Prickly pear cactus wanted

I really want a prickly pear cactus clipping! If u have one u could give to me, that would be great! I have pincushion seeds I can trade and I have amaryllis seeds to trade

would love to help but I'm not sure how you'd go getting it through customs from aus to usa.

If you're on Facebook the 'Planet Cactus' group would probably be a good way to track one down.

What species are you after? If it's O. ficus-indica then you could try raising some from seed from a store-bought fruit. Or you could ask around on some other forums.

Welcome to the forum by the way.

Cereoid wrote:

What species are you after? If it's O. ficus-indica then you could try raising some from seed from a store-bought fruit. Or you could ask around on some other forums.

In Aus I've only noticed dragonfruit (hylocereus sp.) in the supermarkets and
then rarely.  (And yes, I germinated some seeds from them.  Slow growing from seed...)

Speaking of O. ficus-indica, can anyone tell me at what size they flower and whether self-fertile?  Have one in the ground and it's almost fence height.  No sign of flowers as yet

I've come across one local fruit&veg store that occationally have Opuntia fruits, no idea what species they are though. Bought one pack just to test out how they tasted, just to spend an afternoon cursing those blasted glochnids!
Bit of a suprise to be honest as I thought just about all of them were classed as noxious weeds down here.

I haven't seen any prickly pear fruit for sale in some time, and when I mentioned them I was talking about in the USA where they would likely be more commonly available. In NSW the only species that is not a registered noxious weed is O. ficus-indica so I assume it would be the one that is grown here for fruit. The other species were mostly used either for cochineal or as ornamentals before being declared noxious weeds and don't make as good a fruit crop as O. ficus-indica as far as I know.

Cereoid wrote:

In NSW the only species that is not a registered noxious weed is O. ficus-indica so I assume it would be the one that is grown here for fruit. The other species were mostly used either for cochineal or as ornamentals before being declared noxious weeds and don't make as good a fruit crop as O. ficus-indica as far as I know.

When a tradesman saw my plant he remarked that prickly pears used to be common in the area and farms grew them for "prickly pear wine" production!

Is there anything prickly pears can't do

opuntia rufida is American and an absolute beauty for visual impact. don't know about the fruits being edible. I would expect mesagarden to have seeds and you wont have to worry about customs.