Growing The “Peruvian Apple Cactus”
The Beet: A Podcast For Plant Lovers
Epic Gardening
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 15 August 2019
⏱️ 4 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Cereus peruvianus, which is more commonly referred to as Cereus repandus these days, makes a unique addition to your ornamental oredible landscape with its tall, thorny, columnar appearance and low care requirements.
Also known as the Peruvian apple cactus, you might be surprised to find that the Cereus fruits, called Peruvian apples, are actually edible! In fact, they make a wonderful source of food for both the people where this plant originated, as well as the local bird population.
Let’s learn how to grow, care for, and harvest from this gorgeous and under-utilized cactus…hopefully we can increase its profile amongst gardeners everywhere!
Learn More: Cereus Peruvianus: Growing The “Peruvian Apple Cactus”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, what's up everyone? Welcome back to the Epic Gardening Podcast. |
| 0:03.4 | Kevin here. Today we're going to talk about an underrated |
| 0:06.6 | cactus that I think you may want to add to your garden |
| 0:10.3 | if you want an ornamental plant that's water-wise but also has an edible |
| 0:14.9 | fruit. So this would be Serreas Peruvianus also known as the Peruvian apple |
| 0:19.6 | cactus and as you can tell by the name that suggests that there is an edible fruit that's produced. |
| 0:26.0 | So it's a fantastic plant, it's one that I've seen quite a bit around here. |
| 0:29.5 | It is a zone 8 to 11-ish plant, so I would say could you push the zone and grow it in a lower zone |
| 0:36.2 | you probably could if you use some tips from the |
| 0:40.0 | podcasts we did with David the Good who's really good at hacking the zone |
| 0:45.0 | and maybe getting a zone 6 to a zone 7B, |
| 0:48.0 | right, using some of those techniques. |
| 0:50.0 | So I highly encourage you to go check those episodes out |
| 0:52.0 | if you'd like to know how to do that or he also has a book on it I think. |
| 0:55.0 | But the apple cactus, it's a wonderful wonderful plant. It's native to South America as the name might suggest if you are paying attention to your geography. |
| 1:03.4 | And it is known for its truly epic height. |
| 1:06.6 | So the gray to green bluish stems have reached |
| 1:10.1 | over 30 feet in height without any help from us gardeners. |
| 1:13.4 | However, in intensive cultivation using plant supports, |
| 1:16.7 | they've gotten this plant to grow over 110 feet tall. |
| 1:20.0 | So absolutely crazy amount of growth, but it's not going to grow that much in your |
| 1:26.4 | garden. So don't worry, it's not going to take over your entire home. So it |
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