Nopal Cactus (Copena varieties from the Sonoran Desert) Grown for Food Elsewhere

Q. I am a special education teacher and gardener in Sonoma County, California, and I've been searching for Copena V1 or F1 cacti to cultivate here in Santa Rosa. I have been doing some research and learned from Everardo Zamora at USON that you had acquired some specimens of this variety some years ago. I would like to pick your brain about their cultivation and potential as an easy-to-grow food source in my area.

Copena flower and fruit production in the Mojave Desert at UNR Research and Demonstration Orchard in North Las Vegas

Bob Morris (Xtremehorticulture) and Everardo Zamora (USON) talking about Copena nopal cacti growth and production in the Mojave Desert

A. 

Bird damage to copena nopal cacti fruit (tuna).

Flower from Copena nopal cactus.

Winter freeze damage to Copena nopal cacti.

Cochineal scale damage to Copena cacti pads

A. Nice to hear of your interest in the Copena nopal cactus. I consider Everardo a good friend. Copena cacti are very easy to grow but it's just too cold during the winter in Las Vegas.  They will have freeze damage a little bit below freezing temperatures (maybe about 30F). Regardless, they produced high quality fruit and pads to use as fresh vegetables, fruit and for livestock feed even after a freeze event. Freeze damage was our biggest problem in the eastern Mojave Desert. These are high quality eating cacti (nopalitos and tuna) from the Sonoran desert and developed by the University of Mexico.

The biggest problems I experienced with them are:

• Cold (freezing) damage from winters colder than the Sonoran Desert
• Bird damage because they are so sweet (may require netting)
• Rabbit damage during the winter because they are spineless and not much out there for rabbits to eat in the winter (may require rabbit protection)
• Constant spraying with streams of water to keep the cochineal scale at bay (no commercial insecticides were applied)
• Controlling leaf-footed plant bugs (a growing problem in the Mojave Desert)

I irrigated them about every 3 weeks with a bubbler in basin type of irrigation to push new growth for harvesting and fertilized them for production once a year in the spring. Plants were established by pads donated from USON. They start flowering in their second or third year after planting.