I will let someone from your zone answer your questions but note that the pubescens don't mind it cool. I have one on the back deck that is flowering after a series of days in the 50's and nights in the 40's.

I live in the San Fernando Valley and grow my peppers year round.
My oldest plant is 3-4 yrs. old and has buds and fruit on it now.It fruits year round.Just less in the winter.
The serrano is fruiting again now too.

I just put 2 yellow manzanos outside a couple weeks ago.
They seem to be doing ok so far.
We have had some cool nights lately and some rain.
I'm more worried about the water than the cold.

Last year we had a cold spell that froze things for a week or so,all it did was make my plants drop some leaves.They grew back.
All my plants are in 15 gal. containers.
I'm sprouting some seeds(red savina,Tree habanero,Chili Negro de Arbol,orange habanero,paper lantern,and hot cherries) right now that I'll put out in a few weeks.

I wouldn't worry about the cold too much.It seems only a long freeze would mess up your plants.
I assume your sprouting indoors.I don't know what manzano seeds like as far as heat goes for germination but I do know the 100 defree temps. we had a while back really messed with my manzanos.I had to move them to a shadey place.They didn't like it at all.
I have southern exposure so they get sun most of the day.They are also against a wall.I had to put the green greenhouse netting over them because they used to get too sunburned.

I'd go for it,just watch the water.

my experience with peppers is that the sooner you start the seed then the larger the plant will be growing when it fruits and the bigger the crop. If the plant started at a time when it was too hot to fruit then it would keep growing until it cooled down but be much bigger.

Basically the sooner you start the better as long as it does not freeze to death.

Thanks everyone! I'll start my seeds right away.

Oh, to live in SoCal where the peppers grow all year long :-)

I'm even further south... in NZ, and even though it's the middle of spring here and there's still 150 days until the end of summer (March), I think I may have left my Rocoto (red) run too late. I just got the seeds and they've been in the hot cupboard for two days.

Our summer temps are mid-70s to mid-80s with cool nights in the low-60s, which is good for sleeping and sounds like it's just right for Rocotos.

All the rest of my peppers were germinated first week of Sep. and are now happily in the sunroom in their seedling pots all with at least 4 true leaves.

I'm hoping to get some experience with growing the Rocoto even if it can't produce much of a crop this year. I can try to overwinter them and get a quick start next spring. Our winters, while frosty, are dry and very sunny.

I just discovered the Rocoto and if it wasn't for the reputed tricky germination, flowering and fruiting, it sounds like the perfect pepper: hot, fruity, fleshy, perennial and likes cool nights.

Fingers crossed.

Can anyone tell me if there are any differences in growing rates between the orange, red and yellow Rocotos?

FYI, planted 10 Rocoto seeds last Friday, 7 days later, I have three strong sprouts. So, I'm happy after all I heard about the difficult germination of these seeds.

My method was what I always use: soak seeds in warm water overnight. Use sifted standard moist potting mix. Bury seeds just below surface. Put containers/germination tray in a large, square tupperware container. Put lid on container and set in hot water cupboard. Temps stay at around 25-30c, soil is slightly warm to the touch. I lift the lid every day to check for mold and sprouts, and this helps exchange air.

I'm expecting many more sprouts. I'll let you know :-)

Glad to hear you have sprouts. I think I am seeing something happening to the Manzanos I put in peat pellets about 2 weeks ago. I've read that peat can be problematic, but I'm trying them anyway. I'm planning to put them in a DIY self-watering setup. I've never tried one before, and I usually keep my plants a little thirsty, but we'll see how it goes.

This weekend 3 of my Manzanos sprouted and shed the seed shell. The other seeds I put in, some Cambodian market chilies, have all sprouted. I can't wait until they are big enough to transplant. My DIY container design is coming along nicely and I should be potting up at least 20 plants for the new season.

Well, 10 days since seeding and I've only had those three germinate, the other 7 show no signs of life.

The 3 that have sprouted are on a sunny windowsill and looking very healthy. Cotyledons have gone nice and green, and one seedling has slightly serrated leaves.

Just keeping my fingers crossed for the other 7, but I'll feel lucky if 1 or 2 more pop up.

I'm up to 5/12 on the Manzanos, but I double-sowed and one pellet has two seedlings leaving me with 4/12 so far. I think I will get 3 or 4 more and that's more than enough.

One of my Cambodian chilies came up tricot. It's smaller than the others so far, but I think I will keep it. Does anyone know how tricots turn out with peppers?

Seeds sown 4/11. Just now ripening. 3 pods on 2 plants. I will try to over winter one plant in hopes of better production next year

Rocoto,Giant Red from Peruvian Market, Milan

Nice Rocotos! I need to work on taking better photos. These are some of the Manzanos that provided my seeds.

Well, after 2 weeks I still only have 3 sprouts, but they're very healthy and loving the spring sunshine.

How long has anyone waited for their Rocotos to sprout? I've got a theory that since the first 3 sprouted quickly and at exactly the same time, then that's all I'm gonna get out of this batch.

If I still don't have any sprouts in another 2 weeks, I'll give up on them as it'll be getting too late.

Nuwanda, I am still getting new sprouts. I would hold out a little longer. I'm not heating mine so they get pretty cold at night, but keep coming up. I'm at about 60% germination with my 3 month old seeds. Good Luck, I bet you will see a 4th and a 5th come up soon.
-Zander

Zander, are you saying you've been waiting 3 months for germination?

No way! I meant that I harvested the seeds only 3 months ago and it might be a factor in the germination. It been getting pretty cold at night and the sprouting tray is outside, but even still a new Manzano sprout came up this morning.

Ah, I see.

Well, my three seedlings have finally gotten around to sprouting their first true leaves, but even the cotyledons are a little hairy :-)

So, a month later and still the original three plants are the only ones to sprout. 3/10=30%.

But they are healthy little plants and all have two true leaves. They grow very slowly and one leaf grows big before the other does.

After the seedlings came up in peat pellets, they were transferred to indoor lights:

Is the green/white double pot a self watering system? How are the wooden posts with screws used?

Good eye! Yes, I use 3.5 gallons in a 5 with a piece of nylon stocking filled with coconut coir mulch for a wick. The wooden supports are used to raise the reflectors up as the plants grow. The reflectors are white 5 gallon buckets with a CFL lamp inside.

I also used a self watering plastic cup system for the seedlings. I couldn't believe how fast the roots grew.

My yellow manzanos that are outside got too much water during the last rains and lost all but a couple leaves.
I cut off the branches that were drying out and now the plants have each grown more branches to replace the stuff that died and also grew 2 additional branches comming from the plant under the soil-looks like 3 separate plants that were planted too close together.
I have a couple more sprouted manzano seeds growing indoors now.
I'm going to see if I chop the ends of all the branches off when it gets the size the ones outdoors were when they lost their leaves and branches if they will grow 2 more stalks too.
I might dig one of the 2 outside up to see if the branches are from the roots or from the trunk of the plant thats under the dirt.
I think the extra 2 branches will make my plants much bigger assuming they keep growing along with the original branches etc.These branches are growing like new plants.
I may have found a way to get manzanos to bush out faster during the first months of growth which would be cool since they usually don't put out much growth or peppers till the second year.
Both manzanos are in 2 gal. planters.When I transplanted them from 4inch pots to the bigger ones I put the soil up to the place where the seedleaf was.
The nights have been in the low 40's for almost 2 weeks.
It's raining now though so I might have a water problem if the days don't warm up after the rains.

Well It's June, and I've learned quite a bit about starting seeds TOO early. My Manzanos and Thai chilies grew very big inside and had to be moved outside when temperatures were still pretty cool. Except for one incredible Manzano all the plants stopped growing and have just started to pick up again. My second round of starts (mostly C. Chinese) also moved outside early and had a tough time with the aphids. All in all, I have a handful of plants that moved outside early and did well, but the majority looked pretty bad. If I had waited a few more months, I would have saved myself a ton of work.

The exception has been my Aji Lemondrops. These were started last year and grew very well in the cooler temperatures. Aphids were a bit of a problem in February, but I haven't seen many since. Now I have five terrific plants covered with flowers and fruit. I'm expecting to take a first harvest in a month or so.

So in summary:
It was fun growing large plants indoors over the winter.
Many plants were moved outside before the conditions were optimum. Most of these plants stopped growing, dropped leaves, and were hit by aphids.
Aji Lemondrops were by far the best in the cooler temps.
Next year I'm not starting anything before January. Maybe I'll keep some cuttings alive indoors, but no seedlings.

I'll follow up with photos.

Below is a yellow manzano that was germinated last summer, (germination in less than 10 days and 85% success rate) grown over winter inside in hydro and planted out on 24 May. It had this fruit in less than 7 days.

The plant is a clone of the original plant.