Re: Rocotos, was: Re: [CH] Chile-Heads Digest V8 #486
Cameron Begg (begg.4@osu.edu)
Thu, 31 Jan 2002 07:51:19 -0500
Hi C-H's,
Phil Brown wrote:
>imagine my delight apon returning from a month away from my plants (having
>threaded a soaker hose into the clothes line, attached the hose to a timer
>and placed all my potted chilies under it) to find that two of my three
>rocotos, all first year plants, are laden with chillies. looks like i'll get
>about two dozen rocotos this year. woohoo.
Well done. I am now a fan of (semi-)automatic watering systems.
>i've been wondering about their pollenation. i've noticed that the first of
>my plants to flower has been the one which has set the least fruit. do they
>set fruit from their own pollen?
Yes. However you will likely do better if you can cross pollinate
them with another plant.
>it seems that the bees are doing a pretty good job, but i've read a couple
>of times that hand pollenation is required for rocotos,
I believe that insects do a great job if you happen to have any that
are interested in helping. I used to have no trouble setting fruit as
we had a plentiful supply of small wasps and hornets that did the
job. The last two years these have mysteriously disappeared and so I
"give them a hand".
> is it more for the non red varieties (mine are red), and are the non
>red varieties less vigorous?
I find the vigor of both colors to be the same. However in my
experience the yellow ones are more reluctant to set fruit. This
suits me fine as I prefer the taste of the reds.
Sometimes I dream about breeding a "super rocoto" which would be
large and suitable for stuffing. Sometimes the yellow ones get pretty
big, but rarely as large as bell peppers. If the Northern and
Southern Hemispere rocoto growers got together to breed these giants,
we could halve the time taken by sending each other seeds in time for
the recipients Spring planting. Anyone interested?
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Regards, Cameron.