Cold Climate Cactus

It's been hot and dry enough to spray the cacti with the hose. Young seedlings need water more than older plants, but they all do better with a little water when the weather gets hot.

A day after finding the roots growing May 3rd, these pads are planted in growing medium. They are covered with deer netting to prevent animals from catching them on their fur. Pads can go missing if they are not protected.

The Opuntia fragilis pads in water suddenly grew roots. They became quite long in a few days.

These pads are in water on a hot pad under lights. They will start roots, be planted in pots and placed outdoors. They will grow into new plants this summer.

The Opuntia fragilis pads are placed on growing medium in a plastic tray. The medium is mostly rocks and small amounts of sand. The whole tray is wrapped in deer netting to prevent rodents like local rabbits accidentally moving the pads. The pin wheels are around to help keep animals away. The tray is outdoors and will sit in the sun and rain where the pads will put down roots and turn into small plants this summer.

These Opuntia fragilis pads are being kept under lights for four days to insure that they are dry. On April 18th we traveled to make sure we could find the collection site. We were surprised to find that the colony we were taking propagation materials from had been disturbed. Very little damage, but construction had disturbed some of the pads at the outer edge of this colony. These disturbed pads were chosen as collection material over taking more from the center of the colony. They provided about half of the needed collection materials, and the rest of the pads were taken from the edges of the plants in the middle of the colony. They will rest under the lights and then be set up in conditions for rooting next.

The purpose for Obtaining this permit from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is to; propagate Opuntia fragilis for prairie restoration activities. Search on - Endangered and Threatened Species Permit 690 - in this blog to follow this species.