AMSEED American Seed Intelligence Platform
AMSeed · American Seed Intelligence Platform https://amseed.com/varieties/rocoto-manzano-pepper
Pepper variety

Rocoto (Manzano)

Heirloom pepper

Breeding
Heirloom
Growth habit
-
Days to maturity
120-150 days
2 sources, none independent · basis unstated
Fruit
red
Weight
-
Bred by
-

Grey captions say what stands behind that particular figure. Breeding, growth habit and fruit characters carry no caption because they rest on the record's sources as a whole rather than citing their own; closing that gap is ordinary outstanding work, not a finished job.

The species here is supported by Peppers: Vegetable and Spice Capsicums. These claims name their own evidence rather than resting on the record's source list as a whole, because a species that distinguishes a variety, or an attribution to a breeding programme, is worth being able to check on its own.

Also known as

NameKindNote
Manzano Synonym Named for the apple-like fruit.
Locoto Synonym The Bolivian name.

Commonly confused with

These are different varieties. A name shared between them does not make them the same seed.

Origin & history

The only widely cultivated Capsicum pubescens, and the odd one out of the domesticated peppers: hairy leaves, purple flowers, thick apple-like flesh, and black seeds no other cultivated pepper produces. Andean in origin, it tolerates cold that would kill a habanero and barely crosses with the other species.

Measurements

MeasurementValueContext
Days to maturity 120-150 days Consensus range across the cited sources, which include both independent references and commercial catalogs.
Scoville heat 30,000-100,000 SHU Reported range is wide; the black seeds are the reliable species marker

Against the rest of the pepper database

Where this variety sits among every pepper we hold a comparable figure for. Position is not merit: earlier is not better than later, and hotter is not better than milder. Only cultivar-level figures are compared, never trial results, and maturity is only ranked against figures counted the same way.

Days to maturity 120-150 days · ranked at its midpoint, 135
55 median 82.5 155

later than 98% of the 252 peppers we hold a figure for. None of these figures state whether they are counted from sowing or from transplant, so they are ranked against each other on the assumption that suppliers use one convention, which is not something any of them says.

Scoville heat 30000-100000 SHU · ranked at its midpoint, 65,000
0 median 5,000 1,900,000

hotter than 80% of the 249 peppers we hold a figure for.

Traits

Disease resistance

No documented disease resistance, typical of heirlooms and older open-pollinated varieties. See pepper diseases for the cultural playbook that fills the gap.

Related varieties

Explore all pepper varieties · compare any two · when to plant it where you are

Sources & References

Evidence: 3 sources, including 1 independent reference.

  1. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog · Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co., Seed Catalog
  2. Seed Savers Exchange catalog & variety histories · Seed Savers Exchange, Community Collection
  3. Peppers: Vegetable and Spice Capsicums · CABI (2012), Scholarly Reference