> I understand they require particular temps and have trouble pollinating themselves.

TTs,

Seemingly yes and mostly no. I've only run across one C. pubescens variety that can't self and one other that I suspect can't.

Am guessing that you have early and late tomato crops because too hot during the summer? Rocotos are even more sensitive to high temps than tomatoes.

I like your early start plan even though the vast majority of C. pubescens will flower within 100 days more or less. Getting a young plant to actually set pods is the problem and I think is mostly temperature related. Rocotos do very nicely indoors either under artificial lights or in a south window & I recommend you try some plants indoors as well as outside in the heat.

Try to obtain seeds from someone in your immediate area who has had success.

Good luck!

JohnT

Thanks for your help! Hopefully I will have some luck with them.

One thing that I should have mentioned is that for many of us in say zone 5, 6 or above consider rocoto types as being a 2 year project from a Feb seed start. But the rewards make them worth it! Check out this Orange Rocoto:

And this thick-fleshed beauty is less than half the size of rocotos at least one other member of this forum have grown. I've grown Red Rocotos larger than the one pictured, but even a 40 gram pod is awesome in my mind.

Am at this very moment chopping up some just plucked rocotos grown from seeds a Canary Islands pod-head sent me. Maybe 15 grams each & very picante. They are destined to be the heat in some wild rice/black bean/corn/shredded carrot/smoked chicken/chopped celery/sautéed onion & mushrooms/cheese burritos. Life can be good at times!

jt

Great, jt. What happened with the white flowered variety?

John

> What happened with the white flowered variety?

John,

That is what I picked today. Never have I seen so many early blooms on a single plant as on the two that I grew this year. Very compact plants much like Mexican Red. Unfortunately they just wouldn't set pods in late May/early June even though we had a mild rather than hot summer here. That is why I wonder if this accession will self or not. I did the paint brush thing and pods did finally set. And they took a long time to mature. They might not have needed any pollination help as it's not unusual for early & mid-season blossom drop with C. pubescens in my area. Bees and other pollinators are on the decline here and didn't see hardly any until late July if I recall correctly.

Such an interesting (to me at least) variety of obviously C. pubescens descent. Discovered in a churchyard in the Canary Islands with nearly white rather than purplish blossoms. Obviously under cultivation for many years as are all C. pubes. Possibly a species cross because of the blossom color.

I regret that I just didn't feel physically able to try and cross with other species this year. And I let my C. cardinasii, eximium, chinense and baccatums die rather than overwintering some of them. And galapagoense (sp?) too. Irritates me to no end, but such is life.

jt

Picture of the flowers, jt?

John

> Picture of the flowers, jt?

John,

Yes, but am embarrased to admit forgot to take pics of the pods.

And don't have a lot of seeds either. You can definately see the purple genes influence.

jt

Very pretty, jt!

John

jt,

I just wonder if you could send me some seeds of ROCOTO LARGO SAN ISIDRO?? Thank

Long Tran

Long Tran,

Sorry, but I don't have any left. Due to illness I lost all my plants the winter of 05/06 and have had to start over. The good news is that I have 4 new plants from seeds of the few pods that set. The parent plants were isolated, but the blossoms were not bagged so there is always a chance that a bee just might have cross pollinated. A very slim chance. Should know this fall. I expect these plants to bloom in May or early June and I will save seeds of course.

Since my post of last November I've learned that this C. pubescens will self as there was only 1 plant in that churchyard.

And thanks for the correct name!

About seed saving and sharing. This is something I really believe in and have practiced in the past. Two years ago not knowing I was going to be ill and lose all my mature C. pubescens I donated all the seeds to a grower in Indiana thinking that I could bag for pure seed the following summers. I'll never again grow that many varieties of one species, but am hoping to regain some of my favorites. The original red, yellow and orange roctos all turned out to be truly outstanding varieties. The yellow and orange I now have very small seedlings going from the original stock. The red eludes me so far. So far the very few pure seeds that I squirreled away 5 years ago have refused to sprout. I sent pure seeds to growers in over a dozen countries so know I can find some if I fail.

jt

I have grown rocotos once. It was a red variety. Like the others said it flowered a lot but would not set any fruit. When the fall had ended and it was about to frost i brought the plant inside. Right when i brought it in i got all kind of peppers initially.
I put this by the only window in my house that would get any sun. I had so much trouble keeping this thing alive. Some of the branches died and only a portion of the plant remained alive. I also had aphid problems that i battled. Unfortunatly after all this work i put the plant out to early on a warm day and forgot to bring it in on a day that was supposed to frost and it totally died.

For those of you who bring your rocotos in...what is your strategy? Do you trim it massively? How do you handle the aphid problem? If they were outside i'm sure there is bound to be a few on it which will multiple when you bring it in because they have no natural preditors at all. Do you think it would just be better to put it under shop lights? I really only wanted to plant to stay alive and wasn't to much worried about it flourishing. I really don't want the high energy bill or cost from one of those high intensity light systems.

Ncage

If you just want to keep them alive you can get by with just a little natural light. I usually just leave them alone until they get kind of sorry looking and then cut them back pretty severely. I buy ladybugs to deal with the aphids.

Here is one that was cut back to no leaves ( too many aphids- before the ladybugs arrived)and is now regrowing. You can see the original stems.

john

There is no better pepper species for houseplants than C. pubescens (rocotos, manzanos etc). They will adapt to all lighting conditions over time. In my little container garden nook in the shaded woods back of the the house I've seen them grow leaves the size of saucers and ditto for inside. I presume this is to capture more light, but am not absolutely sure. Temperature, not light, seems to be what is most important in growing them successfully.

Red Rocoto

Basement

Harvest

I've seen them change from semi-compact growth to vines in just a month or two. Lost track, but think I've grown over 40 varieties.

jt

Very nice, jt!

john

I have my first blossoms on 5 of my Rocotos very beautiful plants

Dale

Dale,

Some of the best looking plants I've ever seen! Nice color, compact and best of all going to bloom. Anxious to see if they set pods.

Nice job!

jt

I love my Red Rocoto chile. What an amazing plant that pumps out pods for almost 9 months of the year.

I've grown a couple of different varieties of Red Rocoto in Melbourne Australia on and off for the last 15 years or so. Only chile I've grown that survives our fairly mild Winters here.

First variety I grew was provided to me by my Italian barber by way of a friend of his who visited South America. The pod shape was almost cone shaped. Don't have any seeds of that variety now.

The second variety I grew and am still growing was from the Pepper Gal or Enchanted Seeds ... can't remember now as I gave my barber some pods and he returned the compliment a few years later when I lost the previous Rocoto. The current plant is 4 or 5 years old and is planted in the vegie garden. If I didn't prune it every month or so in the growing season, I can't imagine how big the plant would get. Currently about 1 meter tall and 2 meters diameter.

Mark

Looks like you're off to a great start!

Dale,

I have my fingers crossed for you, but I've never had a pod set on a rocoto plant that small unless it was a cutting.

jt

What is the cause(s) for peppers in general to lose their blossoms/flowers?

Dale

The flower was open this morning I hope it does not fall off.

Dale

I have some imported Rocoto seeds. I am interested in all Aji varieties and more of the Rocoto/Locoto types too, however, I have never grown pepers, or anything for that matter. I do know how to germinate, and have a germination tray to help. I need to know when I should germinate and plant and stuff so that I can get a good years growth out of my first planting. Is there any suggestions you can give this high altitude (denver) newbie grower? Are all peppers perenial? Is just the Locoto? Do they have special soil requirements? Should I container grow (for overwinter) or raised ground grow? My questions could be infinite, so I will stop there. Any help is totally appreciated. You can send me an e-mail and we can trade seeds. I am also looking for a plant that my Bolivian wife calls Quilquinia (sp). She would use this in Bolivian table salsa called llahua (pro:ya-wah). I would like to find seeds for this plat too, but have no idea what plant it is. I look forward to all of your responses and have already increased my knowledge from the use of this site. It is great!!! 8)>
Thank you in advance.

I grew rocoto this year, and had great success. I had a few questions and started digging and found this post. I guess I was very lucky after reading the comments. We planted in October and started getting peppers in March. Not having seen the plants before, I started them in hydroponic stackers. When they hit 3 feet tall, I transplanted them into a trough to give them more room. I was trying to find out how long this plant lives? Do you keep it alive like a bush? Can you trim it back? Is it good for the plant to trim it back and let it grow new branches?

Hey Rocotto growers,

I need help from you.
I have a Rocotto 1 year old, I am growing it indoors in Iceland, where I have an obvious problem: dark winters followed by perpetual daylight in summer.

I know that Roccoto peppers need short-days to flower. Last October my Rocotto started flowering but then all flowers dropped.

Now, it is March and the Rocotto was not setting any buds. But I was growing all winter under two 300W CF lamps, 23úC, so the plant was very pretty but no flowers.

I decided to shock it into flowering. As we still have 11 hour days (but quickly increasing) I move it into another room, with no grow lights, and no direct sunlight, and cool temperature (only 17úC). More than week now and the plant is forming flower buds.

What should I do to assure they will keep on and set fruit?

I plan to add water with some limestone (calcium), and add a bit more of a weak organic fertilizer, rich in P/K. I will also keep it under low light and cool temps, until fruit sets.

Any advice?

I think you're the pioneer in this matter as your growing conditions are unique in the experience of those on this board.

See if you can find some standard garden fertilizer with an NPK ratio of some multiple of 3:1:2 or thereabouts.

Yes there is calcium in limestone, but I'm not sure that it is available to the plant. Anyone?

Dennis

One way to quickly get calcium to a plant is by using calcium nitrate. Lot's of nitrogen (15%) so you would want to only use it when the plant is young. Calcium in lime I think is available to plant but it takes time to be absorbed. I have heard up to 3 months.
Bone meal takes 6 months.

Drew, ... where do you buy calcium nitrate from? That is very interesting because calcium from lime is not that readily available to the plants.

Hi i am in Petaluma California. I am trying to grow my to rocoto I put many seeds but just only 2 are growing.

How much water need when they are growing?

Which is the best temperature ?

It needs a lot of sun?

Thanks

Ah, Rocotos! It seems like most who tried recognize them as challenging to grow. I'm on my second year with little success in sight.

Water: most peppers like to dry out a bit between watering, probably even more so with Rocotos, as I believe their original Andes climate is fairly dry.

Temperature: for growth, probably anything above 15°C (60°F) if fine. For setting fruits, they might like somewhat cooler weather than the average North American summer offers in July/August.

Sun: I've read a lot about Rocotos, including lots of folks posting about their experience on forums. Some say they do well in partial shade, others full sun. I think overall, it seems they do need a fair bit of sun for the most fruit set.

My experience so far:

I only seeded new plants in the spring of 2016. Perhaps I had a somewhat lower germination rate than my other peppers, but it wasn't abysmal, probably 50% or more than seeds sprouted. I kept 4 plants.

These plants grew slower than my C.annuum or C.chinense plants, but in late July, they really took off and became larger than all my other peppers. For most of August, they were full of flower, most fell-off and by September I had some 7-8 pod total for the 4 plants. A light frost killed all the leaves in late September and I took the plants inside to ripen the pods. I ended up picking most pods green, but they all ripened on the counter. Only 2 or 3 were of expected size, the rest significantly smaller.

I kept two plants to overwinter, having read in multiple places how second year plants give a better yield. My overwinter regimen includes removing all leaves, which were gone from the frost anyway, trimming the root ball and moving the plant from their 5 gallon containers to 1 gallon. They grew new leaves soon enough and in March, the plants looked great, still in the house.

By the time I was able to bring them outside in May, both plants started to look sad, with pale foliage and little new growth. They still look about the same right now. I have one pod growing on one plant, that's it. They're flowering here and there, but most flowers/pods end up falling. They are in large pots with a loose medium and I fertilized a bit, but they remain stuck in their slump­. My other overwintered plants are all doing better with similar conditions.

I think that timing might be a factor. When the plants are ready to produce fruits, it should be in the time of the season when it's not too hot, so likely mid-spring or fall, not too high average temperature and humidity, yet not too cool nights either.

I don't know what your climate is like in Petaluma California, but the hot and humid summers here don't seem good for Rocoto fruiting. Our frost-free season is likely shorter than ideal. I'm not quite ready to give up yet, as I really liked the few pods I did get last year. I'm thinking I'll start new plants in Jan or Feb 2018 and perhaps have plants ready to fruit by May or June.

I had been thinking of starting a Rocoto thread, but there are not that many people reading (or at least posting) this forum regularly and even fewer growing Rocotos or other C.pubescens, but this thread revival gave me a chance to share my thoughts still!

Good luck!

I have not grown them in a few years, cool plants. I got plenty of peppers the first year. I grew an orange variety, seemed easy to grow to me.

Maybe there are differences in certain varieties. I'm glad you were able to get results. It seems like most either struggle to get a few pods, or conversely get a bountiful harvest.

Do you recall when you started your plants, or did you buy from a nursery? When were most pods set and what was the climate like at that time?