Put on gloves to protect your hands from the thorns. Slice the ends off the fruit. Stand the fruit up on one end. Make a thin, vertical slice down one side of the skin, and carefully stick a finger underneath. Peel away the skin by unwrapping the fruit like an orange. Use your fingers to break apart the flesh to find the seeds, which are studded throughout the fruit.
Fill the pot with soil that contains about half soil and half sand, rough pumice, or loam. These soils drain better than ones with a high clay content, and are more similar to the natural desert soils a cactus prefers. [2] X Research source You can also purchase a pre-mixed cactus or succulent potting mix. If you don’t have any garden pots, you can use a plastic cup. Poke several holes in the bottom to allow water to drain out. To grow multiple prickly pears, prepare several garden pots in this way.
Add a small amount of water. You want the soil to be moist, but not wet.
As the seeds grow, keep the soil moist until they germinate. [3] X Research source Water the soil when it starts to become dry to the touch. Prickly pears grown from seeds tend to take longer to grow than propagated plants, and the resulting cacti could take three to four years to produce flowers and fruit. However, growing plants from seeds is important for ensuring genetic diversity. [4] X Research source
To propagate prickly pear from existing plants, you use cuttings from the pads of the plants, which are actually modified stems or branches. [5] X Research source The pads are the flat, green, fleshy parts that make up the majority of the plant.
To take a cutting, hold the top of the pad with a gloved hand and slice the pad above the joint where it attaches to the rest of the plant. [7] X Research source Don’t cut the pad below the joint, because this can cause infection and the plant will rot.
Leave the pad in a shaded area while you’re waiting for the callous to form.
The ideal soil will be a half-and-half mixture of soil and sand or pumice. [9] X Research source
If the pad is having trouble standing, surround it with a few rocks to prop it up.
To avoid having to move the prickly pear constantly, you can position the plant so the broad sides of the pad are facing east and west, so the thinner sides of the pad are facing the sun when it’s at its hottest. This will protect it from sunburn so that you don’t have to move it out of the sun every afternoon. Once the cutting has established roots it will be ready for full sun exposure.
Even if you keep the prickly pear in a pot, it still needs to be positioned somewhere that gets full sun. If you live in a climate with colder winters where temperatures dip below 14 degrees F (-10 degrees C), keep the prickly pear in a pot so you can move it indoors when the weather gets cold. [13] X Research source
Dig a hole that’s about the same size as the pot the cactus is in. Get the pot as near to the hole as possible. Gently tip the pot upside down and cup the plant with a gloved hand. Place the roots in the hole and cover it with soil. Pack the soil down with your hands and saturate it with water. During the first week, water the plant every three to four days. After that, water the cactus every three to four weeks. After the first year of establishment, it will not need any extra watering aside from the rain it gets.
Cut pads with a sharp knife in the late morning or early afternoon. This is when the acid content is lowest. Remove the pads just above the joint. Harvest fruit by twisting the fruit and gently pulling it away from the pad. You know the fruit is ripe when the glochids, or thorns, fall off the light or dark colored bumps on the fruit. Be sure to wear gloves to protect your hands from thorns when harvesting from the prickly pear.
If you live in a cold climate and have your cactus in a pot, bring the prickly pear inside in the fall to prevent it from freezing.
