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Seasonal yields
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Plant · P-224
Rocoto Pepper
Capsicum pubescens
Rocoto Pepper, also called locoto, is an Andean tree pepper that produces thick-fleshed, pungent fruit with distinctive black seeds, eaten raw, cooked, stuffed and baked Peruvian-style, or dried and ground. It has a genuine medicinal use too, taken internally for fever, weakness and digestive complaints and used externally for sprains and neuralgia. Unlike most peppers, it isn't summer heat that shuts it down but warm nights: it needs cool nights to set flowers, so a hot summer produces plenty of healthy foliage and almost no pods, leaving spring and fall as its real harvest windows. It is also long-lived where winters stay mild, capable of fruiting for up to fifteen years, though it needs afternoon shade and frost protection to get anywhere near that in a harsher climate.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Moderate
Vertical layer
Shrub- Soil pH
- 4.3–8.3
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 2–9 ft
- Mature spread
- 3–6 ft
- Plant spacing
- 24 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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