Growing Opuntia

[Jkwinston]

[attachment=0]Prickly Pear Fruits-0.jpg[/attachment

Hey guys, it is years since I have tried growing Opuntia seeds, as I always maintain it was not worth it. I remember some taking a full year to germinate. But I am willing to try again with some O santa rita seeds. Any ideas ? Jkw

[Samhain]

I’ve only tried the local basilaris and they had no complaints. Propagation by cutting looks to shave about 15 years off the process though.

[Tom in Tucson]

[attachment=0]Prickly Pear Fruits-0.jpg[/attachment

Hey guys, it is years since I have tried growing Opuntia seeds, as I always maintain it was not worth it. I remember some taking a full year to germinate. But I am willing to try again with some O santa rita seeds. Any ideas ? Jkw

3 steps I would take:

Rinse off all the pulp and dry the separated seeds in the sun
Store the seed in a cool and dry location for 1 year or longer
Start the seed in a closed baggie in 100% inorganic soil at 90-100F

[mickthecactus]

That’s a high temperature Tom. I was once told you need even higher bursts of temperature for Echinocactus horizonthalonius.

[Jkwinston]

[attachment=0]Prickly Pear Fruits-0.jpg[/attachment

Hey guys, it is years since I have tried growing Opuntia seeds, as I always maintain it was not worth it. I remember some taking a full year to germinate. But I am willing to try again with some O santa rita seeds. Any ideas ? Jkw

3 steps I would take:

Rinse off all the pulp and dry the separated seeds in the sun
Store the seed in a cool and dry location for 1 year or longer
Start the seed in a closed baggie in 100% inorganic soil at 90-100F

Tom, it sounds like a lot of hard work, and just what I was trying to avoid. Over here the pads are not easy to get, and that is why I thought I will try the seeds. But I will dare myself to experiment, and come up with some other ways of starting the seeds out, and trigger earlier germination. Jkw

[Andrew in Germany]

I have had a lot of success with germinating prickly pear seeds. To the point of them becoming a weed. After eating bags of fruit in the fall, I decided to try and germinate my own plants. Here are my methods.
1. Wash the fruit off the seeds and soak them for a few days in water. Plant them into pots of free draining seed soil when ever you get to it, water it well then let it dry out for a while, a couple of weeks while you do other things around the garden. Then put the pots into a deep tray of water, let them soak it up and suddenly I had a huge number germinating. They kept germinating, weeks later new ones popping up. Plant up into bigger pots with lots of root run and they grow very quickly.
2. I threw the skins and remains of the fruit onto the compost pile. The resulting compost used for other plants brought countless seedlings of opuntias, which I just threw away! Weeds.
I now have pots of prickly pears from differing colored fruits. All the plants are only a few months old but are large and growing very strongly. They don’t need any special treatment in my experience. Give a good pot with space to grow and they’ll take off.
They are probably not winter hardy for me, but I have so many that trials won’t hurt.
Hope this inspires you to give it a try…

[Jkwinston]

Thank you Andrew. Your response suggests that they need much more exposure to water than I have given them before. I will try giving my current lot a lot more water, and see how that works. I have three pots with seeds,which I am treating as an experiment. As I said, the pads is to me the best option. But will see how it goes. Jkw

[Andrew in Germany]

I found that sitting the pots in water for a day or 2 inspired the seeds more than watering from the top down. Good luck!

[meridannight]

I have been able to germinate Santa Rita from fresh seeds, but the germination rate was poor. I only got 1 seeding per 30 seeds. I currently have 2 plants growing -- at least they're doing well -- though they are not fast growers for me by any means.

I still have about 50 seeds left that I have been sitting on for 10 months now. Will see if I get a better rate with these older seeds.

I also currently don't have access to pads. I could order them off the internet, but that's gonna be more expensive for me than to chance it with seeds. And since I love growing plants from seed, I went with this. If I ever have the opportunity to get my hands on pads, I'll sure take it.