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The Corroboree

Cacti declared pests in WA


Gimli

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Yeah we had a huge plague of Opuntia before they introduced the moth that eats the shit...doesn't surprise me that most states are very cautious with it now.

I saw some pics from 100 years or so ago in country QLD and NSW of the fields of prickly pear, the pics were grainy and black and white but they were still fucking scary! I don't blame them for declaring a bunch of the opuntia as pests. Even ones in some peoples yards in suburbia are a scary sight to behold!

[edit] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prickly_pears_in_Australia

http://www.northwestweeds.com.au/prickly_pear_history.htm Pics on this site are MENTAL!!

Edited by zed240
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Even ones in some peoples yards in suburbia are a scary sight to behold!

There is a block of land in my suburb that is owned by an old italian couple and the old bloke attends every day to tend to his fruit and veggies. On the same block is this HUGE prickly pear, i'll snap a photo of it next time I am down that way. Mental.

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The italians love their prickly pears.

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The italians love their prickly pears.

Haha. There's some huge plants on the side of the road in Mt Hawthorn behind some old Italian houses. Ones got 40 or 50 buds on it. Can see why there a pest.

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Well, some of them can be pretty nasty. I have a cylindropuntia in my garden and if i would ever have to remove that monster, it would be painstaking. Just moving it from its pot to the hole in the garden made my hands hurt for weeks. They don´t have spines...they have hooks that shoot in your skin and never let go!

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Funny enough I've even found Opuntia fruit for sale in a local fruitmarket, no hint to species though but from memory just about the whole genus is declared a weed in NSW.

Likewise, I believe the qld declares weeds list simply says opuntia spp

You can still find areas in seqld at least where prickly pear is coming up everywhere. Its difficult to control as well and can actually pose a lot of hazards to the bloke trying it, when there are large specimens.

That said, I don't really buy that its a serious pest anymore.

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Well, some of them can be pretty nasty. I have a cylindropuntia in my garden and if i would ever have to remove that monster, it would be painstaking. Just moving it from its pot to the hole in the garden made my hands hurt for weeks. They don´t have spines...they have hooks that shoot in your skin and never let go!

What kind of cylindropuntia ? YOu use it for grafting?

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No i got it with the collection i bought a couple of years ago. No idea what species it is but it´s frosthardy to minus 20 degrees celsius and i planted it in the garden. It´s been there since two years now but hasn´t really adapted to the conditions yet. It grow a couple of new arms last year but the frost damaged the new growth again. Really not sure if it will survive on the long term. Not really worried about the cold but rather because of the rainy weather. But we´ll see!

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