Normally, with cacti, you shouldn't water until you see roots. They don't need a moist soil mix to produce roots.

"Normally, with cacti, you shouldn't water until you see roots. They don't need a moist soil mix to produce roots."

So, they will even root in pure perlite without adding any water to the mix?

With ideal conditions and health of the cutting I expect they would root in almost anything without using water. I've seen some Opuntia produce roots without any soil mix.

I think the advantages of using pure perlite are it is non-organic, very airy, and removing the rooted plant from the perlite minimally disturbs the new roots.

In Phoenix we had a huge stand of them in the front yard. When we wanted more plants we just cut off the pads and put them where we wanted them, no special treatment...basically just forgot about them....and they just rooted.

Generally you want cactus cuttings (pads) or really any succulent to callus over for a week or two before you plant them. Fresh, wounded plant tissue is prone to rot. But callused tissue, not so much. And typically NO WATER until they are rooted. Then gradually add some.

Its probably best but if you don't water them and the soil is dry and its not raining a lot etc its prob okay to just plant them.

They don't need water when they are first rooting.

You can just cut them and lay them on top of the soil and kinda heel them in and leave them alone. Usually if they rot and die its because they were too wet.

Yeah, I haven't seen any opuntias that seemed difficult to propagate, they're made for it.

Chances are, if you are having issues, you're doing it wrong. And too much moisture is the likely culprit.