Opuntia as fodder- a worldwide study

mjazz · Post by **mjazz** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 3:01 am

This a great web site: http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/005/Y2808E/y2 ... m#Contents
It has sections on using the prickly pear as forage in Brazil, Mexico, the US, etc. As you can tell by the table of contents, it's a comprehensive view of the subject that covers quite a bit of territory.

Post by **daiv** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:44 am

Wow, that is detailed for sure. I heard of a guy in Texas that supposedly worked really hard breeding a spine/glochid free Opuntia and tried to make a go of it some 50-60 years ago, but it was just too different and it never caught on. Don't know if that is true or not...

mjazz · Post by **mjazz** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 2:23 pm

Phantasia Cactus Gardens in Twin Falls, Idaho, has a spineless variety available in their 2007 price catalog. It's called O. fraglis var denudata.

TimN · Post by **TimN** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:35 pm

The book Cacti: Biology and Uses has a couple of chapters devoted to wild and domesticated use of platyopuntias as feed/forage.

Interesting stuff!

Tim

hegar · Post by **hegar** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:05 am

I do have a huge, large-padded Opuntia sp. - most likely a hybrid - that is spineless and has large, beautiful flowers too. I had to transplant it, because it tended to fall over and be in the way because of the enormous top weight.

Harald