When bad things happen, sometimes we take a defeated approach and do nothing, not realizing that by doing nothing we are actually making the situation worse. Imagine getting a flat tire on a busy interstate, do you sit there in whatever lane thinking how unfortunate you are? Or do you try and make your way to the shoulder?
About a month after we had removed the burlap, the nopales had many new sprouts and looked beautiful. It felt like a total success after being worried all winter on whether they would survive. I took so many pictures and was even lucky enough to get a gorgeous thunderstorm in the background. It’s funny how that actually should have been a forewarning of what was to come. Shortly after, a hailstorm came by and wiped away all the new sprouts. All of the new pads were killed and the original nopales took a beating. The once beautiful plant now looked empty and beaten.
What I did not realize at that time was that rather than focusing on how sad the plant looked, I should have removed all of the debris that had gathered at the base. The nopal plant does not like too much moisture and their root system is very shallow. The debris that had gathered around the base had retained water from the rain and as the days began to heat up, it created a sauna at the cactus base. The moisture and heat created mold from the base up the nopal. By the time I realized what had happened it was too late for some of the plants.
There is no reversing the effects of mold, so the next best option was to perform “surgery” on the ones that could still be salvaged. I spent about a week cutting out moldy parts and cleaning out the “infection”, not knowing whether it would work. The nopal proved to be stronger than I had imagined and with time they healed. Today, these nopales have the “battle scars” to prove their resilience. These nopales may not look pretty but they certainly are able to produce new pads. They are a reminder that even when things are bad, they could be worse so don’t just sit around crying about it.
One reply on “Mistakes are the Best Lessons”
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