Bunny Ears - How to avoid curved pads?
Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:57 am
Hello
I wanted to grow a Bunny Ears cactus from seed but I couldn’t find them anywhere. So, instead, I bought myself a plant from a seller on Amazon (UK), with the intentions of cultivating some pads from it.
The ‘Opuntia Microdasys’ arrived about a week later and it seems to be quite healthy and in good condition, despite it spending a few days in the post (it was very well packaged).
I noticed some of the pads had a slight concave / convex appearance. For future reference I would like to know how to avoid this curvature, so when I grow new cuttings they appear more flat.
Is the curvature possibly due to the plant not being rotated regularly towards the sun? If so, do they lean backwards in order to maximise the surface area of their pads to sun light? Or, is it the opposite and they lean towards the sun, instead? Or, maybe the plant has been through an extended period of drought, the pads flopped and they never recovered their shape? Or, is it something else?
I let it dry out completely before giving it a good drenching. I then wait till it’s bone dry again… It’s in a south-facing window with lots of warm filtered sun and I rotate it regularly. I have fed it once with a very diluted ‘Cactus and Succulent Focus’ feed. Just to be clear, the pads had this curvature when it arrived through the post.
I’ve only had the plant about a month and it seems to be fine and healthy - it’s just the curvy pads I want to avoid in the future when I take cuttings from it. Does anybody have any tips on how to avoid this and/or what causes it?
Thank you!
I wanted to grow a Bunny Ears cactus from seed but I couldn’t find them anywhere. So, instead, I bought myself a plant from a seller on Amazon (UK), with the intentions of cultivating some pads from it.
The ‘Opuntia Microdasys’ arrived about a week later and it seems to be quite healthy and in good condition, despite it spending a few days in the post (it was very well packaged).
I noticed some of the pads had a slight concave / convex appearance. For future reference I would like to know how to avoid this curvature, so when I grow new cuttings they appear more flat.
Is the curvature possibly due to the plant not being rotated regularly towards the sun? If so, do they lean backwards in order to maximise the surface area of their pads to sun light? Or, is it the opposite and they lean towards the sun, instead? Or, maybe the plant has been through an extended period of drought, the pads flopped and they never recovered their shape? Or, is it something else?
I let it dry out completely before giving it a good drenching. I then wait till it’s bone dry again… It’s in a south-facing window with lots of warm filtered sun and I rotate it regularly. I have fed it once with a very diluted ‘Cactus and Succulent Focus’ feed. Just to be clear, the pads had this curvature when it arrived through the post.
I’ve only had the plant about a month and it seems to be fine and healthy - it’s just the curvy pads I want to avoid in the future when I take cuttings from it. Does anybody have any tips on how to avoid this and/or what causes it?
Thank you!