Manzano Peppers for "Bonsai"

[karen82]

I've seen a lot of nice pictures of bonsai chili peppers (bonchis) and this year I decided I wanted to try some. But I've had some previous no-so-great experiences with overwintering chilies inside. They never seemed to live past 2-3 years and grew poorly. The greenhouse was too cold for them and in the house, they tended to just die slowly.

So this year I did more research and decided to try something new! Most domesticated peppers, including chilies and bell peppers are Capsicum anuum.
But a less commonly grown species Capsicum pubescens, which seems to sometimes be called the manzano pepper or rocoto pepper. It's supposed to be more cold tolerant, longer lived, and naturally more tree-like (supposedly growing to 15 feet). The downside is they don't have the cute, tiny ornamental peppers, they just grow larger round red tomato-like fruit. But overall they sounded like a better fit.

Has anyone tried this species for bonsai?

I haven't been able to find much info on them and in fact had some trouble finding seeds. But I finally got the tiniest little packet of 10 seeds and started them a few weeks ago.

The seeds (well the ones I saved)


And the seedlings so far - they are still pretty tiny



I was hoping to get more - the germination rate wasn't great.

And to compare here's one of the C. pubescens and a reg C. annuum (a purple-leafed variety) so you can see how they got their name - the stems and underside of the leaves are all fuzzy.



Since I started them a bit late, they are only now getting to transplant size. I plan to put 2 of them out in the vegetable beds tomorrow and just let them be, other than wiring a little movement into the bottom 'trunk' when they get a bit bigger. The 3rd I will repot into better soil and keep in the greenhouse for comparison.

 

[HorseloverFat]

You have my utmost interest!

Update often, please.

 

[karen82]

Nothing much to update as they are still quite small, but the one I left in the greenhouse is actually looking healthier than the two I put outside. I repotted it the day after the initial post (so almost 3 weeks ago), and put it in a small pot in pure turface and it's been looking very happy in there. The outside ones went right into the raised bed with no root disturbance, and they have grown a little bit but don't look as good. They are all too small to do anything more than wait and let them grow.

 

[karen82]

No updates of any real interest yet.
I waited too long to wire them and they were too rigid to bend much (I find peppers to usually be very brittle so I didn't push it). So they just got a slight bend in them, only have a photo of one of them.



They've been growing very slowly. Grasshoppers and rabbits are a real problem here. The rabbits ate every single leaf off my poor elms and nipped off one of my manzano chilies at about 6" tall (they must've not liked the taste since they left the other one). The leaves are coarse and don't look bonsai appropriate right now, but hopefully they will reduce. Right now the smaller one has about a 1/4' trunk, the other one just slightly larger. They don't seem that promising but I plan to work on them for a few years just to see.
The real test will be how they respond to being cut back, dug up, and brought into the greenhouse for the winter.

 

[HorseloverFat]

My peppers did very well this year... except reapers... starfish were slow.

Some ass-hole is selling a bunch of interesting bon-chi trunks.. that were wired young and now have bark.. for like 5 dollars a piece.. in the “other selling” forum..

I think said ass-hole lives in Wisconsin.. and could ship cheap.. just saying.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Also.. I feel you, about rabbits.. i lost a great deal last winter/this spring.

All my veggies get treated high summer.. peppers and tomatoes are “pest magnets”.

 

[karen82]

My peppers did very well this year... except reapers... starfish were slow.

Some ass-hole is selling a bunch of interesting bon-chi trunks.. that were wired young and now have bark.. for like 5 dollars a piece.. in the “other selling” forum..

I think said ass-hole lives in Wisconsin.. and could ship cheap.. just saying.

I appreciate the thought, it's tempting, but I don't have much room for houseplants - ones that can't survive in the greenhouse temps. In fact, I'm thinking of getting rid of a few of my fussier plants. That's why I'm trying manzanos instead of normal chilies. I'm also trying one Aji chili (Capsicum baccatum) though I can't find much info on their lifespan or temperature preference.

 

[karen82]

Also.. I feel you, about rabbits.. i lost a great deal last winter/this spring.

All my veggies get treated high summer.. peppers and tomatoes are “pest magnets”.

The rabbits are terrible this year. I'd been hiding some outdoor pre-bonsai in the greenhouse for the summer (crabapples and Siberian elm), tried moving some of them out recently to start experiencing fall weather - overnight they were stripped bare and all the small branches chewed off.
They've decimated my in ground trees too - apples, elms, quince, even Nanking cherries, little more than stumps surrounded by piles of bare sticks, they chewed off the branches to get the upper leaves. Even the maples had some branches missing. Not to mention the tomatoes, beans, and swiss chard they ate. I can't believe how destructive they've been this summer. Though oddly enough, they won't touch the kale or zucchinis.

 

[HorseloverFat]

A horrid nuisance, indeed!

The BEST way.. is making sure they CANT get there... fence it in.. the whole area.. check your “fence” often....

...like Desperado

 

[karen82]

A minor update - the two that I was growing in ground didn't make it. When I brought them in for the winter, I got most of the roots, but cut the stems down to about 5", leaving a weak lower leaf on each, thinking they would at least backbud where that leaf was. They never did. I watered them for several months, in hope, but eventually had to give up.
The other one that I left potted is doing fine but it's quite small.

 

[ShadyStump]

I've tried moving annuums from ground to pot at the end of summer a couple times, and they've never survived. I think the entire genus is very sensitive to root disturbance and/or environmental changes after a certain point.

I've been able to get my one annuum here to go dormant for winter by literally keeping it in a dark hole in the ground. Temps above freezing, but no extreme swings. I think DARK is the key. Any light and they want to grow.

In my region I've heard of people just mulching them in heavily and leaving them in the ground all winter successfully, but I've not tried it myself yet. Wisconsin may be a bit to harsh a winter to even hope for that, though.

Wintering indoors requires LOTS of light. A bright window with BRIGHT supplemental lighting. Mine lived with my bay tree this past winter.

Hope this helps.

 

[ShadyStump]

Just had a thought.
These are tropical plants, and we work tropicals mid-growth, at the height of summer. Try transplanting to a pot when you still have a month or so of the growing season left. You'll likely lose fruit, but you might keep the plant.

 

[CCBonsaiMan]

I overwinter peppers with growlights. It’s a pain in the rear, but when I get an especially productive plant, I hate to let it go.

 

[ShadyStump]

Any updates?

 

[karen82]

Not much. The two I grew in ground died upon being chopped and dug up. The one I left in the pot is still doing fine and produced a few peppers, but in the pot it is slow growing and it will be a long time before it will be suitable for anything bonsai. I did start a few more of them which I might try planting outside next spring to thicken up, and will try again. They definitely are more cold-tolerant, and remain happy down to 39 (as cold as the greenhouse got last winter) while the anuums start to die when it gets below 50. But they don't seem to be a very good species for bonsai so far.

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Capsicum pubescens

 

[ShadyStump]

@EverThorn and I were talking about pepper species, for food and bonchi. He shared allot of great info with me. Might be able to help you out too.

I have an Italian sweet cherry annuum that's on it's 4th year. It started as an experiment in 2019 growing peppers in one of those Topsy-Turvy upside down planters. Didn't work well, but did get it growing in some interesting curves. It's surprisingly healthy for it's age, but even the oldest trunk is still not 100% lignified.
I planted all of my peppers in pots this year, but may not have room for them all in the house over winter.

 

[EverThorn]

I overwinter peppers with growlights. It’s a pain in the rear, but when I get an especially productive plant, I hate to let it go.

Two words that always send me into a panic.. Frost Advisory.

@ShadyStump help with? I think most Pubescens might do well inside, if you gave them enough space for the roots and mass.. As they aren't really needy in the light department, but can take up a lot of space. I don't know about Manzano for bonchi.. If you wanted a purely ornamental indoor Pubescens bonchi, Mini-Brown Rocoto is your ticket! They have probably been the best looking indoors of any I've grown so far, with a nice rich green color to them. The flavor of them is so insipid you'll have little debate about deadheading them. My older one is DeSorta, a DeSeda hybrid. It also does well indoors, unless you allow it to get dry enough for spidermites, then it will look a little rough. I grew a few others, maybe even Manzano, but the names elude me because they didn't hang around long enough to make an impression. I'm pretty sure I still have seeds for Manzano though, if someone wanted to try running them indoors up here.. I've got a few Apache Annuum too, which are supposed to be bangers indoors. They were hybrid so I'm only keeping the two that were deciduous.. Two of the culls are probably TTV and definitely have the form of them. I plan to sell them locally for 10$ea and 4/20$, along with some of my others varieties.. They are still loaded up with pods.


My advice for growing Pubescens in the north is plan on having it indoors for the winter or start the one for next year really early. I got a few pods from DeSorta the first year, but I started them early and most of them ripened up indoors, well after the season was over. I kept it in a 3 gallon fiber pot for 2 overwinters, I think, before changing the substrate and upgrading it to a larger fiberpot. The DeSeda that seemed true lasted til this year and died.. Probably because I had it crammed in a 1 gallon fiber pot. I don't bother trying to grow too many of the Pubescens that I have because they are mostly rumored to be long-winded and substrate/space hogs.. I do love that they are less light needy than your typical garden peppers. I'd show some pictures of mine, but I guess the files are 'too big' tonight.

All that said, I've been growing peppers for a short number of years now, and by no means have it 'figured out'

We set up the greenhouse yesterday and stepping into it this morning it dawned on me that I completely forgot about air circulation in there.

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Unlike other species Locoto peppers can take some cold, they grow naturaly in mountain areas of Peru and Bolivia, they can get down to 47 degrees and do fine, just dont let them get frost over

 

[EverThorn]

Unlike other species Locoto peppers can take some cold, they grow naturaly in mountain areas of Peru and Bolivia, they can get down to 47 degrees and do fine, just dont let them get frost over

They also don't like a lot of sun, unlike most of the typical species. Mine seem to thrive on the East side of the house, when outside, only getting like 6 hours of morning sun.
There are other, even more cold tolerant species of Capsicum.. But I haven't grown any of them yet.
There are a few gems in the varieties too, for sure! I grew Zimbabwe Piri-Piri aka African Devil and it actually shrugged the first light frost off and almost seemed to enjoy it, still flowering and setting pods, while most all the Chinense and other Anns dropped leaf and got to looking sickly.. Still one of my favorites.

@Arnold , I'm curious to know what your favorites are for indoor Pubescens.