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Hot weather capsicum pubescens?

     I don't have a ton of experience with pubes, but I've found PepperLover's testament that the Peru bitdumi is adaptable to hot climates to be pretty accurate. I tried growing several varieties a few years ago (in western Illinois) and it was the only one to set fruit. Last season I grew two of them on my porch where they were shaded from direct sunlight during the hottest hours of the day and they went nuts and produced a heap of fruit. 
     Granted my location wasn't as hot as Florida, but temps in July/August were routinely in the upper 80's/90s. The heat ruined other pubescens varieties' chances of setting fruit, but my Peru bitdumis just kept going and going.
 
The manzanos are really tasty and juicy.
I have grown several Pubes in N. Illinois (where it can get very hot and humid), with acceptable results. when the weather is extremely hot they will slow down in all aspects of growth and bide their time til conditions are more favorable. You can limit some of the conditions by planting in containers where movement is an option or where direct sun is limited. Depending on where in Fla you are, pubes my find the season more to there liking.
 
 
Wicked Mike said:
Okay, WOW. This is actually something I've been working on for a while now. What part of Florida are you in? I'm down in Miami and have been experimenting with different pubescens varieties (two of which are alive and well going into July).
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I'm a few hours north in the Daytona Beach area. Yup, July is coming... then August, it's sure to test the chutzpah of your pubescens! Good luck with your experiment and ty for the welcome!
 
I have tried growing a few different varieties of pubescens here in Las Vegas, including the Aji Oro Rocoto that Malarky mentioned, and so far not one of them has survived the summer heat. This year, the only pube type in my grow is the Brown Rocoto (I had just about given up on rocotos). I have one outside under shade cloth, and one indoors in a simple, low maintenance Kratky hydro setup. Our highs have been around the 112-113 range for the past few days (supposed to drop back down a little starting Monday, thankfully), and the outside plant is just withering away in the heat, even with the shade cloth. By contrast, the Kratky plant is green and healthy, and even has some flower buds forming now. 
 
Since you are growing in Florida and not the Nevada desert you might not need to resort to growing your rocotos indoors like me, but if push comes to shove it may be an option for you to consider. I know I'm glad that I gave it a go. It also has the advantage that, rather than searching and searching for a truly heat-tolerant pube as I have done in the past, you can just grow whichever one(s) appeal to you the most.
 
If you don't get frost you can grow it as a winter plant and just accept that it does not produce pods in the summer but in winter instead 
This is what I plan on doing here in Adelaide where it has not dipped below 7 Celsius (45F)
 
Reviving a zombie topic... 
 
I refuse to believe that Rocotos can't be raised in Florida.  So, it's not a matter of "if" they can be grown, for me, but "how" they can be grown.
 
I have 2 red rocotos that are both growing in full shade, for the entire day.  And they're doing fantastic - so far.  So, I'm encouraged.
 
In the meantime, I've made seed starts on:
 
Aji Oro
CAP 907
CAP 468
Ecuadorian Red
Peru Bitdumi
Turbo Pube
 
I'm absolutely dead set on getting this done.
 
What I know so far:
 
Past experience has shown me that these absolutely, positively, HATE warm roots. That means that one has to be careful with containers, and definitely needs to mulch the bejesus out of our sandy soil.  Secondly, they don't like extreme UV.  Thirdly, humidity does, indeed, seem to be a problem.  And fourth - they don't seem to get as many pests, but when they do, the hairiness makes them the hardest to treat.
 
With that in mind, I've selected areas that are naturally radiant cooled, by being under vegetation.  IN my case, areca palms.  If I'm comfortable, the rocotos seem to be.  I also put one on my screened in porch. I let it get the late late afternoon sun.  No problems, there.  But since it's in a container, I have it insulated by a wood planter.
 
solid7 said:
Reviving a zombie topic... 
 
I refuse to believe that Rocotos can't be raised in Florida.  So, it's not a matter of "if" they can be grown, for me, but "how" they can be grown.
 
I have 2 red rocotos that are both growing in full shade, for the entire day.  And they're doing fantastic - so far.  So, I'm encouraged.
 
In the meantime, I've made seed starts on:
 
Aji Oro
CAP 907
CAP 468
Ecuadorian Red
Peru Bitdumi
Turbo Pube
 
I'm absolutely dead set on getting this done.
 
What I know so far:
 
Past experience has shown me that these absolutely, positively, HATE warm roots. That means that one has to be careful with containers, and definitely needs to mulch the bejesus out of our sandy soil.  Secondly, they don't like extreme UV.  Thirdly, humidity does, indeed, seem to be a problem.  And fourth - they don't seem to get as many pests, but when they do, the hairiness makes them the hardest to treat.
 
With that in mind, I've selected areas that are naturally radiant cooled, by being under vegetation.  IN my case, areca palms.  If I'm comfortable, the rocotos seem to be.  I also put one on my screened in porch. I let it get the late late afternoon sun.  No problems, there.  But since it's in a container, I have it insulated by a wood planter.
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I'll be watching your progress on this topic. I haven't been able to get rocotos to geminate and I don't like the thought of growing a pepper plant only for a few months and having it die.. yeah.. spoiled by the year round pepper growing weather of the Sunshine State.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
 
Muckyai said:
I'll be watching your progress on this topic. I haven't been able to get rocotos to geminate and I don't like the thought of growing a pepper plant only for a few months and having it die.. yeah.. spoiled by the year round pepper growing weather of the Sunshine State.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
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I have had no problem with germination, except for turbo pube.  Everything else popped, already, or in the past...
 
Here is my experience so far and it includes Giant Mexican Rocoto from PL and Turbo Pube from Semillias.de. Here in Sacramento it's really hot and rather dry. Summers are 90-115 degrees...
 
I grew the Giant Mexican Rocoto under 40% aluminet shadecloth in a raised bed in full sun location. I got 1 ripe fruit mid fall or so. I have a feeling it would have fruited more had it been at a more mature size earlier. Slow-growing. Gave it to my brother for 2nd year and deer (possibly zombie deer) ate the whole damn plant. I really feel I can get decent enough production from this variety in my scorching town as a 2nd year plant under 40% shadecloth.
 
My Turbo Pube grew a bit faster than the GMR and was planted in the ground, but was not able to produce any fruit the first year. It was not under shadecloth but it was in a location that was in shade for most of the hottest parts of the day. It's now in its second year and is quite large and blooming crazy mad. Fingers crossed that some of them set.
 
My advice (other than choosing varieties known to do better in heat) is to put them in white 10+ gallons pots, give them some shadecloth, and a generous application of mulch.
 
Muckyai said:
I haven't been able to get rocotos to geminate and I don't like the thought of growing a pepper plant only for a few months and having it die
Click to expand...
 
So far my two varieties have been quite resilient. Although fruiting is problematic, their vegetation has been good in heat and in winter. My peppers struggle with hornworms and aphids, but they have not touched my pubes *knocks on wood*. 
 
All my attempts at germination have been difficult compared to all my other peppers. Less success rate and they have taken longer to pop. So i'll seed 5 or so and anticipate getting 1 to sprout.
 
This is the habitat of my best performing (at the moment) pubescens.  This is a red rocoto, and as you can see, it's quite well shaded.
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approaching the site...
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I planted it in a pile of branches, leaves, and composted pine bark.  There is a tomato cage and screen for protection from sun and pests.
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Looking down from the top.
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Mine do much better in LOTS of shade. Virtually no direct sun light at all. Plants do fine in the sun, they just wont hold a flower long enough to produce a pod. Im going to almost totally enclose my largest one today or tomorrow with lattice and my hillbilly shade cloth. My smallest one gets hardly any full sun and it seems to like it just fine.
 
ShowMeDaSauce said:
Mine do much better in LOTS of shade. Virtually no direct sun light at all. Plants do fine in the sun, they just wont hold a flower long enough to produce a pod. Im going to almost totally enclose my largest one today or tomorrow with lattice and my hillbilly shade cloth. My smallest one gets hardly any full sun and it seems to like it just fine.
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We've been getting torrential downpours lately, and because of this, I've been trying to keep the temperature of my raised beds down, to prevent midday wilt. I've been using my own "redneck shadecloth" to achieve this, and it's been working really well.
 
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