[Arid_gardener] RE: Prickly Pear

[Christine M. Bahto]

ORIGINAL QUESTION:
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:11:20 -0700 (MST)
From: carylc49 at comcast.net

Caryl Crowell
85735
carylc49 at comcast.net

Some pads of my pokla-dot prickly pear are covered with a scaly, yellow
substance that will flake off when brushed.  I'm familiar with cochineal
scale and that's not what this is.  I've scoured the UA Extension and Pima
County Extension services sites and found nothing helpful.  My southwestern
gardening books are not helping.  Apart from the yellow stuff, the cacus
appears healthy and has grown quite a bit over the last year.


ANSWER:
Caryl,

What you are seeing is dried mucilage that has exuded from your prickly
pear. Mucilage is the sticky sugar-based substance inside prickly pears that
will "flow" out of the pad if there is a small split in it. The pads can
only take up so much water before causing the "skin" to split. The mucilage
dries as it's flowing eventually sealing the split. With the little bit of
rainfall we had over winter my own prickly pears are pretty plump! Don't
worry about it.

Christine Bahto
Master Gardener, Maricopa County, U of A Cooperative Extension