plant-care C. baccatum Cold Tolerance?

[NJChilehead]

I've been thinking about this for a while and am looking for input from experienced growers! It seems like C. baccatum and C. pubescens are domestically grown in the same general regions (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, etc.), and C. pubescens seems to thrive in cooler conditions than C. annuums and C. chinenses.

I'm not sure how topography factors in, i.e. if there is a difference in the elevation where the two species are generally grown. It does make me wonder though: are C. baccatums generally more cool temperature tolerant than C. chinense/C. annuum? I'm not thinking along the lines of frost tolerance or anything like that, just wondering if, for example, 45 degree evenings would slow them down or shock them like they would slow down chinenses/annuums?

Thanks for any input on this! My baccatums are ready to go out, but we have a few nights in the upper 40's coming up, so I thought it would be timely for me to finally ask this question.

 

[SatanicFlatIron]

In my experience they tend to resist low temperatures a little better, even if they slow down in winter and die like other species in the January frosts. It must be said that some have a long life cycle (I have sometimes waited until late fall for the aji amarillo to ripen, while the aji limon has always been quite early).
I also think that like C. pubescens they are more genetically accustomed to the high mountain Andean temperatures, but I'm thinking, maybe the baccatum of the Amazon show some differences. This year I have 5 or 6 Brazilian varieties, I will try to pay attention to them compared to the Peruvian varieties.

To put them outside when they are young and delicate I would still wait until the minimum temperatures do not fall below 8/10C (46/50F).

I noticed another clue about the tolerance to temperatures during the germination phase: when in the past I did not use heating mats (i.e. germination at 17C = 62F) the only species that did not have great difficulty in germinating were annuum and baccatum.

 

[NJChilehead]

In my experience they tend to resist low temperatures a little better, even if they slow down in winter and die like other species in the January frosts. It must be said that some have a long life cycle (I have sometimes waited until late fall for the aji amarillo to ripen, while the aji limon has always been quite early).
I also think that like C. pubescens they are more genetically accustomed to the high mountain Andean temperatures, but I'm thinking, maybe the baccatum of the Amazon show some differences. This year I have 5 or 6 Brazilian varieties, I will try to pay attention to them compared to the Peruvian varieties.

To put them outside when they are young and delicate I would still wait until the minimum temperatures do not fall below 8/10C (46/50F).

I noticed another clue about the tolerance to temperatures during the germination phase: when in the past I did not use heating mats (i.e. germination at 17C = 62F) the only species that did not have great difficulty in germinating were annuum and baccatum.

@SatanicFlatIron thank you! I found a neat article about this topic that I'm going to share on this thread once I finish it. I appreciate your input and look forward to talking about it more!

 

[NJChilehead]

In my experience they tend to resist low temperatures a little better, even if they slow down in winter and die like other species in the January frosts. It must be said that some have a long life cycle (I have sometimes waited until late fall for the aji amarillo to ripen, while the aji limon has always been quite early).
I also think that like C. pubescens they are more genetically accustomed to the high mountain Andean temperatures, but I'm thinking, maybe the baccatum of the Amazon show some differences. This year I have 5 or 6 Brazilian varieties, I will try to pay attention to them compared to the Peruvian varieties.

To put them outside when they are young and delicate I would still wait until the minimum temperatures do not fall below 8/10C (46/50F).

I noticed another clue about the tolerance to temperatures during the germination phase: when in the past I did not use heating mats (i.e. germination at 17C = 62F) the only species that did not have great difficulty in germinating were annuum and baccatum.

Hey @SatanicFlatIron , based on the article that I finally had a chance to look over, you really nailed it. Check out some quotes from the article (https://bmcgenomdata.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2156-13-68):

"Average annual temperatures in the native C. baccatum habitat span 5°C (e.g. in Junín, Peru) to 27°C (e.g. Pará, Brazil and Loreto, Peru), with a median of 20°C for both wild and domesticated forms of the species (Table2). Nearly 50% of the accessions evaluated occupy areas with average annual temperatures that range from 19°C to 22°C. The average minimum temperatures recorded for C. baccatum habitats are 6°C to 11°C for the wild accessions (C. baccatum var. baccatum, C. baccatum var. praetermissum) and 9°C to 13°C for the domesticated accessions (C. baccatum var. pendulum, C. baccatum var. umbilicatum)."

I thought the underlined part was really interesting:

"Approximately 10% of wild and domesticated accessions are regularly exposed to chilling temperatures (0–5°C), and those at high altitudes in the Andes (Junín, Peru) may experience freezing temperatures (−5°C).The warmest regions of the C. baccatum habitat are typically the continental areas, e.g. the Amazon basin of Brazil, but also tropical coastal regions such as those in Ecuador which are exposed to warm temperatures in the summer. In most areas of the distribution, C. baccatum is exposed to a maximum temperature of 28°C to 31°C and to over 34°C in a few of the continental or tropical coastal regions. In contrast, temperatures hardly fall below 25°C at some of the tropical habitat sites in the C. baccatum distribution."

I don't have enough plants or resources to do any experimenting with it, but it does look like baccatums do tolerate slightly lower temps than C. chinenses (for example).

 

[SatanicFlatIron]

Thanks NJC. It would be interesting to understand if those wild plants exposed to -5/0C (apparently, C. baccatum var. baccatum and C. rabenii) die, or if they have developed some survival mode (very large plants?). On my balcony I saw that from 5C onwards the (medium sized) plants stay alive without growing, while below 5C they start to show ugly signs of decay. At 0C the internal sap of the stems freezes and they rot. I have therefore never managed to OW some plants outdoors, only indoors. Let's update at the end of the season to see if we have noticed anything else I also have a couple of C. rabenii and a baccatum var. baccatum, so the comparison will be interesting

 

[NJChilehead]

Sounds good!