Why is my Rocoto Rojo not producing?! :-(

I've got a Rocoto Rojo that I grew last year. The plant has been kept indoors at work. Last year it grew quite a lot and was one of the healthier plants that I grew. I ended up having to prune it in mid summer from all the growth. It overwintered well enough and it is now growing really well. So much so, that I'm thinking about pruning it again.

Problem is, so far it has only made four flowers, and produced two pods!

I'm only using Chilli Focus to fertilize all of the plants at half strength. So far, all of the other overwintered plants I've got (one Naga, one Choc. Hab, one Orange Hab.) have flowered profusely, and the Orange and Chocolate habs have produced pods. But the Rocoto seems intent in doing nothing more than grow.

What am I doing wrong?

I'd blame it on the weather, but if that was the case, it would be affecting the Chinenses as well. It's in a bigger pot than the rest of the plants, because I know Rocotos can be a bit of a handful. I keep it well watered and close to the window for as much sunshine and heat as it can get.

I'm a bit frustrated that such a wonderful looking plant is just not producing pods.

Is it warm in the office? You might want to consider growing the rocoto outside... A few friends of mine have warned me about growing a rocoto indoors, in the greenhouse or even in a small budget poly greenhouse in our climate (UK, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium have pretty much the same weather, no?). They showed me their greenhouses where they indeed grow very big and the plants look supremely healthy, but they sometimes refuse to flower and set fruit if it's too warm or if they're in full sun. One or two weeks after removing it from the greenhouse they noticed it started flowering prolifically. Same with their relative ulupica (Cap. Cardanasii) by the way.

Don't get me wrong they quite like and need a good portion of sun (or warmth), but just not too strong and not always. You could try shading them a little and/or placing them somewhere a little cooler. Night time cold supposedly is particularly effective. You could try "accidently" leaving the office window open overnight. They do like a high humidity in the air and an occasional spraying over the leaves with warm water. One more thing: don't let the pot dry out completely to the point that the plant wilts, which you would do with other chillies. It seems to me that they hate that. Well in fact either over or under watering might cause - in some varieties of rocoto/manzano more than others - flower and even fruit drop of the smaller fruits.

Well it's my friends' advice... I didn't really invent much of it, but I did stick to their advice and I'm currently having up to tree flowers per node on the rocoto's. It really is a pain picking them off because I'd rather have the plants a little bigger first. Maybe I should put them inside for a while.

Thanks, my_key,

Yeah, the weather here is similar to Belgium. Liverpool is probably about 3-5 degrees warmer overall thanks to the warm Atlantic currents (which seem to have gone on holiday somewhere else this week). I seem to remember the Rocoto flowers and pods to have set last year around September/October time, which would be in line with the cooler temperatures you mentioned. I had also stopped using Chilli Focus on the plants by then because it was starting to get cold and production on the rest of the plants had nearly stopped.

I might move the plant over to the staff room, which doesn't get direct sunlight (except in the afternoons) and is a little cooler in the evenings and see what happens.

It's the one plant that has frustrated me in the past 18 months. Gorgeous, lush green growth and almost zilch pods!

Muchas Gracias for the advise.

sometimes they need a magnesium push to help them. very fickle plant Mine didnt like direct sun at all and cooler temps

I'll have a look for Magnesium at the garden store later today (going to get more pots for the rest of this season's plants).

I'm willing to try anything to see this plant live up to my expectations...except interpretive dancing...

epsom salt 1-2 tablespoons per gallon of water -- feed monthly

After an 'eventful' outing to the city centre (I shall rant about it in my blog), got the epsom salts. Bought them at the chemists, since Almapaprika thought they wouldn't sell them at the garden store...

...but in fact, they did...

...and cheaper than at the chemists.

But I'm not going to use as much as they were selling in the garden store, so the bottle I got from the chemists is good enough for now!

Will give it a go on Monday. Is it ok to use liquid fertiliser on the same day as Epsom Salts?

yes its fine -- you can mix 'em too and foliar feed as well -- If you search the board you will see examples of use of epsom salt -- rocotos and manzanos are my personal favorite and can be difficult for some to grow

Seems I do have far less work picking off flowers once the rocoto's and manzano's were placed inside (had been suffering from hard winds coming from the wrong side of the balcony and continuous rains the past few days).

i left my rocoto red in the gh overnight & come the morning it was wilting badly by 10a.m.watered it & brought it inside & it's fine now, even grown a little.no buds yet though....

I've gone and moved my Rocoto Rojo to a new office. It's next to a window, so it will get afternoon sun, but less than before. It's also in a cooler office. and I've given it a generous dose of epsom salts in yesterdays' watering.

The north of England has also decided to help out a bit by being about 7 degrees cooler in the first 10 days of May than in ALL of APRIL!! It was 3 Celsius last night!