Rocoto

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:welcome:from the Pacific NorthWest!

Careful with the lighting on the indoor rocotos.
Mine have always grown more laterally under strong
light. Sometimes they have done better under regular
flourescent lights. The T5HO's make the branches grow
out 'flat' rather than upward.
 
:welcome:from the Pacific NorthWest!

Careful with the lighting on the indoor rocotos.
Mine have always grown more laterally under strong
light. Sometimes they have done better under regular
flourescent lights. The T5HO's make the branches grow
out 'flat' rather than upward.
Thanks for the tip. Mine are leaning slightly towards the window light and I try to rotate them as much as possible. Still it’s hard to get them to grow fully straight up that way. Maybe I should consider using a top fluorescent instead?
The windowsill they are on now gets a few hours of direct sun in the afternoons and that’s why I chose the spot.
Thanks again!
 
Hello all,
It’s been almost 9 months since I posted to get your opinions and guidance on 4 tiny rocoto seedlings that I had started indoors. They were kept near a W-SW facing window and started to grow quite nicely. In fact they grew so well I transplanted them to
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12” pots and during the winter I had to prune them because they were getting out of control with side branches growing everywhere.

As I had learned in this forum, despite growing well they never flowered.

In early April when the nighttime temps were above 40F I decided to move them outside. I had read that rocotos like somewhat lower temps (they are native from the Andes) and wide swings in temperature. Daytime max temps were in the 70s and some days in 80s.
A couple of weeks later tiny blooms started to show up in one of the plants. Actually a lot of them. I was very excited about this. The other 3 plants seemed too lazy to follow. Soon small purple flowers started to appear and a couple of them turned into pods.
A couple of weeks more and the other 3 plants slowly decided to join the party with some beautiful purple flowers as well.

It’s the beginning of summer and I’m quite optimistic that they will give some fruit (fingers crossed).

I used Fox Farm Happy Frog potting soil (which I read about and people seem to love) and Miracle Gro All Purpose fertilizer (once outdoors I changed to Fox Farm liquid fertilizers).

I’m going to try to post some pictures but I’m not sure I’ll be able to figure out how.

Thanks everyone again for your early tips.

Best to all
Nick
 
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