
Fruit sweetness (BRIX?)
Water requirements:
Water tolerance:
USDA / Sunset Zone suitability:

I dunno why this should be elusive information, a web site "should" generate sales, not Emails and phone calls for information.

Anyway... I have found that we have several native cactus varieties that survive here but whether or not they have edible fruit is unknown. So as I find cultured run wild selections that live in our wet climate that have edible fruit I take cuttings.

So, to make a long post even longer, I am seeking smaller / dwarf selections suitable for southeast Florida with HUGE, SWEET, JUICY, fruit... just kidding about all of the fruit details, but some would be very nice!

Are there any So. Fla owners who have experience to help educate me?

Hey growers...snap out of it! your pages are less than wonderful!


Thanks,

Gary

[Deerhuntin]

Someone else might be able to help you more, but here is a little tidbit of info.

http://www.mesagarden.com/c2016.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Opuntia, /4,6,9,12/ very diverse genus sold by pack 100 500 - Your prickly pear cacti.
1092-engelmannii /17/ Carrizzozo, NM, huge edible fruits $1.30 $4.50 $14.75

Im guessing some mammillaria would work too. Strawberry pin cushions sometimes referred to. small fruits. Not sure the best tasting species?

Im sure that someone else will be more help to you more, but thats just one I noticed when I was looking at seeds from mesa garden. Good for your zone... No idea.

[DaveW]

If you are going to eat cactus fruits don't use systemic insecticides on the plants, or even contact ones unless you do so long before the fruits ripen and wash them well before eating. I suppose washing mealies off with soap suds would be OK, but I would not use anything more toxic on the plants if you want to eat the fruits.

[greenknight]

All prickly pear fruits are edible, but the flavor varies. The low-growing plant with small, sweet fruit you found was likely O. humifusa.

[esp_imaging]

Epiphllum fruit are edible - some are apparently very tasty, they may suit your climate well.
Hylocereus are delicious and grown commercially for their fruit, they would again probably suit your climate but may be rather large growing.

[gnappi]

All prickly pear fruits are edible, but the flavor varies. The low-growing plant with small, sweet fruit you found was likely O. humifusa.

"If you are going to eat cactus fruits don't use systemic insecticides on the plants, or even contact ones unless you do so long before the fruits ripen and wash them well before eating. I suppose washing mealies off with soap suds would be OK, but I would not use anything more toxic on the plants if you want to eat the fruits."


Thanks for that! I had no idea that all were edible, that 's a relief Now instead of intestinal disorders I only have to worry about glochids. I was not very specific on the wild / native / owner placed ones I have sampled so far and the pads do look like the O. humifusa as do the fruit description from reading around the web.

From what I'm reading about root rot, it looks like my taking cuttings from locally successful types may be best short term solution, the hunt is on!!!

I'm a tropical fruit grower and all of my pest control methods are via horticultural/neem oils and insecticudal soap all non poisonous and not systemic. I eat too much of my fruit to worry about chemicals.

Anyway I'm still open to Florida or other smaller opuntia that would be at home in So. Fla.


Thanks,

Gary

[lamonsta]

I live in Louisiana and I have found it wild here along the Red River. Most likely from upstream fields, but it shows up on the sandy soils along the river. They are often a dwarf variety but from time to time I run across a large specimen. Of course I take samples of the ones I find. Actually all of the Prickly Pear I have are from mothers in the fields around North East Louisiana. I have transplanted them to many places as well and they seem to thrive everywhere here. Its mid Winter and my outside transplants are looking good. They flower well, produce fruit, but not really edible. It taste good but the amount of meat to seeds is paltry.

[graffiti]

Opuntia ficus-indica are the plants that commercial growers use, as I understand it.

Also somebody told me just the other day that Haageocereus also produce edible fruit.

[esp_imaging]

I understand that cacti either produce a more-or-less juicy berry, which will vary from somewhere between bland and tasteless to delicious when ripe, or a seed pod which dries out and splits or disintegrates on ripening (neglecting of course a few where the seeds are retained in the plant body). As far as I've been able to find out via google, none of the berries are toxic.
I suspect that a list of species which are either commercially grown for their fruit or which are habitually harvested in the wild would be pretty long. Add all the species with more-or-less palatable fruit which are reasonably easy to collect (at least in tiny quantities for curiosity value) and the list would probably be very long.
Here's wikipedia's list, with some obvious very gaps, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_edible_cacti

And here are a few others trawled off the internet:

Acanthocereus occidentalis
Carnegia gigantea -
Cereus jamacaru -
Corryocactus
Espostoa melanostele
Various Ferocactus
Hylocereus (Dragon fruit) -
Lemaireocereus
Rhipsalis
Selenicereus megalantus