Rocopica (Rocoto/Ulupica cross) Rocoto (c.pubescens) crosses with Ulupica (c. cardenasii)? Eight very small (1.5-2mm) yellow seeds were extracted from a 4.5mm pod. In March, I planted 6 of the seeds and 2 germinated.  The two plants grew beautifully through 2000 and produced a bounty of  pods.     The pods are round like ulupica pods but are quite a bit larger (1cm).  Flowers are less fluted (more like a rocoto).  The taste of the peppers is pure ulupica but with the nice surprise of being quite a bit meatier (like rocoto). Crushed pods produce a juicy paste that can be easily added to anything.  I especially like this pepper in soups.     Mature seeds from these pods are viable. Seeds are brown/black and only slightly smaller than rocoto seeds (50%+ larger than the seeds they came from).  All pictures on this page are of the original plants or clones.  Offspring pants are smaller, will post images soon.   I have tried drying the peppers with great success.  The below images are of the dried pods. Notice how dark the seeds are, almost indistinguishable from a rocoto. The pods are no more than 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) in size.  Each pepper had no more than 8 seeds, 6 average.   Click here for zoom   Click here for zoom In 2001, I successfully started 3 clones of the original 2 plants. Two of the plants are in my garden in pots, the other is at my mothers house where it can grow protected from further cross pollination from rocotos.  I will be experimenting with the resulting seeds hoping to start a seed stock for this new pepper variety   One of the 3 cloned plants   Close-up of a rocopica flower thanks to a new close-up lens I got for my digital camera.   Ripe 1cm peppers   Rocopica cut in half.  Notice how the  seeds are densely packed into the pepper.  Also a good example of how much flesh these peppers have.  This is particular pepper is 1/2 inch (1.25 cm).   This photograph shows how rocopica seeds compare to rocoto seeds. The rocoto seeds are on the left. The size is almost exactly the same with the rocopicas being only slightly (5-10%) smaller. The only clear difference is that the rocopica has a lighter colored embryo area.

© 2006 Joe Carrasco