[CH] Both Lynn Edwards(es) & rocoto
Mike Stallcup (michael.stallcup@msfc.nasa.gov)
Fri, 10 Mar 2000 09:54:32 -0600
It's been pointed out to me that we may know two Lynn Edwards(es) on
the C-H list. Since the list has _so_many_ members it shouldn't be
surprising that we have a combination of two fairly common English
names for which we have found two examples, similar to the two
Virginias we have. Confusion should be expected and forgiven.
On chiles, Cameron Begg wrote:
>If you are growing rocotos for the first time this year, let's share
>experiences on the List.
I'm game. Lynn Edwards (of Palo Alto, not Sunnyvale) has a good
description of rocotos (Capsicum Pubescens) on his web page
(http://www.crl.com./~ledwards/rocoto.html) which reflect my
experiences fairly well.
My Rocoto Experience:
I grew them once three years ago from seed sent by Lynn Edwards and
have planted them again this year. Last time I almost gave up on
them germinating. Their barren brown patches of soil in the seedling
tray looked so lonely in the forest of seedlings sprouting up around
them. Finally, they poked small tentative tendrils out.
Once sprouted they grew slowly but steadily. When finally planted in
the garden they always lagged behind their neighboring aji amarillos
(which grew to six feet tall). Ajis and rocotos were side by side in
a garden which got only partial sun during the day but no heavy
shadow. The rocotos had fuzzy leaves instead of the smooth shiny
leaves which we are accustomed to seeing on chile plants. By the
time the ajis were loaded with lovely orange jewels hanging down the
rocotos were just flowering. But what beautiful flowers! Dark
purple with traces of white, instead of the solid cream color of the
ajis. Many flowers fell off and no fruit was produced, but more
flowers bloomed. The summer wore on. Buckets of other chiles were
coming in but it looked like we had a five-foot-tall "ornamental"
rocoto on our hands.
Finally, in early September we started seeing fruit forming. Between
the two rocoto plants we had a total of five fruit form. The plants
were pretty strong so they needed only minor supporting (more
pampering than supporting). The fruit grew to be about 5 cm in
diameter, very round with only a very slight pear shape (not to the
extent shown on Lynn's page). It was a race to see which would come
first, the first frost or the fruit ripening to red. In the end, we
had two red-ripe ones and three in that stage that almost looks black
because it's going from green to red. Picking them on that October
evening before the first frost was almost traumatic.
Cutting them opened revealed a VERY thick flesh for such a small
fruit - maybe one centimeter thick. The inner membranes were
somewhat convoluted because there was so little room. Sure enough,
the seeds were black, one of the distinctive features of rocotos.
The taste was quite hot, a sharp burn, with some fruit flavor (but
not quite as fruity as habs and definitely a different flavor). The
seeds (there weren't many) were dried, saved, and planted this year.
As reported earlier, they have not sprouted yet after being planted
for 17 days although other chiles and tomatoes have sprouted.
If/when they finally poke their laggardly heads out I'll post it to
the list. Maybe this year I'll take pictures of the plants, to sit
on my desk with the pictures of my family. After all, after that
much time and fretting they almost seemed like members of the family
(no, they _did not_ have names).
- Mike
Carpe Capsicum!
(C-H #36, hab seed intact)