Hello, I trimmed an Opuntia ficus-indica 'Nopales' today I have a whole bunch of pads to offer for give away. I'd rather offer them here than to just put them in the trash. Please call 323.385.7802 ask for Mike. Thank you.

I will be interested to know what they suggest for the tastiest in your zone. I've found several of the hedgehog cacti (Echinocereus) to have exquisite fruit when ripe, which are spineless and have small edible poppy-like seeds, but they set very few fruits and these are quickly eaten by every sort of creature. The flowers of this genus are also incredibly beautiful. Thus I've focused more on finding really good Opuntia. The plants are much more vigorous, easy to propagate (just rip off a pad from a plant you want and stick it in the ground), and way more prolific than the above, but the fruits have spines and/or glochids, and can range from sweet watermelon-like in flavor to sour, gooey, and even 'gamey'. Best I've found are O. engelmannii and O. macrocentra, both should be hardy in your area in a good microclimate. O. phaeacantha, even hardier, has smaller but quite tasty tunas. Several others, such as O. rodantha, O. polyacantha, and O. basilaris, have dry fruits at maturity, but are still worth growing for visual appeal.

Ah well, I might as well try using the gram in a gallon of water. The seeds likely won't germinate anyway. With my luck, it'd be too concentrated a solution and etiolate any happenchance seedling. The whole parts per million bit seems a tad too complicated to me. Anyway, all that fuss over Opuntia seeds would be pretty silly. Thanks anyway! :)

Albuquerque is such a diverse place with a 1,000 ft. plus variation in altitude, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some choice locations that might work out. Valley, no. Foothills, possibly in a courtyard. I have seen ficus-indica sold here, but haven't seen them in the ground anywhere.