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Not all the species are edible. I read that one of the opuntia species have some chemicals that will cause kidney or liver damage.

And the rest are full of glochids and spines, so it would be a pain in the rear to prepare them.

What kinds are edible besides ficus indica and humifusa? correct me if those are some of the ones that are not

I am pretty sure that O. ficus-indicus is for sure edible.
That is all that I could find on wikipedia. hang on tho.
http://www.succulent-plant.com/crecipe.html According to this site they are all edible, but I dont know if any are better then others other than O. ficus indicus.

I've been wondering about this actually. My opuntia has grown a lot, since I got it, but its still in the pot. Should I plant it before I try harvesting from it?

hippyman wrote:I've been wondering about this actually. My opuntia has grown a lot, since I got it, but its still in the pot. Should I plant it before I try harvesting from it?

I don't think it matters very much if it's in the ground VS in a pot. Just remember that you want to harvest the young pads. Not the old ones.

eekawill wrote:What kinds are edible besides ficus indica and humifusa? correct me if those are some of the ones that are not

Will, btw you can also eat O. engelmannii and O. phaeancantha pads, but those two are a pain in the rear as Byron suggested because they have tons of glochids and spines. What you need to do to eat those types is get a potato peeler and dig out the areoles with the eye gouger(ya know the tip that pulls out the eyes of potatoes) and then you can peel off the skin where the glochids are( usually around the areoles and also along the top part of the pad and the edges)

Now ya see why O. ficus-indica is preferred.