Did you know there is a hot pepper plant that tolerates partial shade? It's true! The Manzano Pepper is native to the Andean mountain slopes of South America, where it thrives at temperatures between 40˚- 60˚ Fahrenheit!
So that means, if you live in a climate where the summers get hot, you can grow this pepper in partial shade! While it does prefer temperatures around 60˚ if you keep it in partial shade it will survive higher temperatures. Keep in mind, like all pepper plants, the Manzano Pepper does NOT tolerate any frost, so it must be kept in temperatures above 40˚.
The Manzano Pepper is also know as the Apple Chile or the Orange Rocoto pepper and is one of the oldest domesticated chiles. This apple-shaped chile is a very hot pepper, with a Heat Level of a very, very hot Scoville rating of 30,000 – compare that to a Jalapeño pepper which has only 3500-4000 Scoville units. So this pepper makes great salsas! It also has great flavor, in addition to spice, it has a sweet and citrusy taste.
The brilliant orange Manzano Pepper is a long lived pepper plant, and can be kept growing and producing for over 15 years if kept protected from frost. A lot of growers keep these plants indoors over the winter months to bring them out again each summer. The plant has robust vines that can be trellised like a grape vine and can grow to 10' high if you have the room! They also have black seeds, a rarity in the pepper world, so that's pretty cool.
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These shade tolerant peppers are easy to grow!
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