Mystery pepper (is it even one?)

[HBY]

Hello!
 
Last summer I got a little plant as a pepper, which was supposedly a pepper grown from some mystery seed from Mexico. Even for a pepper the plant seems to be very slow-growing, it also seems to need way more nutrients than I'm used to (from the very limited pepper-growing experience I have).
 
Characteristics that seem pepper-like to me:
 
- The leaves turn yellow quite quickly when there's a lack of nutrients
- Purple-ish stems
- It seems to just have started creating the first signs of flowers, which look pepper-like at first glance
 
Characteristics that don't seem pepper-like:
- The stems and leaves are hairy
- It doesn't smell like a pepper, more like a breed of tomato. Moreover: tomato plants are also hairy
 
I've attached a photo. Does anyone have any clue? 

 

[Wiriwiri]

That plant has the appearance of a Wild type called C. Rhomboideum which I have grown many times ...the dead give away would be the
the yellow flower that should appear soon...if the flower is not yellow then I would be wrong,but from my vantage point that's my conclusion.
Keep  us posted.Fatalii.net has  many photos ..my plant is old ..peppers really have no taste per se,it's more an ornamental type IMO.
Here's a photo of the flower/pods & my plant.

 

[HBY]

They indeed look quite similar! 0 on the Scoville scale??? Pfffffffff

 

[Wiriwiri]

If  it is C.Rhombo.. then no heat..actually there was some debate if it really is a wild or not a while back...it's a nice plant & the flowers do stand out.
Otherwise   berry like pods with tiny  black seeds.
The flowers should open up soon...are you growing it under lights?

 

[CaneDog]

I'm going to bet on it being a c. pubenscens / rocoto, perhaps a manzano type being from Mexico.  Let's see if those first flowers show up purple. 
 
BTW #1 - rocotos like conditions a bit different than most cultivated peppers.  And they'll typically bring some good heat.
 
BTW #2 - that's an awesome selection of wilds pods on that plate, Wiri!  

 

[HBY]

The first tiny buds are appearing. I think we'll know for sure soon!
 
@Wiriwiri: I am indeed using a growing light, I bought it at Ikea. For some reason Ikea in the Netherlands stopped selling growing supplies, while they still sell them in Belgium. Would it be because of the reputation of being excellent marijuana growers that the Dutch have? 

 

[Swinglish]

So what colour flowers did you get?

 

[HBY]

Little purple flowers! If I understand correctly manzano and rocoto are all different names from different regions for the same pepper: capsicum pubescens? (apparently pubescens also means hairy)
 
Since the plant is now flowering it probably "believes" it's spring. Should I remove the grow light and cut back on water and nutrients to "put it into autumn/winter mode" or just go on like this?

 

[CaneDog]

Little purple flowers! If I understand correctly manzano and rocoto are all different names from different regions for the same pepper: capsicum pubescens? (apparently pubescens also means hairy)  yep & yep.
 
Since the plant is now flowering it probably "believes" it's spring. Should I remove the grow light and cut back on water and nutrients to "put it into autumn/winter mode" or just go on like this?

 
Hey, HBY, that's looking great with all the little purple flowers!   Personally, I'd let it continue to grow like that.  You may find it's reluctant to set pods while indoors, despite lots of flowers.  They'll often just drop off, but the plant should keep growing fine.  If you want it to produce indoors, there are some "tricks" you can use to increase the likelihood of fruit set.
 
If you want to put it into a dormant winter state it generally takes decreasing the temperature.  Warm temperatures with low light will tend to cause stretch/weakness.  Also, I don't put smaller pepper plants into dormancy, only larger, more established ones with bigger roots that can store lots of energy.

 

[HBY]

 
Hey, HBY, that's looking great with all the little purple flowers!   Personally, I'd let it continue to grow like that.  You may find it's reluctant to set pods while indoors, despite lots of flowers.  They'll often just drop off, but the plant should keep growing fine.  If you want it to produce indoors, there are some "tricks" you can use to increase the likelihood of fruit set.
 
If you want to put it into a dormant winter state it generally takes decreasing the temperature.  Warm temperatures with low light will tend to cause stretch/weakness.  Also, I don't put smaller pepper plants into dormancy, only larger, more established ones with bigger roots that can store lots of energy.

 
Thanks for the advice on dormancy!
 
I used to grow a few peppers indoors, also a chocolate habanero. The chocolate habanero didn't seem to be self-pollinating, it also produced lots of flowers without them ever growing into pods. I started pollinating every single flower every 2-3 days with a small brush, which worked quite well. I could do the same with this one, is this one of the tricks you mentioned?

 

[CaneDog]

 
Thanks for the advice on dormancy!
 
I used to grow a few peppers indoors, also a chocolate habanero. The chocolate habanero didn't seem to be self-pollinating, it also produced lots of flowers without them ever growing into pods. I started pollinating every single flower every 2-3 days with a small brush, which worked quite well. I could do the same with this one, is this one of the tricks you mentioned?

 
That's a great trick to generally increase pollination, but it may not be enough alone for pubescens when indoors.  I suggest that if it starts dropping flowers instead of setting, try either moving it to a windowsill for several days or even just moving it to a windowsill overnight and back under light each morning for several days.  The ideas are that significant swings between day & night temperature seem to encourage setting and light spectrum profiles may also figure in - so some window time during the day may help with that.
 
I've grown pubescens for years, but I'm only just now experimenting with the factors affecting them setting indoors.  The below plant is a Rocoto Rio Huallaga. It's in a .25L Solo cup under a 4,000K HLG100 LED.  Despite getting a reasonable day/night temperature variation, it seems to set better when it gets time in natural light in the window.  It's still early in my investigation of the factors, but I'll be trying different things, including supplemental 2,700K lighting, in an effort to determine and isolate which have the more significant effect.
 
The pod on this plant set when I moved it into a window for a few days.  The other two that seem to be in the process of setting (farthest left and the big flower starting to extrude from its calyx) haven't been exposed to natural light, just good temp swings.  It's still early to see if those will continue to grow into pods or drop before doing so, as their pedicels are looking a little yellow.
 
Hope some of this helps if you find it isn't setting easily without intervention.
 

 

[HBY]

In general the plant is growing quite well, although I'm going to try CaneDogs advice to create some swings in temperature. The flowers do seem to just fall off instead of turning into pods. The weird thing is: pollination using a brush seems to start the process of eventually falling off.
 
I'm a little concerned about those yellow dots, to me it looks like bacterial leaf spot. What do you think?

 

[Karpasruuti]

In general the plant is growing quite well, although I'm going to try CaneDogs advice to create some swings in temperature. The flowers do seem to just fall off instead of turning into pods. The weird thing is: pollination using a brush seems to start the process of eventually falling off.
 
I'm a little concerned about those yellow dots, to me it looks like bacterial leaf spot. What do you think?

Could be insufficient photosynthesis. Nothing to worry too much. It look like rocotos and like temperature changes. Otherwise stamens won't open up and no pollen. That happened to my rocoto and it may take few weeks until you see something to happen.

 

[CaneDog]

Yeah, something's off a bit, but it's not leaf spot.  Your tips are clawing and there's too much stem between the leaves in the recent growth, too.
 
What's your lighting and what about your media/fertilizing?

 

[HBY]

The "only" light it's now getting is from the growing light. It's set to 14 hours a day. I want to move it to the window, but since it's autumn days are quite short and cold already. For fertilizing I use liquid organic fertilizer with 3.2% nitrogen (which was the lowest value I could easily get my hands on), usually once a week. I control the acidity by adding lime, I have a (very cheap) pH probe.

 

[Karpasruuti]

The "only" light it's now getting is from the growing light. It's set to 14 hours a day. I want to move it to the window, but since it's autumn days are quite short and cold already. For fertilizing I use liquid organic fertilizer with 3.2% nitrogen (which was the lowest value I could easily get my hands on), usually once a week. I control the acidity by adding lime, I have a (very cheap) pH probe.

Keep it close to window and keep the window little open at nights?

 

[CaneDog]

I agree with karpasruuti that giving it some natural light isn't a bad idea.  Plus pubescens prefer conditions a bit cooler and with less intense light than do most peppers - it should actually help it set pods.  What about the composition of the media it's growing in?  It looks like it's accumulating moss (?) which isn't something I'd expect to see.

 

[HBY]

Oh, the medium is simply potting soil, but a mix specifically marketed for tropical-ish plants. When I got the plant in july/august I put it outside, it might have accumulated some (moss) seeds then. The liquid fertilizer I use needs to be mixed in a decent amount of water, but the soil I have seems to be a little too good at holding water. In other words: the growth of moss might be a result of the soil being too wet too often.

 

[CaneDog]

Gotcha.  I was thinking either nute's or a bit of wet feet about the leaves.  It doesn't seem unhappy, though.  Perhaps just a bit more natural light might perk it up.  Pretty cool that it has the stiped flowers.  I find those less often with rocotos than the more solid purple ones.

 

[HBY]

I agree with karpasruuti that giving it some natural light isn't a bad idea.  Plus pubescens prefer conditions a bit cooler and with less intense light than do most peppers - it should actually help it set pods.  What about the composition of the media it's growing in?  It looks like it's accumulating moss (?) which isn't something I'd expect to see.

 
I just realized that you're probably thinking the lime I sprinkled on top is moss haha. There is a little moss growing, but it's not really visible on this photo.
 
I did some research on clawing leaves (immediately ended up at forums for cannabis growing, welcome to the Netherlands). It does seem to be wet feet, like you mentioned. Apparently plants tend to curl up the leaves to increase evaporation. 
 
What would be the lowest temperature this plant can handle? I could put it outside at night to increase changes in temperature (most of my windows don't open), it's still above freezing.