CactiGuide.com

Hi All. I was hoping to get some recommendations on a few Opuntia species specifically for the size, quality and taste of the fruit. Does anyone have any suggestions on a couple of species that produce a fair amount of large red fruit (tuna)? I am currently growing OPUNTIA FICUS INDICA for pads and also Opuntia engelmannii var. linguiformis. Thanks!

Being that you are from San Diego, you have a great opportunity of making selections in the wild and around the cities. If you spot a Prickly Pear growing at someones home with large fruit, knock on the door and offer them $2 for a pad and a fruit.

Most of my Opuntia was collected this way. Also there are many active members of the CRFG in San Diego. You can attend one of the meetings, and get a hold of a Prickly Pear selection made by a member.

If your interested in a pad trade or something you can msg me on these forums. I have about 3-4 Opuntia that produce larger fruit. However, I was only able to try the fruit of one of them so far (most have been obtained in the last 2 years).

You can also go the seed route, goto a Mexican market and buy some nice tasting Prickly Pears. Tradewindfruits, also has selected Opuntia seeds for its fruit.

O. ficus-indica and O. robusta are the most common and possibly the tastiest. O. cochenillifera is another. These are probably the easiest to harvest as well, as the fruit hardly have any spines or glochids to remove. But they do contain a bunch of tooth-chipping seeds

Actually, most Mexican markets sell the fruit and the pads, but knowledge of what species they are from may go unanswered. The terms used are Tuna for fruit and Nopales for the pads.

I can help with plant cuttings if you strike out locally, I'm just up the 15 in Corona.

Nobel has extensive lists of edible cactus fruits in his book Cactus, Biology and Uses. The book should be fairly common in libraries. I picked up my copy on one of the bookcloseout type websites. Many are tropicals and some are columnars that take many years to grow.

I`ve eaten hylocereus, nopalea, opuntia, peniocereus, and acanthocereus species common down here, but none in quantity except for hylocereus. I vaguely remember eating some epiphyllum, too. Like hylocereus, you have to beat the birds to it. Hylocereus and acanthocereus have the fruits large enough to be practical. Peniocereus hirshtianus has the nice habit of dropping its spines as the fruit matures. It seems somewhere I read that O. decumbens can cause diarhea in sensitive people, but this is a fairly obscure plant with small fruits with lots of glochids. Even the birds don`t eat the one`s in my yard.

I like Opuntia Robusta fruit the most,they are big and 'juicy'.

Most grocery stores are going to carry fruits from Opuntia ficus indica. Opuntia ficus indica has tons of varieties of fruits and the flavors and sweetness can go from dull in one variety to wow in another. Most of my varieties are near seedless and are tops for sweetness. I have 7 different varieties and some are red fruits and others are yellow. I was not impressed with robusta or cochenillifera. Engelmanii and stricta are my favorites outside the of the ficus indica. I plan on trying other species as well as time goes on.

Does anyone know where you can get Opuntia fruiting selections or named varieties? I bought some green fruits from a fruit stand and I can't say I was impressed. The seeds were large and like chewing on a mouthful of rocks, with very little fruit pulp. With that and the glochids, I wasn't delighted by the experience.

Like Joseph, I too have been looking for cactus with good tasting fruit.
I have been looking for thornless prickly pear varieties growing in my area.

Recently I was able to get some cuttings.

The first prickly pear pad I got was from a cactus growing behind the fence of a house on the shoulder of a rural road.





This pad was about 1.5 inch thick and weighed 2.75 pounds. The ruler is 18" long.

Any ideas what it might be? Could it be the infamous 'Burbank' spineless?

I did not have a camera with me when I stopped to collect a cutting but found that Google Maps showed the cactus.

I found another prickly pear cactus growing along the side of the road next to a citrus orchard.






I found it interesting that this cactus was planted about 3 years ago.

I found this picture on Google Maps.



Today I stopped and picked up a nice pad laying on the ground on the shoulder. Really!







This was another nice big pad. This pad was only about 0.75 inches thick and weighed about 1.25 pounds.

What do you think? Some kind of O. ficus indica?

The prickly pear pad above that I picked up laying on the shoulder of the road flowered yesterday.

nullzero wrote:Being that you are from San Diego, you have a great opportunity of making selections in the wild and around the cities. If you spot a Prickly Pear growing at someones home with large fruit, knock on the door and offer them $2 for a pad and a fruit.

Like I said, I have been looking for cactus with good tasting fruit. And the above postings have got me looking at prickly pear varieties growing in my area.
I particularly look for prickly pear that looks like it has not been planted by somebody as an ornamental or as a barrier. It is every where. I have collected a couple cuttings and talked to some people.
Most of the feedback is that the people are growing prickly pear for the pads (nopales). Last Saturday I got a prickly pear cutting from a person growing it for the fruit (tunas).
I asked about the history and the son of the man who planted it (spoke only spanish) told me that his father planted it for the fruit and it was from Mexico. He did not offer much more information but took me into the backyard for a better look. When I asked if I could have a pad, he said yes, but don't take any that had flowers or fruit on them.

I am still looking for cactus with good tasting fruit.

Yesterday I visited an old mobile home and recreational vehicle park located in Southern California.
The trailer park was originally constructed in 1953 and the property owners and city decided that it had reached the end of its useful life as a mobile home and recreational vehicle park.
The park had become run down and it was felt that a complete overhaul of the park was not economically justifiable, given the changes to the surrounding areas.
The property owner decided to close the mobile home park and redevelop the property as part of a larger project that included condominiums and townhomes and some commercial development.

I found plenty of abandoned opuntia prickly pear cactus.

http://youtu.be/UGVolu4BHb0

http://youtu.be/UGVolu4BHb0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

martenfisher wrote:Most grocery stores are going to carry fruits from Opuntia ficus indica. Opuntia ficus indica has tons of varieties of fruits and the flavors and sweetness can go from dull in one variety to wow in another. Most of my varieties are near seedless and are tops for sweetness. I have 7 different varieties and some are red fruits and others are yellow. I was not impressed with robusta or cochenillifera. Engelmanii and stricta are my favorites outside the of the ficus indica. I plan on trying other species as well as time goes on.

A while back a local speciality market advertised Green Cactus Pears from Mexico for sale.



I stopped by there to pick up some. I was surprised how many the market had (huge pile) and how big they were.



The biggest one above weighed almost 8 oz. and was over 4" in length. I checked online and I gather that most people make juice with them. The green "tunas verde" are popular. I am not sure why.

I cut one open to taste it.

I was a little disappointed. It tasted like a mild sweet cucumber.



The seed were big and hard. Some people eat the seeds, I spit them out.

When I was buying the Opuntia fruit, a lady was buying about a dozen or more.

I have not been able to find a cuttings of an Opuntia that produces fruit like this.