How do you grow Naga Bhut Jolokia

[imafan26]

Hi
I have a Naga Bhut Jolokia and I have been trying to grow the pepper from seeds. The first pepper had no seeds at all and the seeds from the last three peppers all failed to germinate. I can grow other peppers just fine. Does it require any special treatment, media or preparation that is different from other peppers?

Also anybody grow pepppers from cuttings? That will probably be my next attempt unless I can figure out how to make these seeds grow.

[applestar]

I tried growing pepper cuttings during winter as mentioned in The Winter Pepper Torture thread

It was do-able with bottom heat... Not easy though first failure was mostly my own neglect and when I switched gears and paid more attention, there were survivors. May have done better when warmer/during growing season, but warmer in early spring indoors also meant more aphids on tender new growth and made it difficult.

[imafan26]

I haven't tried peppers from cuttings yet since most of them have not been this difficult from seed. But I had a bit of luck. I was cleaning my bench of mostly weeds and pots that failed to germinate and lo hiding under the parsley was a container marked Bhut Jolokia that has pepper seedlings in them. I am hoping they are Bhut Jolokia since I also reseed pots and I have also planted cayenne, super chili and tabasco. I will have to wait a couple of months to see if they grow up to be Bhut Jolokia, the foliage is very different from my other peppers. have gotten Bhut Jolokia to sprout once out of six attempts, but the seedlings never made it to maturity.

But as insurance, maybe I will try to see if the mother plant will give up some cuttings. Thanks Apple.

[btrowe1]

I grew mine from seed, out of the 10 seeds planted 1 took. I planted outdoors in my garden, as of now the plant is about 18" high, but there are no blossoms as of yet. I will be moving it to a pot and placing indoors for the winter.

I have read on here that sometimes the plants take up to 2 years to blossom. I hope so, I'd really like to eat one of these from my own plant.

[imafan26]

I heard they could be fussy, but I hope they don't take that long to get peppers.

[gumbo2176]

I grew mine from seed, out of the 10 seeds planted 1 took. I planted outdoors in my garden, as of now the plant is about 18" high, but there are no blossoms as of yet. I will be moving it to a pot and placing indoors for the winter.

I have read on here that sometimes the plants take up to 2 years to blossom. I hope so, I'd really like to eat one of these from my own plant.

That may be the case for you in NY. I bought 2 Ghost Pepper plants already started from a local nursery and I planted them last September. By early spring I had several peppers, but they were small. It took till it warmed up a bit to start producing larger and more abundant peppers. So far I've picked at least 100 off the 2 pepper plants I have. Just 2 days ago I picked 10 Ghost Peppers and even more Habanero off the 4 plants I have of that variety.

They do take longer to start producing peppers than your typical Jalapeno or Cayenne type plants.

I edited this to say my plants are in the ground year round since we have had very mild winters the past few years. I would think bringing them indoors will hold them back a bit from producing like they normally would.

[lukeout007]

I've been wanting to try growing these but it seems like they are extremely touchy. We're probably going to be moving to a warmer (year round) climate in the next couple of years so I may wait until then.

[imafan26]

The plant I have is over three feet tall and spreading, but it has much lighter and sparser leaves than my other peppers. I does produce decent sized fruits about 3 inches long. I knew they were hot, but I made the mistake of handling them without gloves and my hands were still burning two hours later. I repotted them earlier this year, but I probably should up pot them again.

[gumbo2176]

[quote="imafan26"] I knew they were hot, but I made the mistake of handling them without gloves and my hands were still burning two hours later.(quote)


I used a small chopping board to mince several ghost peppers and about 10 habanero peppers when I made pepper jelly a few weeks ago. I did wear latex gloves to do this since I minced them pretty fine. I washed the board when I finished and put it on the drain board to dry. My wife came home later that day and used the small chopping board to cut some blocks of cheese into chunks to eat with crackers as a snack. She commented on how the cheese had a distinct zing to it and I told her it was likely from my cutting the peppers on the board. Now I have a designated chopping board for cutting these extremely hot peppers.

Added disclaimer. I do know how to wash dishes and get them clean. These peppers are just that brutal as the capsasin penetrated the board while chopping them up so finely.

[imafan26]

I gotta remember to wrap my cutting board in plastic or use a dedicated cutting sheet. I'd hate to get a surprise. Right now, I only give the peppers to my chili head friends, all I want are the seeds to grow more. I was planning to use it more for bug spray than for eating, I don't eat really hot food, just a little spice is enough.

[manny]

When I grew them last year (fairly successfully) I just found they do better with more hear/humidity.

[gumbo2176]

When I grew them last year (fairly successfully) I just found they do better with more hear/humidity.

My peppers have done much better as the heat and humidity have risen this summer. I picked 15 more Ghost Peppers today and gave them to a friend of mine that owns a restaurant based out of a local Irish Pub. He told me he seeds them and slices them very thin to add to some of his dishes that require a bit of heat to pull them off. He now know a little goes a long way with these peppers.

He asked me how I eat them and I told him I ate 2 ghost peppers, 1 habanero and 3 cayenne peppers I pickled a few weeks ago diced and mixed in a salad for lunch. He cringed at the thought. I explained that the heat does dissipate a bit when pickled and I'd likely not try that with fresh peppers off the bushes.

[gunsmokex]

Hmm after reading this post a few things make sense to me now.

I bought a ghost pepper along with several other different peppers already started from a nursery. The ghost pepper is doing the worst out of all of them, its tiny and I can barely see little buds where I think the flower might think about forming. I'm thinking that the ghost doesn't like the partial shade in between my corn and tomatoes like my anaheim and fooled you peppers do. Not sure, its my first year but I think in the fall I'll be taking a few of them inside with me. My soil is good I had it tested. I'm thinking its just the fact there hasn't been much for sun or real hot days here, sounds like ghost peppers are very finicky.

My tabasco pepper is doing well, I'm thinking are they closely related its in full fun and is getting some nice little peppers on it now.

[btrowe1]

Went out to check the plants today and I have ghost peepers growing.. Took all year, cute wrinkled fruits have about 20 coming on and tons of little flowers, Not sure if all will mature as we"re right around the corner of cool weather so I'll need to watch close.
I'm going to be bringing in soon, boy this plant/bush really got big about 2 1/2' tall.. took a bit though.

The habs and chyenne's are all doing fine turning bright orange and red..

gonna be making some nice pickled peppers and jam this year.. Oh boy can"t wait..

[gumbo2176]

Went out to check the plants today and I have ghost peepers growing.. Took all year, cute wrinkled fruits have about 20 coming on and tons of little flowers, Not sure if all will mature as we"re right around the corner of cool weather so I'll need to watch close.
I'm going to be bringing in soon, boy this plant/bush really got big about 2 1/2' tall.. took a bit though.

The habs and chyenne's are all doing fine turning bright orange and red..

gonna be making some nice pickled peppers and jam this year.. Oh boy can"t wait..

Keep an eye on them. The ghost peppers turn red at the top first and the color progresses to the entire pepper. I harvest mine when all red for max heat. I have harvested them half red/half green for pepper jelly and that works out well as the heat is not as intense.

My plants are 3 ft. tall and probably close to 4 ft. in diameter. My habs are larger and I have 2 varieties, one that stays light green and another that gets orange when ready. I pickle them, make jelly with them, use them to cook with, make salsas and sometimes eat them raw when the urge hits me.


I have a good recipe for pepper jelly if you need one. Just PM me and I'll get it off to you.

[imafan26]

Success! I finally have seedlings. I think the heat did help because the cayennes and anaheims came up faster than usual too. The Bhut Jolokia don't produce a lot considering the number of seeds I planted. But at least they sprouted. Thanks for all the advice.