Growing Rocoto Peppers: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · September 30, 2026
Rocoto is Capsicum pubescens, the Andean pepper with fuzzy leaves, purple flowers and black seeds. It behaves differently from every other pepper here: it prefers mild weather and grows into a woody shrub.
Cool tolerant, slow to fruit
PFAF describes it as frost tender but able to take temperatures down to about -5°C, and notes it can keep fruiting for years in cool, moist climates. Reimer Seeds lists 120 days or more to maturity. That long season is the main hurdle in a short-summer zone. We schedule it at twelve weeks before your last frost.
The fruit is round and thick-walled, like a small apple, and hot.
A shrub, not a bedding plant
Reimer Seeds gives a plant height of 36 to 48 inches, and PFAF records it as a perennial that can reach 9 feet where it overwinters. In the Garden Designer it takes a 2 by 2 foot square and is flagged as tall, so it goes on the north edge. In a pot it can be brought indoors before frost and kept for another season.
The Bell Pepper profile covers shared care, and the companion guide lists neighbors.
Growing it next to other peppers
Different pepper varieties cross-pollinate easily, hot ones included. NC State Extension notes that when hot and sweet peppers cross, the heat shows up in later generations grown from saved seed, and suggests keeping varieties 20 to 30 feet apart if you plan to save your own. Baker Creek, which grows seed for sale, isolates varieties by at least 500 feet. If you buy fresh seed each year, you can plant sweet and hot peppers side by side.
Sources: Reimer Seeds, Rocoto Red; PFAF, Capsicum pubescens; Wikipedia, Capsicum pubescens; NC State Extension, Saving Your Own Seed.
Companion planting guide for Rocoto Pepper · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 3-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 3-4 ft
Method: Start indoors: Start indoors from seed, then transplant outside. It needs a head start most zones can't give it by direct-sowing alone.
When to plant rocoto pepper, by zone
Every zone rocoto pepper grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3a & 3b | Mar 7–Mar 14 | Jun 13–Jun 20 | Oct 11–Oct 18 |
| 4a & 4b | Feb 20–Feb 27 | May 29–Jun 5 | Sep 26–Oct 3 |
| 5a & 5b | Feb 15–Feb 22 | May 24–May 31 | Sep 21–Sep 28 |
| 6a & 6b | Jan 31–Feb 7 | May 9–May 16 | Sep 6–Sep 13 |
| 7a & 7b | Jan 16–Jan 23 | Apr 24–May 1 | Aug 22–Aug 29 |
| 8a & 8b | Dec 31–Jan 7 | Apr 8–Apr 15 | Aug 6–Aug 13 |
| 9a & 9b | Nov 23–Nov 30 | Mar 1–Mar 8 | Jun 29–Jul 6 |
| 10a & 10b | Nov 7–Nov 14 | Feb 13–Feb 20 | Jun 13–Jun 20 |
| 11a & 11bSummer window | May–Nov | Aug–Feb | ~120 days after transplanting |
Harvest dates are about 120 days after the sow or plant-out date, not after starting seeds indoors.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Rocoto Pepper plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: about 4 square feet per plant (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 3-4 ft.
Soil & water: pH 6-6.5. Needs well-drained soil. Amend with lime if soil pH falls below 6.
Good companions for rocoto pepper
- Basil: Reputed to repel aphids and improve pepper growth nearby, but a controlled garden trial testing this same claim on a related crop found no pest-reduction benefit from basil, and found higher pest counts on the basil-companioned plants. Treat this pairing as unproven, not as a working pest deterrent.
- Onion: Reputed to deter many common pepper pests, though this specific pairing hasn't been tested the way onion/carrot pest-masking has. Treat it as garden tradition.
Full companion guide, including what to keep away from rocoto pepper →
Where to buy rocoto pepper seeds
None of the seed suppliers we list carries rocoto pepper seeds right now. A local garden center or a specialty seed house is the place to look.
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing rocoto pepper" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Rocoto Pepper: A hairy-leaved Andean pepper that tolerates cool weather, grows into a shrub and takes a long season.
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