Growing "grocery store" cactus paddles

[Shane]

I've wondered if it's possible to root and grow plants from the Opuntia cladodes you see for sale in the grocery store. Some people have posted about it before, but there's been nothing really definitive. I decided to try it

I bought a batch of nopales (the culinary name for them) on 2/29. I tried rooting two of them (and ate the rest). I managed to root both of them, and they seem to be stiffening up a little bit, I think indicating healthy root growth. So it's definitely possible (and easy) to root "grocery store cactus". A note here: ElieEstephane provided a method for rooting Opuntia in another thread on this topic, I think this method would shave a few months off the rooting time compared to what I did:

Try to get them warm and dry soon slowly in a well ventilated area. Then plant in your potting media and supply bottom heat and humidity and they could root within a week

I'm not sure if this is a viable way to get graft stocks though. The cladodes are harvested when young and tender, and are so thin and flaccid they can't even stand up. Mine are stiffening a little, but I'm not sure they'll ever thicken enough to be any good as a graft stock (they're 3 or 4 mm thick). But maybe they will, we'll see...

[Pereskiopsisdotcom]

Thanks for sharing Shane. I tried a few years ago and didn't have any luck from a couple of different batches of nopales. My theory was that they were either sprayed after harvesting or because they were kept refrigerated, putting them into the soil at room temperature was too much of a shock. In both cases, they attracted mold and shriveled before rooting.

[DaveW]

As said if they have not been tampered with in some way they should root. You can often root Opuntia fruit and get a plant from them. I suppose it depends how ripe they are whether the fruits root or the seeds sprout?

[ilariav]

I have a grocery store plant that rooted just fine and put out one cladode. Since then it has just been sitting there. No growth, nothing. It has the same exposure as my other opuntia, which are thriving. Even the poor, sad, beaten-up pad, covered in cochineal, that my hubby picked up on the road in California is putting out new growth. (Look honey I brought you a present!)
I have it in my greenhouse in the window with the others. I potted it up last year as it was in a pot that was too small. Any ideas on why it might be sulking?

[Shane]

I have a grocery store plant that rooted just fine and put out one cladode. Since then it has just been sitting there. No growth, nothing. It has the same exposure as my other opuntia, which are thriving. Even the poor, sad, beaten-up pad, covered in cochineal, that my hubby picked up on the road in California is putting out new growth. (Look honey I brought you a present!)
I have it in my greenhouse in the window with the others. I potted it up last year as it was in a pot that was too small. Any ideas on why it might be sulking?

Could you post a picture? I'm very curious what the original cladode looks like now

[ilariav]

I purchased a pad that looked like the skin was tough, as I had tried to grow one before and it didn't take. Thought maybe the first one was too young. This plant is now around 3 years old. It's been sitting there looking pretty much like this since the first summer.

grocery store opuntia.JPG (39.21 KiB) Viewed 2577 times

It's fairly big, the cladodes are at least a foot long. No spines. Mostly my cacti live in my unheated greenhouse. I put opuntias and some of the others outside for the summer after the weather settles and stops raining for the summer. Next month maybe. Typical Pacific Northwest (near Portland, OR) climate, BUT, I live at 1000ft, up towards Mt. St. Helens, and get over 80" of rain every season. Hence indoors.

[Shane]

Thanks for sharing the picture. It looks like the paddles do thicken over time, making them suitable for grafting. As for why your plant isn't growing, I wish I had a good answer. Perhaps it's waiting for warmer weather?

[ilariav]

Maybe, but it does get pretty warm here in the summer. The downside is the heat is erratic. 80F for a week then 70 for a week then 100 the next week. One never gets accustomed to the temp, so that might be part of it.
I've left it in the greenhouse one summer and one outside. Either I'll figure it out or I won't. I'll let you know if it decides to grow this year.
The pads are quite thick, over an inch at the base, but they are quite big as well. They might not stand up if they were that big and thinner. Flags in the wind come to mind.
It's alive, so it stays. I might give it a bigger pot and see if it likes that.

I have delusions of a 12 foot tall opuntia in the back wall of my greenhouse, right next to the olive tree, with cymbidium orchids all around. Sigh. The cymbidiums are blooming right now along side my cacti.

All my other opuntia are growing well.

[Shane]

A minor update, the cladodes are starting to fatten up nicely. I think in 2-4 weeks they'll be ready for grafting. That'll be 6-8 weeks from the first roots appearing for reference. When I have a chance I'll do another batch based on what I learned and write up a guide for anyone else who wants to try

[Shane]

Another update: the cladodes still haven't really plumped up a whole lot. Not sure if this is just how they are, or if I could be taking better care of them. Either way, they wouldn't be all that useful for grafting I don't think. I feel like I could have gotten better results somehow but I'm not sure how