Here's a very useful tip from my friend Harvey as he learned the technique from the best Israeli Prickly Pear Grower. This technique is claimed to consistently produce the biggest prickly pear that are easier to harvest. You can certainly use the other half as the famous Nopales vegetable, so don't throw away the cut portion, but rather use them in salads or salsa. Obviously the leaves are also called "cladodes". Anyway, Harvey also pointed out that this technique did not work for some people, proly due to timing issues or techniques, or not applicable to specific cultivar. But you can always try these out, with nothing to lose if you eat Nopales,

Self-explanatory pictorials:











And of course, grafting can be done too!




And for more info about Prickly pears, courtesy link from Harvey: http://www.nopaltrade.com/What%20is%20Nopal.htm

Major credit goes to the inventor of this halving technique: Ariel Shai of Israel

Another BIG advantage of the "halving" technique used by my friend Ariel is that it makes for a more compact and stronger plant. To get large fruits you must thin the fruit anyways and a cladode will typically produce many times more fruit than you want to keep. So why not remove half of them just by the "halving" process and keep the plant more compact. Ariel claims the useful life of the cactus plant (i.e., the period in which it can be efficiently cultivated) is increased from something like 20 years to 60 years. I have witinessed an old un-prunned cactus with numberous large multi-cladode branches that have crashed to the ground due to their massive weight. I have just planted some prickly pear cladodes and am going to try this technique in a small informal trial.

If you think this idea is a bit strange you should also understand that Ariel has a flying donkey, juices just about everything (he would probably make wine out of everything like Joe if he drank alcohol), and has experimented with more plants than I can comprehend. I "met" Ariel in the Yahoo "rarefruit" group. It is very international and interesting. If you register, I warn you to not use your primary e-mail account as it will be filled up quickly!

Thanks for the info!!
My oldest son pruned my cactus with the lawn mower.. on accident.. It is a short stub about 3 in long now..
But this info will be helpful if and when it recovers..
I will also pass it along to my mom.. she has a wonderful prickley pear in a barrel by her front door..

Gina *BabyBlue*

Mom's is almost 2 ft high.. she has only had it 2 yrs that I know.. I've never seen the blooms.. I will be going out to check some grafts I did I will take pics of her cactus while I am there..

Mine I got last yr from road side.. Lucky for me I still had leather gloves in the van from trimming the horses hoves.. I believe the blooms I saw on the plant I took my start from were red or pinkish..
If time permits I will see about signing mom up for the forum also while I am there so she can post..

Gina *BabyBlue*

When I used to live in the desert I have lots of those living in my front yard. It seems that's the only kind plant that will thrive in that kind of environment.
I experimented planting regular flowering kind but because of the water cost (simply you buy them by the gallons and if you are not careful your water bill will run to over $300).
I have a bunch of vigorous cactus plants and I supplying with so little water.
But I never use it on anthing except for landscape material.
Now I see them sell at the produce market already cleaned here.
But I still wonder why you eat those?
They are just cactus to me!
Even the flowers they sell those?
PS
I still own a house there and the last time I visited those cactus are still growing in front of my yard.

I have been eating Nopales for weeks, finally all that is left are the Tunas(fruit)

How do you eat them?
Do you have any recipe?

the way I prepare them is I cut the Nopal in to 3/4" squares, put them in boiling water until tender, drain the water, in a pan, some olive oil, chop some onions, tomatos, and some garlic, season with salt and pepper to taste, if you like them spicy you can cut some serrano or jalapeño pepers
let cook for some 15- 20 mins, and youre set.

Ramon

here is her plant...




Guess my memory is not so great.. not quite as tall as I was remembering..
I signed her up yesterday so maybe she will comment on her plant..

Gina *BabyBlue*

Wow, your mom's has nastier spines than the ones I see around here in Northern California. I was told by Ariel that mine was considered spineless although it had many spines....they were just a lot smaller than ones such as yours, I guess. Where did your mom get her prickly pear cactus?

What is "nopales"? Is that the green leafed part? A mexican here told me they scrub the pricklys off & slice them (I think like french fries) & fry them.
Here's mine from last yr... they look different than Gina's (?) - more flat? And not such big thorns.

When will I get flowers - what do they look like?

Hey Harvey, thanks for the info!