Transcript:
If you guys have a Dutch bow by you, drop it in the comments down below. What your favorite drink is from them? I’ve been going down the list of all the rebels. This one is a Dragon Slayer. It’s pretty good, but my all-time favorite is the galaxy fish. So if you haven’t tried that one out, try it out. Hey, what’s up? You guys! I’m Caitlin From leafy alone plants and today we are going to be talking about the prickly pear cactus. Now you may also know this cactus as a bunny ear cactus or more formally on a puntia, which, for some reason my mind only exclusively wants to read. That word is Aponita. Don’t ask me why I’m this way. It’s just it’s just how it is now. There are a ton of different varieties of these. Many of them are going to have the same care requirements and we’ll get into that throughout the video. But if you’re ready to learn how to keep these guys happy and healthy, then keep on watching . So as you can see, I have two different types of cacti here now. At first glance, they might look pretty similar, but they’re slightly different. So this first? One that I have right Here Is the apoontea variegated sunburst as you can see this one. The variegation is a little finer, a little thinner. It’s more yellow and kind of has little streaks of green on it. This one on the other hand is the Apuntia Monicantha varigata. As you can see, this one’s Variegation is a little more white in nature, and the variegation is a little larger and almost Has this really cool marble pattern. Additionally, the spines on this one are much larger and spines on this one are very tiny, but absolutely deadly, which again we’ll get into a little later in this video now. Some other varieties of these are going to have very similar care. The Purple Puntia, which is my personal favorite. They happen to grow all over the place locally here. So I will put a video right here. It’s super sunny out right now. It’s not the best time of day to look at these, but these guys literally grow everywhere right outside my apartment. Uh, there’s like people driving by blasting rap music. Don’t mind them! Um, but yeah, these literally grow everywhere as you can see. Chunks will just fall off and, uh, basically just root up on their own so again. These are super easy to propagate and literally are all different, beautiful colors throughout the year. And then you also have the more standard, just plain non-very, basic green, prickly pears that are the ones that are typically going to grow with the fruit that you know, and they love again. I’ll put a video here, okay, so don’t mind the street traffic. I’m literally on the side of a busy road, But these are the more standard ones you may be able to see. These are the prickly pears that grow on them. Those are the fruit, They’re a little dried out right now. But, um, yeah, this is what a normal one looks like as you can see. Uh, it’s a little sad looking, but they really just thrive on neglect and they do their thing. So, yeah, overall, these four are for the most part going to fall under the same type of care umbrella of how you’re going to want to love and take care of them now. If my suspicions are right, additionally, you may have popped onto this video either before or maybe you’ll end up there after some Marine Oaks video on the Puntia Humafusa. I think that’s how you say it. Probably not. Listen, im. No submarine oaks, okay. Those of Huntia, however, are actually going to grow in regions like New York and Pennsylvania more in the Northeast. Which is so interesting and so cool because you totally wouldn’t expect to see that type of plant there, but those are going to have slightly different care requirements. If you have one of those, maybe go check out her video, but by but I mean, by all means, feel free to stay and watch this one in its entirety first, so starting out with the most basic thing sunlight. If you’re a frequent flyer on my channel, then you will know that I often talk about. How almost no plans here in Arizona can handle actual Arizona Full sun. I would say that these apontia are one of the exceptions. Not only can these pontia handle full sun, and it helps them go into their bloom cycles to, of course, create beautiful flowers, as well as their signature prickly pear fruit, it also can make them aesthetically more beautiful aside from those things While in this guy’s case probably isn’t great for him. Um, but if you do expose them to a lot of sun, they basically get a little sunburn and turn pink. Now again, this probably isn’t a healthiest day for them, but in my opinion, they look so beautiful and so cool when they get that little pink hue to them now. Conversely, purple boutia. What you’ll notice is they basically have a wide variety of colors that they can be in. If they’re not getting exposed to much sun, they kind of default to this greenish bluish grayish color. It’s still pretty, but, you know, not as striking as it can be. In contrast, when they’re exposed to bright light and full sun, they turn beautiful shades of purple and pink. And, oh, my God, They are absolutely stunning ill. Put some pictures over here because the video that I took was just on my phone. It doesn’t really highlight. How gorgeous these plants can be. But when you’re driving through town at sunset, and you see these plants, in contrast to the oranges in the mountains, it’s. Oh, my God, it is literally breathtaking. That brings us into the next point, which is watering now as you would probably expect with these guys being cacti. They don’t need any sort of crazy watering. Um, really, I just go in with these when they get dry. Um, which is basically whenever I remember to water them because I tend to be an underwater. Um, this guy, my mama kantha, over here? You may see, he’s definitely a little dude for water. Um, they start to get a little on the droopy side if they aren’t getting enough water. So that’s a good time when to go in, um, additionally. If you wait super super long, they’ll start to get like wrinkly and super thin so again, um, they can go quite a long time here without water. We’ve had this summer. Specifically, we had crazy droughts in crazy hot weather and ultimately, the ones that grow in the ground Here we’re finally weathered the storm. So if you’re someone who goes out of town a lot or if you’re somebody like me, who just is not really great about watering your plants regularly, then you definitely don’t have to swim with these guys. Um, they’re really good for beginners in that sense. I think this goes without saying, but they don’t in any way. Need a human environment. Um, of course, you know, they grow here naturally in the desert. So, uh, they’re totally fine with low humidity, which is fantastic for me now on the flip side of that. If you do have grow lights, maybe in like a grow tent and your grow tent is super humid. I would be a little skeptical putting these guys in here. Um, I do think if they’re exposed to too much humidity. It can kind of cause things to go awry. Um, now there is nowhere in my house that the humidity is above like 50 so I’ve never experimented with this personally, but I just imagine it might have some kind of adverse effect on these guys. Now, as for propagation in my opinion as somebody who is not a good propagator, These are one of the easiest plants to root. Um, I think I said it in the video of the Purple Puntia, But it’s really common like naturally just around town for these guys to kind of. Have you know whether it be an animal or the wind or something. Knock these off or maybe just from them dying back. Um, knock off one of the bunny ears. If you will and have them fall in the ground and they literally just root themselves up in nature. So like you don’t have to go crazy. Basically, if you want to take it cutting from here. Um, just be careful, you can either twist one of these off or go in with a pair of cut of pruning shears and cut one off. Just let it chaos over And basically you will have a rooting up in no time now that goes into another thing. I wanted to bring up. I didn’t get a picture of this specifically because I would have literally had to walk all the way to the other side of our neighborhood. Which I Frank didn’t feel like doing right now. Um, but there is this one pile of basically dead, prickly pears on the block that I walk around every day. Literally, these plants like rise from the ashes. It’s the best way I can put it. Um, even if you think that your plant is completely dead and completely just gone and it’s not coming back. Trust me, it probably will, um, I literally have seen new paddles of these cacti form out of things that just look like an entire pile of like dead. Rot, so trust me when I say even if you know, all goes awry and you completely, um, kill back This plant chances are just give it some sun and some water, and it probably will end up sprouting out some new petals from there overall in my experience. These guys are really fast growers for me. Um, I know this Monicantha I’ve probably had this guy for. I don’t know, I probably had this specific one for, like, maybe two months or so I can’t really remember, but when I bought it, this entire thing was not there. Um, again they shoot out these new arms all the time, and once they shoot out, they grow really, really fast. Which is I always say for some for somebody like me is really exciting because I am not a patient person now. The biggest thing that you are going to want to be careful with on these plans is, of course, the spines. Now I think I had said it in the beginning of the video, But this guy with the bigger spines. Honestly, although it looks very intimidating and like this one would potentially impale you all hours of the day while I don’t enjoy being stabbed By this one, it pales in comparison to the needles on this one. Now, on first glance, you might look at this cacti and think to yourself well. I don’t see any needles. Oh, no, my friend, they are there. They are just microscopically tiny. If you were to run your hand alongside of this cacti, they all stick into your hands. They are so hard to pull out. They are so hard to find, and you will literally be itchy and uncomfortable for days, but people seem to really enjoy these plants and I used to sell them in my shop, and I literally stopped and refused to sell them anymore for the fact that I hate handling them so much that is how bad the spines are so ultimately, I would say if you have children or if you’re just, you know somebody who I guess touches your plants a lot. Um, this probably is not the plant for you. Those spines are not enjoyable. Uh, really, just not something. I enjoy being around. Finally, that brings us in to their distinctive name. The prickly pear. Now I think. Over the past couple years, it’s become like the popular cool, trendy thing at like hipster bars that they have, you know, like cocktails with prickly pear or maybe at like some trendy restaurant, they have like prickly pear items on the menu, so I think people are becoming more familiar with them and kind of their flavor profile, but basically, um, you probably saw them on the video. The green, prickly pear. I showed earlier. I’ll put more pictures over here, but they’re these beautiful pink. Um, I was going to say almost pair like shapes. Um, yeah, it’s called the princely pair, but, um, yeah, they’re basically like these pink upside down pairs that grow on there and you can pick them off and, of course. Eat them now! The one disclaimer Is that if you you know, happen to come visit Arizona and you see them on there. Do note that the pairs also are prickly as the name would indicate. There’s a ton of videos on Youtube for how to prepare these, but at many supermarkets here. I know you can actually buy them locally. Um, I’m not sure if you like. Go to other parts of the country. I can’t remember if we had them in New York. But, um, yeah, they’re pretty tasty and either kind of, like, a little more of a flavorful dragon fruit. Um, they’re super pink on the inside. They will like stain your hands if you’re handling them and yeah, overall, they’re really, really good. The last thing that I want to go over is just some pest problems that seems to be really common with these, and that is scale. I don’t know what it is about prickly pears, but they seem to be an absolute magnet for scale. Um, be it in nature. Be it in potted plants. It seems like scale seeks these guys out specifically now. If your plant does get scale, um, you can absolutely get it off of there. I can do a full video on this. If people are interested, I’ve actually traded one of these with scale before, but basically, what you’re going to want to do is brush it off with, like either A toothbrush or some kind of brush like that. If it’s like a big hatches in your yard, you can actually use a garden hose with kind of like the jet spray feature. If that makes sense something, um, and basically just use exfoliation to get it off from there, you’re going to want to give it a treatment of either neem oil or rubbing alcohol. I find rubbing alcohol works. Better, it’s just really hard to find nowadays because you know coven. So, um, yeah, that’s kind of the quick and easy way so again. Just keep your eyes out for that. If you have one of these plants, I don’t know why it is, but they seem to always get it for some reason. Well, that wraps up everything that I had to talk about with these guys today, but as always if you have questions that I did not address in this video, Please drop them in the comment section down below. And I will do my very best to get back to you guys. If you learned something new in this video hit that like button. It helps me out and if you enjoyed this video, then you know, the drill hit the subscribe button we’re almost at 1500 so hopefully we can get there by the end of the year as always. Thank you guys so much for sticking around until the end and checking out this video. I hope to see you in the next one.