The wild cochineal is the main pest of forage cactus in Brazil and the cultivation of genotypes with resistance to this insect is the main strategy for recomposing the production fields of this crop. In this sense, the objective was to evaluate the initial growth of 15 accessions of Opuntia spp. resistant to wild cochineal and with an aptitude for fruit production. The research was conducted under field conditions at EMPAER, Pendência Experiment Station, in the municipality of Soledade, state of Paraíba, Brazil. The accessions used came from the Active Germplasm Bank of Opuntia spp. from EMPAER. The experiment was carried out in randomized blocks, with fifteen accessions cultivated in nine replications. At 90 days after planting (DAP), plant height and width, total number of cladodes, number of primary cladodes, and number of secondary cladodes were measured. The results showed high biometric variability among the plant materials under study, with height values ranging from 33.8 to 13.4 cm, with accessions 75, 91, 48, 100, 49, and 51 standing out statistically (p<0.05) about the others. As for width, we obtained the best results (p<0.05) in accessions 75, 100, 83, 48, 49, 110, 58, and 91. However, only accession 49 stood out for the total number of cladodes and the number of primary cladodes (p<0.05), with 3.22 and 2.88 cladodes, respectively. It is noteworthy that accessions 49, 60, 115, 47, 83, 91, and 48 were the only ones that reached secondary cladodes after 90 DAP. Accession 49 has promising growth at 90 DAP, being an important genetic resource for the Brazilian semiarid region.