I grow a few manzanos and rocotos from time to time and when I've had the problem you are talking about with leaves dying off it was from too compact of a soil mix.
The roots can't breath and the pots seem to either be too wet or too dry all the time.

I use a mix of about 3-5 parts orchid bark , 1-3 parts Peat and 1 part perlite.
I sometimes add some composted forst product(soil amendment)as part of the peat.
It works better than any store baught mix I've used so far.

cap 363 - 2in.starter pot

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White Manzano in hydro grown under LEDs

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2 weeks ago

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Yellow 3 yr. old Manzano in 15 gal. pot

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Ecuador Pubescens from Peppermania seed

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Nothing wrong with your pods shape.

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Thanks so much smokemaster I feel a lot more comfortable with my pods now.

Oh ya smokemaster I did use a similar potting mix as you suggested I used 5 parts pine bark to 2 parts potting mix and 1 part perlite. Do you think maybe my water schedule is just not consistent enough? I water my other pepper plants when I see them start to wilt which is about once every week and a half to 2 weeks in the summer, but I never have seen my rocoto plants wilt so I usually just water them every other time I water the other plants which would be about once a month. They are in much much larger pots than my other plants also 30 gallon compared to about 5 gallon for the other plants. Let me know what suggestions you might have, thanks again for your help also

John

They like lots of root space.
No such thing as too big of a pot.
The 3 yr. old yellows are in 15 or 20 gal. pots and are starting to act like they want bigger pots this year.

Manzanos/Rocotos can get 30 ft. long in the ground.
I don't trim mine at all until the second year.
They like water but need good drainage-thats why I use the mix I do.
I water mine every 3 or 4 days.I don't know what your weather is like so I have no idea as to your plants water needs.
Mine get anywhere from pure southern exposure to morning or afternoon sun.
It seems the bigger the pot the less hassles I get with the plants.
I also use a 1/10th or so mix of Fish emultion and seaweed extract every time I water and I think thats better than ferts full strength a couple times a season.
You need the extra nitrogen when using soil mixes with bark in them.As the bark breaks down it stores up nitrogen.

I also give my plants Calcium (Foli Cal)every once in a while.They usually start budding soon after I water with Foli Cal.

Pics of my seed stock pods

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I have different kind of situation with my manzanos. They have much darker green fuzzy leaves
and the younger leaves curl. I have them in the ground, not in pots. They are the slowest so far in terms of flowerin, nothing yet. And the rabbits like to eat their leaves.
It seems to me that the ones getting less sun are doing bettr.

I am trying to grow them on the ground. I found out they don't self pollinate, so I have them in two groups, but one alone from last year. The only loner flowered. I tried flickering the flowers, but nothing (no fruit). Same as last year.

I wonder if I should prune the one that flowered, to give it another chance to flower again. If the other plants ever flower, I can go around q-tip cross pollinating.

This is our third year trying to grow manzanos. We grow most of our fruit and vegetables and lots of other peppers with no issues. We are determined to get fruit, but must be doing something wrong.

Smokemaster, if you are looking for a place to unload some pods, I can use them. This was my first year trying to grow them. I crowded them too much and did not get any pods, but am in the market for some. Let me know if you have extras you want to sell and how much per pound.