{"id":2447,"date":"2011-12-17T15:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-12-17T20:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2011-12-17T14:12:59","modified_gmt":"2011-12-17T19:12:59","slug":"prickly-pear-is-easy-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2011\/12\/17\/prickly-pear-is-easy-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Prickly Pear Is Easy Care"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2448\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_5237.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2448\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2448\" title=\"IMG_5237\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_5237-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_5237-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_5237-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2448\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There are over 200 species of prickly pear cactus (<em>Opuntia spp<\/em>.) worldwide. Several make great container plants\u00a0in the\u00a0garden or inside the home. Prickly pear cacti may\u00a0grow to\u00a0heights of 10 feet or more in the arid regions\u00a0of the Southwestern U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Eastern prickly pear<em> <\/em>(<em>Opuntia compressa <\/em>var. \u2018humifusa\u2019) grows 12- 18 inches tall and 30-36 inches wide. It will grow a bit larger in a warm moist habitat. The reddish \u201cpear\u201d fruits ripen in the fall. They taste\u00a0like kiwi fruits and can be made into jam and jelly. The 3-4 inch wide bright yellow cactus flowers\u00a0bloom in early summer in the Southern Appalachian region (USDA zones 6 and 7).<\/p>\n<p>Prickly pears\u00a0need a well-drained soil, preferably sandy or gravely, and they&#8217;re planted in full sun. Irrigation\u00a0and fertilizing are\u00a0rarely needed. Overwatering causes pads to collapse and the root system to rot.\u00a0Cacti plants may appear wilted after a cold winter, but perk up and become fully turgid\u00a0by\u00a0early spring.<\/p>\n<p>They are easily propagated from pad sections directly into the garden or a container. Allow the cut end to air dry (heal over) for 5-7 days before setting, cut end down, to\u00a0a 2-inch depth\u00a0into\u00a0garden or potting\u00a0soil. Moisten the soil\u00a0after planting and no further watering is needed. Pad(s) generally root in 4-6 weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Prickly pear spines\u00a0greet you with hostility. Wear thick heavy duty gloves to protect yourself from the large smooth spines and small, hair-like needle spines over the pads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are over 200 species of prickly pear cactus (Opuntia spp.) worldwide. Several make great container plants\u00a0in the\u00a0garden or inside the home. Prickly pear cacti may\u00a0grow to\u00a0heights of 10 feet or more in the arid regions\u00a0of the Southwestern U.S. Eastern prickly pear (Opuntia compressa var. \u2018humifusa\u2019) grows 12- 18 inches tall and 30-36 inches wide. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[674,806,604,602,774,627,840,777,630,706,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2462,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions\/2462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}