Cutting Cacti Spines?

[a0c8c]

I was wonderin what ya'll hink abotu cutting the spiens off a cacus? I have a small cacti about 3-4'' tall that I'm gonna grow indoors. My wife is concerned, worried about it being safe. Although I'm gonna keep it well out of my dog's reach, she still worries. I was wondering if I could cut the spines and not hurt it. The cacti in question is a prickly pear. I was thinking of maybe just cutting the long spines off or real short, but leaving the short ones alone. Or seeing if I could use a knife and carefully knock off all of htem. Whatever's best for it's health, even if it means cutting nothing.

[Kisal]

The skin of an opuntia cactus literally has to be scraped with a knife, if not peeled off, in order to remove all the tiny little glochid spines, which can actually be microscopic. Such scraping certainly would bruise the plant's skin and cause serious damage. JMO. [img]https://bestsmileys.com/clueless/4.gif[/img]

[a0c8c]

What about just the long spines then, just to put my wife at ease.

[Kisal]

I don't think it would hurt the plant if you just clipped them off shorter, and didn't damage the skin of the plant. You do know, of course, that with opuntias, it's the little glochids that are the really nasty ones! Those little devils are really difficult to remove if you get stuck by them!

I once got thrown by a horse and landed right in the middle of a prickly pear cactus. I was removing ... and having others remove ... glochids from various parts of my anatomy for the better part of a year.

Maybe that's why, although I love cacti and have several, I do not own, nor do I care to own, any from the opuntia family.

[a0c8c]

I know good and well about the glochids, and so does my wife. We've both had our bad runins with prickly pears, but there still nice cacti to have around. Maybe I'll shorten the long ones, but either way I'm making sure it's gonna be well out of reach of anyone.