This Is The Easiest Plant To Grow & It Produces Copious Amounts Of Food! Prickly Pear AKA (Opuntia)
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Never needs water, fertilizer or anything else. Just harvest and enjoy! Being that it's cold hardy down to USDA climate zone 4A, just about anyone can give it a grow!
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Grew up on them. Grandpa had a huge field of Cactus Pear. Best summer fruit after Watermelon. Chill in the fridge for an hour or so before eating.
Side effects: Constipation. 😳
Total opposite on me lol but I love these
Yea it’s the hard seeds
Don't eat the seeds. Apparently they can cause bowel obstruction.
Blend and strain then drink without the seeds you will avoid constipation.
@@cathrinrobitaille7719😂No you gotta eat it as is as a whole fruit , it’s not MC Donald smoothie 😂
WHAT A FANTASTIC VIDEO ABOUT MY MOST FAVORITE FRUIT ON THE PLANET!
I ACTUALLY FOUND SOME PADS OF VARIOUS SIZES ON A PATHWAY OVERGROWN WITH THESE CACTII...SO I CUT SEVERAL OF THEM TO PLANT.
My Gramm turned me on to these. She was visiting and we took the dog for a walk. She honed in on a neighbor that had them as a hedge. She asked them if she could have some. They nor I even knew they were edible. Extremely delicious! The seeds are a headache, but the taste is so worth it. We have the purple variety.
I tried my 1st yellow one it tasted different from the others best thing I've ever tasted, I also tried an orange one, I have one right now. Cheers to Prickly Pear fruits.
My grandpa grew this in his yard and it was huge. He would cut a few pads off anytime he wanted. Plan on doing the same now that I own my own house now.
very popular here in Lebanon called " sobair " in arabic, you can put them in water several hours to avoid thorns before peeling, it becomes expensive now..
Are they sold in the market?
yes everywhere, Here they also display fruits on the roads
They are everywhere in Malta too. They are sold by street hawkers. I grow them in my field too
My cactus is almost 5 years old but the fruit is small is that because of the type or could it be because there are wood chips around it keeping It to moist?? Mine looked much like yours and I do use the pads for eating. I love it in chilli and sauteed with Anaheim cillies and over medium eggs for breakfast. So many ways to use the pads. But my fruits are too small to use?
Same on Morocco, we call them "hindi", I think it comes from the fact that in classoc arabic they are called "صبير التين الهندي", roughly translated to cactus of Indian figs. They are pretty much everywhere, and I think they thrive in Mediterranean climate.
Planted two in my yard. Love this fruit!!! Paddles are tasty sauteed with olive oil, butter and garlic, salt and pepper. Yum!!!!!
Sounds great!
@@plantabundance I have seen these in my food store will the seeds be plant able and how to plant them from seed?(do they need a cold period to sprout)
@@DragonmasterKeel just so you know here in Arizona literally where the fruit falls and rots on the ground most of the seeds will make new cacti plants. You literally have to do next to nothing to get these to grow don't overthink it toss them in the ground fruit and all throw a few seeds on the ground put a little dirt over top and you don't even have to water them in the rain will come and they will eventually grow. I planted my two from paddles I swiped off of plants growing in the wild stuck them part way in the ground water them now and then forgot about them for a year and they're giving me fruit like crazy. They're cactus the more you care for them the more they hate it! Ignore him and they'll do great especially in a warm dry Sandy soil/climate
@@bobbiduval7961 alright I was just wondering because fruits you buy at the story are usually picked early so I wanted to know if the seeds would still be good/viable
@@DragonmasterKeel no chill period needed. They grow all over Florida even in south Florida where it doesn't freeze.
Since I live in Florida, I have sand as soil. It drains like a kitchen sink. Water will not sit on the surface. It's either racing downhill and won't take a drop or it flows straight through. It will vanish in an instant. I put all of my cactus in the house's drip line. You would be surprised how much they love water as long as it always drains away. They grow massive quick.
Florida also ... if you want good soil, use a LOT of mulch over your gardening area. My uard used to be sand and weeds and I could not grow anything. I mulched my entire yard with a layer of cardboard as a compostable weed barrier first and now a year later I have good healthy soil underneath - it holds moisture and my plants and fruit trees love it.
@@spearageddon3279 I used cardboard and a massive layer of wood chips (6"-2'), then about an inch of tea/coffee grounds worked in from the top down. It still doesn't hold water but any shovel full of soil will yield earthworms, and or grubs. There is plenty of life but it all dries out so damn quick.
@@vonries do you mean 6" deep to 2ft out? If so, I would say that's not enough distance. It does take some time though for the soil soil quality to improve. Also, if you don't have enough canopy cover yet, that may be why it's drying out so fast? I have several fruit trees going now so mine gets mix of sun/dappled sun and I have mushrooms all over the place from the moisture it's holding. Now I don't have drip lines, I do a deep water at base/roots in AM and this is what's working for me. I know Florida gardening is tricky and took me awhile to get it right in my yard. I lost many plants & fruits in the beginning, may they RIP. 😏
@@spearageddon3279 6"-2' deep with 95% coverage of the yard. I did all but under a massive northern pine in the back yard, and a small gap around my house.
I live in Florida too. I put down 6 inches of soil under 8 inches of the sand/dirt around my house. Just so there was some moisture to save them. The only plants I haven’t had luck with is Lettuces.
Texan. Grew up using them as Trail Snacks. Spent all my tiem outdoors hiking, hunting fossils and so on-diabetic and never carried water or snacks as I could always stumble upon [[or Thru]] Cactus. Out in NC now, not sure where I might even look for them-they also make a nice 'No Tresspass" Barrir.
What a beautiful plant/video.Thank You. Very impressive
Prickly pears grow wild here but omg the stickers...! Maybe our wild so cal ones are worse than yours. I pick them anyway but it's a ton of work. They are beet red inside and make fantastic punch. I freeze it in cubes for fun ice cubes
great idea with the ice cubes!
watching and laughing from the cactus capital Sanderson, Texas. I am surrounded and inundated with prickly pear while I struggle with a rookie garden. Last winter I harvested dark purple fruits but they were dried out by then. This fall I will have
tons and will get them early to make jelly and juice. Coincidently I have been trying to learn how to compost these nopales in this dry environment. They are so hardy they don't decompose. If you come up with a compost recipe for them I will be the compost queen. Thank you for the timely feature today.
have you tried making fermented plant juice from them instead of composting them?
@@grlnexdoorable thx, I have piles of dead yellow pads in this very hot Texas sun that remain sturdy. I watched vids on adding water to them. Seems they need to be chopped up into little pieces. Then it takes a long time still to get them decomposed. They are the living dead. Working on it though. Will experiment with the metal pot drying.
@@DragonmasterKeel Will fermented plant juice supplement my soil? My mission right now is to make soil. I'm hurtin for dirt.
@@patriciapolizzi4143 not to sure on how much it supports your soil compared to compost but I think it has some good effects other then feeding your plants if you haven't already I suggest looking into KNF(Korean Natural Farming) and JADAM as they are focused on building soil the natural and low cost way especially if you don't have much resources to work with.
I found this a few years ago and got me some pads to start them growing for myself.. wicked thorns!! Privacy hedge as well as intruder deterrent!!
You can get the spineless species for easy use while having the other for privacy hedge. I guess you'd need to control which species grows where....
Thanks so much man we enjoy this video
thank you for this video! inspired me to start my own plant here on my roof deck in philly!
My favorite! I love nopales and the fruit
Your plant could benefit from a bit of water. Those pads are rather thin. Just a small amount weekly will massively increase your yield - both in number and fruit size.
We get a lot of rain in Central PA, but I'm going to try growing these in raised beds w/ a lot of Perlite.
Brilliant! I remember having a pie of the fruits when I was a kid. It was delicious! I can’t believe that I’ve forgotten this.
Beautiful Cactus! I have a pretty big one as well been growing it for about 8 years love this Opuntia Cactus!
Damn what a beautiful garden
THIS IS THE BEST VIDEO OF SURVIVAL EDUCATION NEEDED, DOWN TO THE POINT OF THE TRUTH, ELECTROLYTES!" IMPORTANT" WHILE THE WORLD GETS PERIL.
Definitely another very common Mediterranean fruit as figs no one grows it because it's growing everywhere by itself it's delicious after leaving it in water for some hours and then freezing it.there is also another variety with blood red fruits which are smaller and much more spiny.
Did anybody ever tell you that you look like Garth? Party on!!! Thanks for this info! I like your videos and share them :)
I love these fruits! The red ones make a beautiful drink. The seeds I would🤦not eat as they are hard as a🛐🧱 brick!
Does anyone know where to get this variety of cactus? It’s very very difficult to source something like this locally.
I don’t know but hoping I can find someone that knows
Wow! An abundant fruits of prickly pear!
Listen to Dan. Cactus pears or also known as tunas are fantastic. The plants are super easy to grow and propagate.
Is their any way I can make prickly pear come out faster. I planted them almost or about 2 years, ago?
There are many Opuntia species which are very cold hardy, however the one you are showing would be killed 100 percent in anything less than USDA zone 7a!
He's got opuntia ficus indica mines Opuntia stricta
the only ones I know that grow so big and are cold hardy are stricta and engelmanii and engelmanii is a "slow grower" for an opuntia
I recommend you blend them and strain them to enjoy the juice.
Is this a particular variety? I'd like to get some of these, but don't know which variety/varieties to target
Ficus-inca is the preferred variety for both fruit and paddles. Opuntia easily produces hybrids which can make it hard at times to be sure which variety you have but ficus-inca and its closely related hybrids have thick paddles with spaced out thorns that can be removed by knife even in tender paddles (the ones that look like they have leaves) generally lacking glochids (some hybrids might have glochids).
We used to just roll the fruit in the grass before we cut the flesh off. Makes handling them way easier.
If I were to get a pad and plant it how long would I have to wait before it starts to bare fruit?
Also if I wanted to dig up a prickly pear to move it when is the best time to do so and what all needs to be done so it won’t die of shock? Thanks in Advance 😊
This NBA announcer left the game to make a video of his cactus😂😂😂
Hello I’m a new subscriber and would love to grow this!! Can I please buy some seeds of this cactus from you?? Or maybe you can let me know where I can find them? 😊
What variety is this? I'd like to get my hands on this variety. I have one that is very sweet but not a lot of taste. Just sugar. Thanks for the video
You forgot to mention that there are well over 100 species and that consuming too many seeds will cause serious constipation. The yellow fruit variety native to this area is different from yours. It has a watermelon/bubble gum flavor, and the pads are much longer and thinner. There is also an _exceptional_ purple fruit variety that has overtaken watermelon as my favorite fruit. It is also native to this area, but has massive thorns and lots of glochids too. I reached out to you by email a couple days ago.
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can this survive some snow and minus temperatures?
Thank you for sharing! I live in zone 6. This is so helpful to me. I'm not sure we're to purchase these plants. I would appreciate if you could let me know. Learned so much from you. God bless you!
I’m sure you could just find some wild ones and grow those
Prickly pear is a great wild harvest crop for sure. Cheers!
@@sasquatchdonut2674 These don't grow wild on the East Coast, zone 6.
prairie moon nursery sells these online
I think you can find the pads on Etsy. Or maybe even at a grocery store. We just lay the pads down on the soil to propagate. They will grow roots. If you live in a wet part of the country, plant them where they'll get good drainage.
Thanks! Do this have any specific species name? I just looked them up to see if I can buy a plant and saw many different types. Also how to they overwinter?
There are many, many kinds. They grow wild here, and each kind has a different flavor to the fruit.
These are so delicious when you put them in a blender with either 1 lemon or lime juiced.
great video. I've been thinking about growing this cactus. what variety is that specifically? I keep seeing a lot of cold hardy prickly pears that are small and say they only grow a foot or two tall. I'd like to plant one that can get big like that. Do you know a good source to buy cold hardy cactus? I'm in Upper Peninsula of Michigan zone 5b
Juice the fruits,when ripe, and use in a margarita 👍🍹
Beautiful
Hi i was wondering if you sell pads id be willing to buy a few . Ive only been able to find the short eastern prickly pear to get to grow here in northern illinois
when is the best season to grow it
Do you have any cuttings or know where to get them?
I hope you also grow Peruvian apple cactus!
I have one of these plants that's over 50 years old. Make a fruit punch out of it. Mine have more of pineapply-orange flavor.
what species is it?(opuntia humifusa,opuntia ficus indica,etc)
I live in the Kansas City area where we get snow and ice in the winter sometimes (zone 6a I think), would these plants survive outside or would I have to grow them in a pot and bring them in side in the winter?
Yes they are fine in snow they can be found wild in Pennsylvania
Just give them good drainage. They are incredibly cold hardy, growing wild in the high desert where we get plenty of snow.
I haven’t had any luck getting any fruits. I’ve had my cactus for about 3 years. Not even had a single flower. Some friends tell me it’s bc I have a male plant but I’ve had others tell me even the male plants of this make fruits. I have harvested a couple pads, but my kids HATE when I try to feed them to the family, so I’ve left the pads alone. Is there anything I need to change or look out for that could be causing it to not fruit?
I have it in my front yard for about 5 years but it has only 5 fruits on it. Can you please tell me what can I do so it gives more fruits. Thanks
The prickles are BEASTS
I have never seen one with yellow fruit. Do you sell the pads?
I live in New Hampshire. Are you telling me they can grow here even when we have several feet of snow in the winter? I love them, but I can';t believe they grow in my climate.
Dahaaaaam i want that spiky pears kakti!
Also known as the cactus fig! I love Tuna!
great looking flesh and its looked very flavorful. you didnt mention variety. can I buy a pad from you. i'll include shipping. I am in california. thank you and blessings, Nick
Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus.
@baneverything5580 thank you
@@nickka2009 It`s suited to your region probably...it`s a zone 9 to 11 tropical variety of cactus that fruits the best. There`s a purple fruited variety. There`s a cold hardy Eastern Prickly Pear type that grows to about zone 5 or 6.
@@baneverything5580 thank you, I reached out to Dan again to see if he could send me a pad to root. I have other colored prickly pears in Los Angeles but nothing like the yellow with tint of purple variety he shows in that video
What kind of prickly pear is that? I live in Michigan and the one i have is a lot smaller and only grows flat on the ground. I wander if you could sell me a couple of them pads. 😁
I am also in Michigan, Reese. I will give you a couple pads if your anywhere near me!!
The claim of being cold hardy down to USDA Zone 4a is a bit misleading. The variety in the video is Indian Fig (Opuntia ficus-indica), which is generally only hardy to Zone 9 and originates from Mexico. That being said, there are other varieties that are more cold hardy, but they don't tend to have fruit that is worth pursuing. A nice middle ground for cold hardiness and fruit size might be Engelmann Prickly Pear (O. engelmannii) and Western Prickly Pear (O. orbiculata), which are cold hardy into Zone 7 and are used commercially to make syrups and jellies. If you need to go even colder and aren't planning on large fruit, Eastern Prickly Pear (O. humifusa) and Bigroot Prickly Pear (O. macrorhiza) can make it down to Zone 4 and Brittle Prickly Pear (O. fragilis) can make it down to Zone 2.
I'm in zone 7b and would love to give it a try. Where would I even buy the plant. Can't find any online ?
@@jessehakimian Etsy is a great place to buy many varieties.
Which Opuntia is this? There are hundreds of Opuntia species & Hybrids.
OMG!!! I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE SOME STARTS OF IT!!!
You can plant the ones from the grocery store you got to let it sit outside in sun for a week to get calluses then plant it
I know you mentioned that it was the Eastern Prickly Pear, O. Humifusa, but its not that species. I wonder what species of Opuntia you have.....its large, and has yellow fruit, its the one Ive been looking for but no one knows its scientific name.
I noticed this too
Thank you!!
How do you clean the pads to eat? The same as with the fruits?
yes, burn spines with fire or rub off with a brush or thick cloth
cut off any large ones with a knife
@@eklectiktoni Thank you very much :D
Those are huge amazing have you had those long ?
What about that headset with microphone? Would love to know… 🙂🌸🦋
I sent you a message 2 yrs ago brother Dan..can I purchase a pad to root. I'm in southern California's. I will pay for pad and shipping . Thanks
What zone do you live?
Dear I want this plant very badly in Bangladesh. Would you mind letting me know how may I get this plant?
Looks great
We call those plants Indian fig here. They are the ones that you burn off the stickers and then scrape it and saute what's left or pickle it.
😂 that 90’s mic needs to go for a lapel mic 🎤
Sounds great!!! What are the nutrition from the fruit?
Great info but I think the prickly pear commonly used for landscaping and eating, Opuntia ficus-indica, is only cold hardy to USDA zone 8. Only the most cold hardy Opuntia species grow to zone 4a.
I live in zone 8A, I haven't seen the nopales type cacti since we moved here from S.California where I grew up with one in the backyard. One of our Hispanic neighbors clued us in to the cactus pear. My parents had no knowledge of them. They were both raised on eastern seaboard.
I have one that I acquired a few years ago and it survives winter.... and I live in northeast Ohio, zone 6a
You're absolutely correct! The Opuntia species this guy is showing is NOT cold hardy. Many Opuntia's are very cold hardy, but not this one
Can you grow them in containers?
Yes, Ive got a huge one in a big container.
Thank you for reminding me about this wonderful survival plant!
Got the rarer only native cactus to the northeast eastern prickly pear just planted very tiny fruits
We had these when we lived in southern Arizona. Now we're in the northeast USA (zone 6A) and would love to grow a prickly pear, didn't realize they could survive up here. The only question is, where to get one?
@@PatC. Cool, thanks for the idea. I'll check out the Mexican section at the market!
I’ve been growing a figa d India ( Sicilian term for prickly pear ) for 8 years still no fruit. It’s certainly a marathon not a race to abundance.
I live in a high water table area. should I plant them in a pot ?
I think a raised bed might be better. It would not have to be to tall just so the plant would not be at risk of being to wet. Be sure to mix sand in the soil for good drainage.
Well make champagne 🌵🍐🍾
I bet your chickens go NUTS over those skins! I have two small plants, so it will be a while before we get a taste of those fruit!
How could I go about getting me some?
The most prized, tall hedge Opuntias are NOT hardy in that low zone, only smaller ground-cover types.
I think the stress in Opuntia falls on the U, not the I as you pronounced it. It is after all a Latin word in this context, and open penults with I are not generally stressed in that language.
Do you know that variety name. We have opuntia’s here by the beach. But they’re purple and small, I want that one. I’d like to have a pad if ever possible, I just know which varieties of opuntia’s produce the best fruits
Ficus-inca
If you pick the prickly pear fruit before it flowers, then it will grow out a new one BUT after the ordinary season. You will be able to eat fruits during off season like November and December.
Where can I get these ?
Probably get the seeds online
I am in South Dakota zone 4a and I am going to try it! I will do my research!
Do you have seeds for sale of this fruit?
for seven minutes I 've been waiting to see how to PROPAGATE the cactus plant, not how to eat them. You missed the point "easiest to grow".
I needed this
Honestly same but im sure you can just get tge seeds and stick them in dirt put a little water on it and it should sprout it really cant be that difficult
He said you can do it bt cutting a piece off and planting it
Remember not to eat more than 5 to 6 per day otherwise you will get constipated ، I grow up on them best summer fruit taste better cold , in Tunisia where I grow up we call it sultan of the fruits it means the king of fruits .. not available here in south Florida
Not being given no water for a year. But its still living 😄
My wife makes jam from them very good our turn dark red almost purple
Let them continue to ripen and they will turn yellow. Cheers!
Evidently there are varieties that don't have spines. I do not know how well they fruit though.
I don't like the seeds in the fruit, but I eat the pads.
Where can we buy this?
I get lots of flowers but no fruit. Live in Zone 9. I have 4 plants. One I've had for 5 years. Never fruits.