You can make compost out of anything in the plant kingdom (plus a few animal
products like eggshells), though plants vary widely with respect to how
quickly they decompose. I haven't tried composting prickly pears, as I like
mine and don't want to kill them, but I'm sure it would work. For best
results, I'd recommend chopping up the pads into very small pieces, say
about 1/2" x 1/2". Anyway, what have you got to lose by trying?

carol

"Steve Coyle" wrote in message
om...
Howdy folks,
I did a search on this in the group and saw a lot of interesting
postings on Prickly Pear Cactus ( By the way for many new folks
checking in, you can find out a lot in a hurry just by doing a search
within this news group on your question )

A question I had was can you compost Prickly Pear Cactus. I assume
that anything that grows and rots will eventually rot down to a usable
form, but I was wondering if anyone had actually tried it.
I was thinking of building a wood and wiremesh bin off the ground,
with a tarp under it, to prevent any from falling through and just
filling the sucker and letting it rot down.
Seems strange,but I just have this affection for bio mass.
Steve Coyle