"Rocoto (aka Locoto in Bolivia). Manzano is Spanish for 'apple' (aka Tree Chilli) and is the only chilli to have black seeds. The flowers are a stunning purple and it has "hairy" leaves. A 'cool climate chilli', it has historically proven a little difficult to raise in a hot and humid environment, but find it a protected spot out of fierce sunlight and wind on that corner of your verandah, provide it eventually with a climbing trellis, and success will be yours. The thick fleshed apple-shaped pods can be up 5-6 cm long. Its increasing legions of fans have described it as having a slow creeping type of heat with an outstanding fruity flavour - almost apricot-like - excellent for chutneys, hot sauces and jam. A chilli much prized for use in salsas. Because of its shape it's also great stuffed. This is one of my favourite chillies. It makes excellent jam and mango sauce (see recipes)."

My Manzano is handling the cool temps better than the other peppers, though. It is more
green at this point, and has only shed one or two of its lowest leaves all season.

Another issue is that this was the only pepper attacked by aphids this year.

Josh

"I'm not sure if I'll try overwintering my orange Manzano...it is very tall.
The growth habit does seem to be a more vine-like climber. In general, I don't like to overwinter tall pepper plants....."

This is where you lose me, what's wrong with giving a tall pepper plant a hard pruning and bringing it down to size? What happens?

"....but if I hard-prune the plant to bring it in,
I will lose the only two pods that my plant set (late in the season). Decisions, decisions ;)...."

If it were me I'd forego the quick nickel and go for the slow dime with my sights on next year's harvest.

"....My Manzano is handling the cool temps better than the other peppers, though. It is more green at this point, and has only shed one or two of its lowest leaves all season..."

What's your average summer and winter temps there? Summer temps routinely hit the high 90s here WITH high humidity also.

"Another issue is that this was the only pepper attacked by aphids this year."

Dumb question probably, but why is this an issue? Did it stunt the plant? Is there risk of bringing the aphids in if you try to overwinter it?

Larry

"I tried Red Rocoto and Orange Manzano this year. I knew going in that South Carolina wouldn't be the ideal climate, but my plan was to overwinter them in hopes they'd produce fruit the second year. So far, so good."

That would be my plan also, set my sights to the second year and beyond. Kinda like waiting for asparagus to come on three years after planting... :-)

"Both plants have flowered (and the purple flowers are pretty), but only the Red Rocoto has produced fruit. It has a few pods, one of which is over 2 inches in diameter...."

Do you think the Red Rocoto may be more tolerant of the heat & humidity?

"I'll be potting them up this weekend to bring in. Both plants are over 2 feet tall and as wide as they are high. I expect they'll grow a lot taller next year...."

Will you hard prune them back to be shorter than 2 ft?

"Based on my progress, I'd say it's worth a try in KY."

Thanks for that opinion, that's what I'm after. Good luck with your's.

"This is where you lose me, what's wrong with giving a tall pepper plant a hard pruning
and bringing it down to size? What happens?"
- nothing at all :-) I just didn't want to cut off my only pods, considering I don't have seeds.
When Wintering, I think it is always prudent to give plants a stern chop...unless one has a
greenhouse or sufficient lighting to keep a big plant happy. Even then, I'd judiciously trim.

"If it were me I'd forego the quick nickel and go for the slow dime with my sights on next year's harvest."
- in principle, I agree. However, I'm not sure I'm sold on this plant. With such limited wintering
space, I can only keep the really interesting stuff.

"What's your average summer and winter temps there? Summer temps routinely hit the high 90s
here WITH high humidity also."
- Hot dry Summers, cold wet Winters. 90F's in the Summer, 50F's in the Winter.

"Dumb question probably, but why is this an issue? Did it stunt the plant?
Is there risk of bringing the aphids in if you try to overwinter it?"
- You answered your own question ;-) I can't stand aphid-magnets, and it's a big risk
putting such a plant in close proximity to others.

Josh

Ahhhh, that I understand, please by all means let me know your final analysis. For some reason the thought of biting into an apple sized hot chile is very appealing to me!

"Hot dry Summers, cold wet Winters. 90F's in the Summer, 50F's in the Winter"

Heheh, hahaha, ROFL !!!! You call that cold?

Is it possible to overwinter this plant outside at your location?

The taste is good, the size is good, ,they are prolific and etc.

I'll try to dig up the Rocoto and bring it inside without pruning back. That's because I have a couple of good sized pods that I hope will ripen up. Later on I might cut it back so it takes up less room.

I've actually got two Manzanos and one Rocoto, and only the Rocoto has fruit. So, with very little data to go on, you may be correct that the Rocoto can stand the heat/humidity better.

By the way, in addition to the neat purple flowers, the leaves have an attractive downy appearance unlike any of the other capsicums I've grown.

Tom

Thanks

Larry

Larry, we have a pretty mild Winter for the most part. A few snowstorms only, and a few nights
where the temps dip below 20F. The coldest I've seen here was 12F, but we usually only drop down
to about 17F or 18F on a handful of nights. No chance of it surviving outdoors. Even in Sacramento
the plants lose all their leaves and have trouble waking up.

I will certainly give you my final analysis.

Josh

"...I can't stand aphid-magnets, and it's a big risk
putting such a plant in close proximity to others."

"The one year that I left them inside to "overwinter" our whole house was inundated by aphids. I'll never do that again!"

So, I suppose that this is a major consideration if one intends to overwinter these chile plants indoors. They're 'aphid magnets', more so than other chile plants, correct?

Josh

This all new to me, I've never overwintered chile plants inside before, never had aphids in the house before (that I know of, I can't ever remember them being a problem out in the garden before); how do you treat a chile plant for aphids indoors?

While I do have insectical soap, such as the Safer brand, as well as Neem Oil and Murphy's Oil Soap
(Dr. Bronner's castile soap, too), I prefer to use Ladybugs to eat aphids and lay eggs on my plants.

Josh

Tom