Where are you located Annamaria? This will dictate everything. If you are in a mild climate, you won't want to bother with one of the wild species, but should definitely get a cultivar of Opuntia ficus-indica. These should be readily available from warm-climate nurseries. If you're in a colder zone, you could try Opuntia engelmannii or related wild types. Many of these are available through mail order nurseries specializing in cacti and succulents as well as unusual edibles. I see that Edible Landscaping sells one that is hardy to zone 7. Of course, anywhere in the arid but not-too-cold western part of the country you are likely to see some growing wild or as part of landscaping. Just collect some pads from a variety of plants and wait a year or two to taste the fruit!

It certainly is a way to prune trees dwarf or otherwise. Dwarf and fruit tells me little. A dwarf cherry grows to 12 feet tall. You can also use pruning to control size. You could keep a peach tree to 5 feet tall for a non-dwarf. That's extreme, 8 feet would be better. But it's up to the pruner as to what size. Rootstock, dwarfing or otherwise matters little. Anyway yes, you are pruning to an open center. It is an excellent way to prune. All my trees are pruned that way. With dwarfs say a genetic dwarf peach, you don't have to, but it allows light, and air circulation. I probably would prune it that way. You can prune for a central leader, modified central leader, or open center. Advantages and disadvantages to each method. And the advantages and disadvantages vary with what fruit type. Other pruning methods exist too. This post was edited by Drew51 on Mon, Nov 11, 13 at 17:54

I don't think there should be a concern that hordes of people will trespass onto someone's yard to forage, but the fruit growing into or falling onto public property is what we're talking about here. It may legally belong to the public, but nevertheless I (and probably the majority of urban foragers) generally avoid picking from any tree that is growing from someone's yard, unless the owner is close at hand to ask permission of. The main strategy of urban foragers (I think) is to rationalize picking from a source that is obviously being neglected by it's owner and where your presence is not trespassing, such as from the parking lot of a business. Below is the list I promised in an earlier post, I hope it is of interest to someone out there... Foraged Fruit around Santa Fe, NM: Key: (Alb) = found in Albuquerque area and south (W) = native wild fruit (N) = non-native species that has naturalized in the area (A) = especially abundant fruit in this area 1. Algerita (W) 2. Almond 3. Apple (A)(N) 4. Apricot (A)(N) 5. Autumn olive (A)(N) 6. Boxelder sap for maple syrup (admittedly NOT a fruit) (A)(W) 7. Buffaloberry (W) 8. Cherry 9. Chokecherry (A)(W) Crabapple Currant, cultivated red Currant, wild golden (A) (W) Currant, wild wax (A)(W) Elderberry, Mexican (W)(Alb) Fig (Alb) Grape, cultivated Grape, wild (W) Groundcherry (A)(W) Hackberry (W) Mesquite pods (Alb)(A)(N) Mulberry, white (A)(N) Peach (N) Pear, Asian Pear, European (A) Pinyon (pine �nuts�) (A)(W) Plum, cultivated (A) Plum, wild (A)(W) Pomegranate (Alb) Prickly pear (A)(W) Raspberry, red (W) Rose hip (A)(W) Serviceberry (W) Strawberry cactus fruit (Echinocereus species) (W) Strawberry, wild (W) Thimbleberry (W) Trebizond date and �King Red� Russian olive (A)(N) Walnut

Best bet would be to dig them up and store in winter in a cool but non freezing place to preserve the pstem (Must survive more than one season usually) for blooming if you dont have a warm greenhouse, or large room, but this does not work with all varieties, especially not the Cavendish types (stems die leaving corms), and your summers might be shorter than ours here in Oklahoma. Some types that store well this way with varying degrees of success are Orinoco (Does great), Dwarf Orinoco, Raja Puri, Dwarf Namwah, Musa Icecream. Saba stored well like this too, but I wont see fruit on it, it takes too long, and saba gets huge eventually and probably unmanageable for storage. Here is my tall Orinoco I have fruiting right now at ten feet of stem in zone 7a planted in the ground about April 15th (gets about 20 feet with leaves) that slept under my house bare root last winter at about 45/50F, with no roots, soil, leaves, light, water, etc. (Warning, Orinoco pstems can weigh 100+ pounds, pick a dwarf variety if you have a bad back) It takes about 3 weeks to resume growth in spring, plant the pstem a little deeper the next year to stabilize, and you have to take the time it takes to ripen in consideration for the type you are growing. You have to beat the first frost, and some types take a very long time to ripen, you wont always get fruit due to timing. Its been my experience that Viente Cohol does not overwinter very well indoors, dying back to pot level for me, and re sprouting, and you would need a pretty tall ceiling if you have a mature plant, and very big windows. But it is a short cycle banana, and can fruit and ripen very quickly if you can accommodate it, and worth a try. A banana pstem (visible false stem made of rolled up leaves, like straws inside of straws) will die after fruiting, but the corm/rhizome (The core of the plant) survives and puts up new pups/babies to replace the dead one. With this dig and store method, you get almost instant banana plant, and they look very impressive at about 20 feet (Including leaves) in a couple of months. After six months of storage under the house before planting again.