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seeds Rocoto germination

Do rocotos take forever to germinate, or do they like different conditions than other chiles? I've had good germination rates out of many other varieties of chiles I started, but the two rocotos (orange and red) haven't sprouted a single seedling. It's been about a month since I started them, so I'm assuming they're not going to pop by now.
 
Mine germinated in around 18-20 days at around 50% germination rate. I have both Orange Manzanos and Red Rocotos and in the past they have usually been relatively low germinators for me. However, this year I germinated them outside and didn`t use a heat mat or similar. Our night-time temps were in the 45-55° range at the time and days 55-70°. The plants were left outside, neglected somewhat (i.e. not watered other than any rain) and really took off as the night-time temps hit 60°, days 65-75°. I`m not saying that you should follow this; actually don`t follow this. Merely that they can tolerate and live at much lower temps than you would expect. The converse is that they may not like 75-80° germination temps and higher humidity very much.

Others here have a lot more experience than I do with C.pubescens and I hope they`ll join in so I can learn something, too.
 
they can be a challenge, do a forum search on scarification, a member has had good luck with that technique with difficult to germinate varieties.
 
I had only one of mine sprout out of about a dozen seeds. All my other varieties were 75% or better germination rate.
 
I.ve found most C.Pubescens like lower germination temps. -mid. to high 70's.
Lower than that and they mold or whatever,higher they cook...
I don't have a problem with germination of fresh seeds but do find they like to hold their shells at time.
Also scratching the seeds or removing stuck shells ,for me,causes more damage than good.
Cracked shells expand fast but the embryo comes out of the shell and usually molds or whatever.
Stuck shells that die are from weak plants.
If they can't grow their way out of the shell by themselves ,you have a weak start that isn't worth messing with in my opinion.
It'll need constant attention until it grows big enough to get it's act together...

But I might consider pulling a shell off if it was the last seed for a VERY VERY RARE strain.Probably not...

Then again,I have several LBS. of Manzano seeds...
I mostly only buy 3 1/2 inch + sized manzanos for my seed stock(google Dino Pods,Peru Baseball).
 
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