Prickly pear belongs to the Cactus family. Perennial, homeland - steppe zones of Central America, Argentina, willingly growing in Turkmenistan, Crimea, the Caucasus. Winter-hardy found in Canada.
Botanical description of prickly pear
In the natural environment, these are rather large shrubs or small trees up to 6 m tall, in indoor conditions - compact bushes.
The flat, oval, fleshy segments actually represent a modified stem. Real leaves are hairs and thorns. The flowers are single, fan-shaped on top, very decorative: large, bright, yellow, orange or red with silky shiny petals.
The fruits are edible; as they ripen, they change color from green to bright burgundy. They look like berries, the taste is sweetish. They are a valuable food product, contain a whole range of useful substances: vitamins, macro- and microelements, antibiotic substances, hormones, enzymes, sterols. They are not only useful, but even healing, are used in traditional medicine.
Important. On the fruits and leaves there are special types of thorns - glochidia. They disguise themselves as harmless fluffs, but are actually quite tough and have hooks. Touching them is dangerous: it is difficult to see and remove glochidia, they can cause severe harm to the skin. Therefore, before eating fruits, they must be properly and thoroughly cleaned.
Types of prickly pear
In total, there are about 300 species. The most interesting:
| Variety | Description | Flowers |
| Shallow (Opuntia microdasys) | Up to 1 m. On average, the rooms reach half a meter. The branch branches are small, they are abundantly studded with glochidia, which makes the plant appear shaggy. There are no thorns. | Lemon yellow, up to 5 cm. |
| Compressed (Opuntia stricta) | Up to 2 m. Segments up to 25-35 cm in length, gray-green. Spines are rare. | Bright yellow wax, lush, up to 7 cm. |
| Fig, another common name - Indian (Opuntia ficus-indica) | Up to 4 m. Segments are large, with the palm of an adult male, drop-shaped, light green, spines rare. | Yellow. |
| Berger (Opntia Bergeriana) | Up to 1 m. Parts of stems - up to 20-25 cm, bright green in color, spines powerful, but not many, glochidia are concentrated near the buds. | Tomato red, luminous petals, silk. |
| Home (Opuntia basilaris) | Up to 50 cm. Segments of unusual cold gray-green color. There are few thorns. | Large, very juicy, fiery, pink, red or carmine. |
| Lindheimer (Opuntia lindheimeri) | Up to 3.5 m. Segments up to 30 cm wide, light green, with sparse spikes. | Bright yellow. |
| White-haired (Opuntia leucotricha) | Up to 5 m. Parts of modified stems - up to 20 cm, thorns and glochidia very abundant. | Juicy yellow, very large. |
| Common (Opuntia vulgaris) | Up to 6 m. Segments have a harmonious oval shape, light green color. Only mature segments are prickly. | Light lemon yellow. Fruits in shape and color resemble an unripe mango. |
| Long-axis, or Long-spiked (Opuntia longispina) | Up to 30 cm. Parts of stems up to 4 cm, Spines long, sharp. Glochidia are reddish, plentiful. | Fiery red. |
| Curacao (Opuntia curassavica) | Up to 15 cm. Segments are small, bright green. Areolae yellow, each with several spines. | Yellow, medium-sized. |
| Pubescent (Opuntia tomentosa) | Up to 8 m. Segments - light green, up to 20 cm. Feature - thorns are almost absent. | Large, tomato red. |
| Cherie (Opuntia scheerii) | Up to 1.5 m. Segments of an unusual yellowish-green hue, very pleasing to the eyes, have a rounded beautiful shape. Thickly covered with areoles with spines and glochidia. | Pale yellow, terry, like roses, with age acquire a purple-fawn hue. |
| Squat (Opuntia humifsa) | Up to 30 cm. Parts of the stems are flat, pot-bellied, rounded, up to 10 cm, light gray-green, areoles are few. Spines are long, single. | Yellow, up to 5 cm. |
Some species, such as small-haired or compressed, are considered excellent air purifiers. The first is most often grown in rooms, appreciated for its compact size. The most popular in industrial cultivation is fig. When talking about the benefits of prickly pear, they mean the latter.
Prickly pear care at home
Caring for prickly pear is usually difficult only because many beginner gardeners fail to cope with the craving to constantly take care of a new plant. But prickly pears do not need regular attention.
Minimal watering, rare, but timely transplants - this is all the care that is required. In fact, the most important thing is to put it in the right place, providing light, low humidity and suitable temperatures in summer and winter. After this, the plant should be left alone.
| Care factor | Recommendations |
| A place | South, southwest and southeast windows. |
| Ventilation | The plant likes space and plenty of fresh air. |
| Shine | Abundant direct sun. |
| Humidity | 40-50% at any time of the year. |
| Temperature | + 20 ... +28 ° C in the summer, + 5 ... +7 ° C in the winter. |
| Fertilizers | Neither very rare (1 time per month in the summer) any mineral fertilizer with a low nitrogen content is not needed. |
Winter care in an ordinary apartment
Not everyone has the opportunity to organize prickly pear cool wintering at home. As a rule, the room temperature does not differ from the summer one. How to lighten a plant such a winter?
- Provide backlighting.
- Water the cactus occasionally, but do it very sparingly and carefully. It is desirable in the lower way (by placing the pot in a container of water for 2-3 minutes).
- Protect from high humidity. It is better not to place nearby plants that need regular spraying.
Important! Almost all types of prickly pears do not bloom in the rooms. It’s not only about age, but also about conditions. To form flower buds, you need a long, cool, dry wintering. Usually flowering is achieved only in greenhouses.
Seasonal watering and maintenance temperature
Seasonality should be considered. Watering should always be moderate, but there are nuances.
| Season | Features of watering | Optimum temperature conditions |
| Spring | Only when the topsoil dries. | + 18 ... +24 ° C. |
| Summer | By the same principle, but a little more often. | + 18 ... +28 ° C. |
| Autumn | The time between waterings is gradually increasing slightly, almost completely reducing by November. | + 18 ... +20 ° C. |
| Winter | Not required. | + 5 ... +7 ° C. |
Planting, transplanting, soil
Many prickly pear prickly pear, for example, stricta, grow more in width than in height. All species have a very powerful root system that grows in breadth, not in depth. Therefore, it is recommended to select wide pots. This point is important for those who want to make the cactus bloom. Most varieties bloom only when they reach adulthood.
Prickly pear does not like to be bothered; you should disturb the root system as little as possible.
Young cacti are transplanted 1 time per year, after reaching 3 years - 1 time in 4 years. The procedure is carried out only in the spring, and only if there are no buds on the plant.
Soil in a ratio of 1: 2: 2: 2: clay, sand, sheet and turf land. Good drainage is required up to 1-3 pot heights, consisting of a layer of pebbles and sand.
Breeding
Opuntia is propagated by seeds and vegetatively. The seed method will take a lot of time:
- Prepare a mixture of sand, charcoal, humus from a foliage pallet - 1 component of each component.
- Seed is scarified (treated with a nail file or sandpaper to help sprouts break through the hard shell).
- Before planting, the seeds are soaked in a light pink solution of potassium permanganate. Stand for 10 minutes.
- They are laid out on the surface of the prepared soil, sprinkled with a layer of sand.
- Cover with glass.
- Ventilate and moisturize daily.
- Seeds can germinate at different times. On average, they are tight-like - it is permissible for them to sit in the ground for up to 3 months. A well-scarified seed will germinate in up to 6 weeks.
- When the second segment appears, young cacti are planted in separate pots.
Propagation by cuttings is more popular:
- At the end of spring, segments are cut off at the junctions with each other.
- Maintain them in the air for 2-3 days. This is necessary so that the cut heals.
- Prepared cuttings are planted in sand and covered with glass jars.
- Each day, banks are removed for 40 minutes, otherwise there is a risk that the plants will rot.
- The soil is regularly moistened.
- The rate at which rootlets appear depends on the species, but as a rule, this is a quick process.
- When the roots appear, cacti are planted in individual containers.
Mistakes in the care of prickly pear
In addition to the main error - excessively frequent watering - the following are possible:
- If the prickly pear blossomed, the pot should not only not be moved, but also rotated. Otherwise, the buds will fall off.
- South, but shaded windows, north, west and east windows - will not work.
- Change of conditions too abrupt. If the prickly pear was not in a very bright place, do not immediately put it on the hot south balcony - this will lead to burns.
- Too high temperature in winter. Optimal for prickly pears - + 5 ... +7 ° C. Otherwise, the joints will stretch, and summer flowering will either be weak or not at all.
- Top dressing with nitrogen fertilizers. Nitrogen contributes to the collection of green mass, in the case of prickly pear, this will lead to stretching of the stems and loss of decorativeness.
Diseases, pests
As a rule, prickly pears do not suffer from diseases or pests. But with the lack of care, or getting into the apartment garden of an infected plant, you can run into problems.
| Disease, pest | Description of the problem, symptoms | Ways to fight |
| Spider mite | Whitish spider web on stems, with small white dots in it, yellowing stems, weak growth. |
|
| Shield | Small spherical swellings on the stems are insects in wax "houses". The plant secretes sticky juice, grows worse. In places of accumulation of insects, the tissues are yellowed. |
|
| Mealybug | Whitish plaque at the joints of joints. |
|
| Nematodes | Swelling on the roots, usually found during transplantation. |
|
| Late blight | Brown spots on the stems. The disease is very aggressive, spreading rapidly. |
|
| Root rot | Soft, yellow stems, covered with brown wet spots, a characteristic smell of rot. | |
| Anthracnose | Brown crack spots with a light border. | Take the same measures as in the case of late blight, only you can not transplant the plant. Transfer to fresh soil if removal of the affected stems and use of fungicides did not help. |
Mr. Summer resident informs: useful properties of prickly pear
The beneficial properties of the plant and its use for health are extensive. Valuable qualities of fruits and stems are well studied on the example of prickly pear figs:
- The fruits are tasty and healthy both in fresh and in processed form (drying, cooking). They are characterized by a high content of vitamin C, used as a remedy for scurvy.
- Fleshy stems are also suitable for food. In Mexico, they are considered as a vegetable, useful in high levels of dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
- The extract of stems litramine has the ability to slow down the absorption of fats, reduce appetite. It is used to treat people suffering from obesity, to lose weight and normalize metabolism.
- Thanks to a well-balanced bioactive substances content, prickly pear leaves lower cholesterol, improve the functioning of the heart and blood vessels, normalize the level of hormones, blood sugar and the nervous system, treat gastric ulcers and act as cancer prevention and premature aging.
- Eating fruits will help preserve the beauty of the skin and hair. As a cosmetic, prickly pear oil is used. According to reviews, natural oil has a very pleasant nut-herbal aroma, is highly absorbed, and is extremely effective against wrinkles.
The flower does not contain anything poisonous, contraindications are minimal. You should not eat too many fruits, it is fraught with constipation. But the most serious danger is swallowed glochidia - they cause damage to the gastrointestinal mucosa, and are only removed surgically. The fruits are peeled in thick gloves with a metal brush.
Apparently, appearances are deceiving. The austere, unpretentious appearance of a familiar indoor cactus hides rich content. If you add to this a huge number of varieties, from miniature creeping to giant, spectacular flowering and unpretentiousness, it becomes clear why prickly pear so often become a collectible or cultivated in rooms.
