Leave fruit on prickly pear cactus?  Solved

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KiwiIE
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Leave fruit on prickly pear cactus?

Post by KiwiIE »

Hi all, I recently got my hands on some really nice prickly pear cuttings in a lovely little garden center :razz: . 3 pads in one pot, each very healthy looking and the size of a large hand, 2 of them bearing deep purple fruit and the third has green fruit. I have no plans for the fruit right now. Can anyone tell me if I should just leave them on the pads or if it's better to harvest them to encourage more growth? And if harvesting, what is the best time to "relieve" the plant of the fruit? I've been trying to find some info on this for weeks but can't seem to find anything. Thank you!
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habanerocat
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Re: Leave fruit on prickly pear cactus?  Solved

Post by habanerocat »

The general rule for any cutting would be to remove any growing points, flowers and I presume fruits would take energy from the cutting as well. The idea is that it needs to concentrate all it's available energy into forming roots.

They will eventually fall of anyway, so the sooner the better.
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RAYWOODBRIDGE
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Re: Leave fruit on prickly pear cactus?

Post by RAYWOODBRIDGE »

As said above, normally it is best to strip down a pad cutting so it can root , but in your case they may already have roots, so knock them out of the pot and plant the three in individual pots whether they have roots or not, if they do have roots you can leave the fruit on no problem.
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KiwiIE
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Re: Leave fruit on prickly pear cactus?

Post by KiwiIE »

That makes a lot of sense. Than you!
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