Composting cactus

earthbound · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 3:57 pm

Yesterday I finally chopped down a huge cactus that I had in my backyard. I was concerned that it might knock the back fence down if I left it any longer and now that it's down I don't think the fence would have lasted another winter with all of that pressure on it. You can see the kink in the fence... You can also see the wasted yard behind me.

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This is probably 2/3rds of the cactus, it was huge......... Will look at covering it with black plastic I think, to see if it will break down fairly quickly with heat. I thought originally that I would cover it with good soil and plant straight in it, but there's a lot more than what I thought.

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I guess I'll still need to get rid of the stump as well, though I think that won't take long to rot away either. The cactus must have been over 90% water I reckon with a thin layer of woody material in it.

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I might not get to plant in this bed until next year....

dufflight · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:08 pm

Will it re-grow.

Who owns the spare block. Space for a green manure or a mulch crop. Plants some arrowroot over the fence and every now and then cut it down and put it into a composter.

earthbound · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:13 pm

Oh yeah, it will regrow, and the lengths laying in the garden will start growing and sending out roots if I don;t cover them.

That yard is huge, they are at the end of a cul-de-sac, and have no front yard but big back yard, and a fence up near the house, so the back area is almost totally fenced off from the house, and wasted, never used, they just mow the weeds every 6 months or soo.... What a waste.......

dufflight · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:30 pm

Ask them if they are sick of mowing it. Be a nice source of mulch.

BatonRouge Bill · **Joined:** Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:59 pm **Posts:** 60

I had a yucca, the type that makes a pretty white flower for about 2 weeks in the spring and then just remains the lawnman's worst enemy the rest of the year. It has the stiff straignt leaves with the hypodermics all over it. I chopped and burned for a while and some are still trying to regrow. You can burn the leaves off and the stalk will still send out roots and try to grow, and almost impossible to get all the regenerating roots when you dig them up! :devil:

Granny Smith · **Posted:** Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:48 pm

I had a similar problem with a cactus that was all over my garden site when we bought our present place. It was one of those that is a series of discs with spikes and had already collapsed by the time I got it. Every small piece had sprouted so that there was a huge amount of work to clear it all out. Luckily I could put it on our autumn bonfire which got rid of it beautifully.

Not very environmentally friendly, but I've seen worse at the tip (If you can be bothered carting it there).

earthbound · **Posted:** Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:40 pm

Sounds a bit like prickly pear GS.. I've seen some huge prickly pear plants, they can be a real problem.

chillidude · **Posted:** Fri Feb 19, 2010 3:24 pm

earthbound wrote:

Sounds a bit like prickly pear GS.. I've seen some huge prickly pear plants, they can be a real problem.

Yep - certainly sounds like a prickly pear.

Did you know you can eat the young "leaves" ? I used to prepare them for a Tex-Mex restaurant in Subiaco. Eaten as a vegetable in Mexico - sorta taste like green beans - essential ingredient in any authentic quesadilla !

Granny Smith · **Posted:** Fri Feb 19, 2010 5:29 pm

Thanks for that. Now I know what to avoid in future. How did you prepare them, CD?

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