Rocoto chilie

I have this Rocoto chilie in my garden for more than 7 years, I never knew the name till 2 days ago when I went on the web. to look for other chilies.

I have about 3 variety, round, longish, and pear shaped, all very hot! The plant looks the same so you will only know when you the chilie pods.

This is a hot chilie from south America. Last few years the chilies were big, as you can see in the palm of my hand but this year because of the drought you can see how small they are!

They are really really hot, but to us they don't have the nice chilie fragrant, so I usually use them to pickle and chilie paste. The Rocoto black seeds and nice purple flowers,The Rocoto is thick flesh and juicy, so always be careful when you cut them up, the juice can sometimes splatter on your hands and you will end up with a burning sensation on your hands.

Put on gloves when you handle them. We often take out the seeds and stuff the Rocoto with fish paste, then fry and make a gravy ,to eat with rice. Those who said they can eat really hot chilies 10 out of 10 failed! They took 1 bite and gave up! even after removing the chilie the fish paste was too hot to eat!!

We have done this to test out a few friends, because they also look like capsicum people would just pop it in their mouth.

Through the years we have also noticed that sometimes the Rocotos are really really hot and sometimes bearable hot, this has to do with the weather, hot summers , hot chilies!

Rocotos are quite hardy, put them in the right spot and they just seems to grow , flower and fruit like mad!

My Rocoto plant is like a tree, its as high as the roof of my house. They do have a lot of chilies. You are most welcomed to exchange seeds ( other varieties) with me.