Extremely long buds on Opuntia

[khaliisi]

I got this beauty in March, it had the three bottom segments and the super long thin buds that are now all curly and kind of soft. They have not grow neither in thicknes nor lenght, at least not noticeably. It has grown the two very top ones and the tiny one on the left while I had it and they look healty.

I am coserned about the long buds. Do they grow the cacti in darkness, that the plants get stretched out like this? I think they will eventually come off. Will they? Should I just take them off? One of them is right next to the other segment. It would have more energy to focus on the healthy buds if I removed the weird ones.

(I water them when the soil drys out. So far so good. They are in tiny pots so it is quite often. I ahve been meaning to replant them, but I have yet to get there.) (Oh, and I must say this, because I am so exited, the other Opuntia on the left grew the top segment in just a few weeks! The weather was super warm and they are on a window with morning sun. It made me so happy)

Thank you!

[greenknight]

Yes, growing in inadequate light is what would cause that, it's called etiolation if you want the technical term.

Those etiolated pads will probably survive - but do you want them there? They'll never grow into normal pads. They could be used as cutting material, though, if you'd like to grow some new starts. The way you do Opuntia cuttings is to lay a pad flat on the surface of some cactus soil - it will root down and send up a new shoot, the old pad just withers away.

I think I would wait until Spring to take them off, anyway - not good to be pruning too near to the end of the growing season, might stimulate the growth of new pads that won't have time to develop.

[khaliisi]

I think it should be spring enough by now, the sun is shining and the weather is getting warm and the cacti look happy. But how do I go about cutting the buds? With scissors, snapping them off with my fingers? From how high? As close to the base or higher?

[7george]

You can use pincers and a knife (dont touch glochids) and cut those etiolated pads to the base.

Some people suggest that Opuntias shouldn't be grown behind glass or polycarbonate but we are still trying to...

[greenknight]

They might snap off cleanly, but a good sharp knife will guarantee it. Cut at the narrowest point, right where they branched off.