PLANTS // attempt at propagating cactus pads

My attempt to propagate prickly pear cactus pads

I acquired these cacti cuttings while on a trip to Austin, Texas a few weekends ago. If you follow my instastories you know how much fun we had! If not, here’s a recap:

• We went for a Spartan Race. (it’s an intense fitness obstacle race for adults that I was 100% under-prepared for)
• It got canceled due to rain (the group was sad...I saw it as a chance to live)
• I became obsessed with the wild cacti that I saw EVERYWHERE we went. 
• We ate lots of amazing food and did lots of amazing things. Austin = good weekend trip. 

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Anyway, back to why we're here-propagating cactus pads! (Cacti pads? grammar is not my thing). While on my trip I did a lot of research on how to do this. Everything I read made it seem pretty simple. Here's what I did:

1. Acquire a cutting:

I was able to find a couple of healthy looking, wild prickly pear cacti. I used a knife to cut the pads off at the natural seam of the plant. 

I let the "wounds" heal for about a week. 

2. Gather materials:

• cactus pads (cut pad off at natural seam with a knife)
• gloves
• well draining pots 
• potting mix (mine was specifically for cacti) 
• perlite (optional) 

3. Fill pots with potting mix and a handful of perlite for drainage:

I used just a handful of perlite. I blended mine well in the bottom of the pot, then filled another layer of just potting mix on top. Again, my potting mix is fast draining and specific for cacti.

4. Plant cactus pads: 

BE CAREFUL! My gloves clearly were not the best. I read that you can plant your cacti vertically, or lay it horizontally over the soil. Roots will grow from the cacti's thorns. I chose to do both. For the ones I planted vertically, I dug a hole about 1 inch deep into the soil, then carefully placed my cacti "root" (or dried wound) in the hole and filled with surrounding soil. I made sure the plant was secure before moving. They toppled easily--found out the hard way.  

I planted my larger cactus pads vertically, and my smaller-less straight pads horizontally. I'll be sure to update this post with their progress! 

5. Water and grow:

As you can assume...Cacti need a lot of sunlight. I have mine in a windowsill facing the west side of my house. We'll see how they turn out. 

When watering-soak the soil of your new plant all the way through. Try not to let water stand directly on top of your cactus pads--particularly the horizontal ones. Supposedly you can let the soil stay moist for a week to encourage roots to grow more quickly. Once you have a good root system going, don't water it as much! I check mine every week to see how dry the soil feels and water accordingly. Cacti will rot with too much water, so it's better to underwater than over-water. 

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