Some of my Rocoto have begun maturing to orange instead of red. I have grown this cultivar of Rocoto for years, and have never seen orange pods until now. This variety (Rocoto Rojo Arequipeno), has always ripened from green to dark red, until the past week, when some started ripening from green to orange. All nutes/soil/watering cycles have remained the same, but now there are are some orange pods ripening among the reds from the same plant. Has anyone else that grow Pubescens seen something like this? I'm not worried about my plant obviously, in fact I can't wait to try some of these orange Rocoto, but what do you guys think could have caused this? Weather?
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Mystery Orange Rocoto
- Thread starter Thegreenchilemonster
- Start date
millworkman
eXtreme
Saving your own seeds? Â Random mutations are completely possible.
Yes, the red and orange are growing on the same plant. I save my own seeds, but I've never grown any Pubescens that mature to orange. I'll definitely save some seeds from the orange ones, and grow one out next year to see what happens. The weather has changed dramatically, with constant cloud cover and rain. I figured that might have someyhing to do with it, but there are still pods changing from green to red on the same plant as the orange ones.
They are definitely fully ripe at the orange color. The seeds are fully developed, and the skin has that nice juicy rocoto feel to it when I put my knife into it. I picked a couple orange ones, as well as some red ones from the same plant this evening. They are identical in size and shape. The color is the only difference. I'm definitely going to save the orange seeds seperately to see if they will grow orange. They taste exactly the same as the red ones though, I just took bites of each color. Time to make some orange rocoto pumpkin pie!
Attachments
Guatemalan Orange Rocoto I think, look similar to mine anyhow.Â
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http://www.pepperlover.com/pepper-seeds/heal-leve/hot-very-hot/guatemalan-orange-rocoto-detail
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http://www.pepperlover.com/pepper-seeds/heal-leve/hot-very-hot/guatemalan-orange-rocoto-detail
Wow, that looks tasty Buzzman! I sourced my seeds from a friend that brought them from a market in Arequipa, Peru. They have always grown red until now. I am also growing the guatemalan red rocoto from some seeds I bought from Pepperlover. I have some little 3 foot plants from that variety that I will overwinter for next year. I started those seeds way to late (June), and I knew I wouldn't get any pods this year from them. Your pods make me want to get the orange variety as well. I've always only grown the red ones, but this little gift from mother nature has made me interested in growing orange and yellow ones too.
Yeah It'll be interesting to see what color fruit you get with the "orange" seeds.Thegreenchilemonster said:
Definitely a labor of love! I keep almost all of the rocoto I grow, so that I can eat them year round. The very few that I give away are usually to some Peruvian friends that can really appreciate them. You should try to OW your rocoto if you have space. I use tomato cages when I grow them outside, and cut all the branches that grow outside the cage when prepping for OW. They grow like tomatoes once they are happy and established. I plan on germinating some of these orange seeds right now for next year.