JLudin
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Bhut jolokia success! (zone 5)

So I was a little hesitant to pull the trigger on my ghost chili seeds this year, but finally caved in and decided to give them a try. I read countless articles and blogger entries on the best way to get them going properly and to sustain their health in different zones. One thing stayed consistent; the ghost chili takes 35-50 days just to germinate. I thought I should probably start my seeds NOW in case they did take that long. Furthermore, I also decided to start all of my hot peppers with longer germination times in the same tray since I was going to be using a heat mat. In the 72 cell starter tray, I have the bhut jolokia, cajun tabasco, yellow datil, red savina habanero, Thai dragon, and Trinidad scorpion (current hottest pepper in the world).

So I sowed, covered, put on the heat mat and left it alone for a couple days. On Christmas night, my wife went into labor (our 1st!) and gave birth to my beautiful boy on the 26th. On the 28th we arrived home. I thought I would check on them just for the heck of it, and to my surprise, I had about 40 seedlings in my tray!! I planted 35 bhut jolokia and 28 of them have germinated so far.

The 35-50 days they say it takes to germinate is definitely not true!! I suppose I should also add that I soaked all my seeds 24 hours before sowing too, but it took my only 8 days to get them all going! Just thought I'd share!!

[img]https://i43.tinypic.com/s2zhpy.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i42.tinypic.com/351d3jb.jpg[/img][/img]

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gixxerific
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Thanks that is good info there.

I alwyas hear the same thing, they take forever to get going and you are lucky to get them going at all. So nice to hear that it "can " be easy. Maybe too easy hope they keep till planting time.

good luck

JLudin
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Location: East Moline, IL

That is a concern of mine too, KEEPING them healthy. I know they require long, hot, and dry conditions so water will definitely have to be regulated. I plan on putting them in well drained pots to prevent over-watering during the wet spring. Well, that and I don't want them to cross pollinate with any of my other garden crops! I plan on making my own baby food too so that would be bad!

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OROZCONLECHE
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Congrats on Your 1st, I'm also Germinating Bhuts and Many other seeds, the Bhut is my first priority but is the last one I planted about 3 days ago, I'm trying to give it the most of heat, like switching from window to window to give it sunshine all day, besides warm water, also I hope they grow to be strong plants I would like it if you keep us updated on how it goes and tips to use one my plant.

t92k
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JLudin wrote:Well, that and I don't want them to cross pollinate with any of my other garden crops! I plan on making my own baby food too so that would be bad!
Don't worry. There is no way a hot pepper could cross with anything else in your garden other than another pepper plant. Even if the Bhut did manage to cross with a bell pepper you had growing, you would not see any effects of the cross in this years crop of the bell.

Edit: forgot to add nice looking seedlings! I just started my C. Chinense. First time I'm trying them. I started a couple seeds each of Bhut Jalokia, Scotch Bonnet Yellow, Habanero Red, and Jamaican Hot Chocolate.

Patrick Choo
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JLudin wrote:So I was a little hesitant to pull the trigger on my ghost chili seeds this year, but finally caved in and decided to give them a try. I read countless articles and blogger entries on the best way to get them going properly and to sustain their health in different zones. One thing stayed consistent; the ghost chili takes 35-50 days just to germinate. I thought I should probably start my seeds NOW in case they did take that long. Furthermore, I also decided to start all of my hot peppers with longer germination times in the same tray since I was going to be using a heat mat. In the 72 cell starter tray, I have the bhut jolokia, cajun tabasco, yellow datil, red savina habanero, Thai dragon, and Trinidad scorpion (current hottest pepper in the world).

So I sowed, covered, put on the heat mat and left it alone for a couple days. On Christmas night, my wife went into labor (our 1st!) and gave birth to my beautiful boy on the 26th. On the 28th we arrived home. I thought I would check on them just for the heck of it, and to my surprise, I had about 40 seedlings in my tray!! I planted 35 bhut jolokia and 28 of them have germinated so far.

The 35-50 days they say it takes to germinate is definitely not true!! I suppose I should also add that I soaked all my seeds 24 hours before sowing too, but it took my only 8 days to get them all going! Just thought I'd share!!

[img]https://i43.tinypic.com/s2zhpy.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i42.tinypic.com/351d3jb.jpg[/img][/img]
Hi ,I like to tried planting these chilli but I cant find any of these in my region

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ThePepperSeed
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Nice sprouts :-) It's been about a month, how are they doing? Hopefully the weather in IL cooperates this year!

JLudin
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Whoops! Sorry just now read this. They are doing great! They pretty much stopped growing in height after I removed them from the heat pad, but their stems are getting pretty fat now. I have shop lights hanging about 2" above them and they are taking the up-potting pretty darn well. I had a few of them get a little sickly on me, but gave them a touch of water and they sprung back to life. I have a feeling it's going to be tricky keeping these things in top shape after our wet spring arrives. I can already tell they don't like to drink very much.

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OROZCONLECHE
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Any Pictures?

FG Ryan
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Most seed starting info is nonsense. It's so variable that you can't count on those numbers. I had a ghost pepper break soil in 12 hours this year, for example. Granted I've planted over 900 pepper plants this year alone and haven't seen that happen any other time, but it can. Superhot pepper seed germination is directly influenced by heat, but it isn't even close to an exact science.

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OROZCONLECHE
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Mmmm This Post Made me want to Throw more Seeds to germinate, I'm having trouble germinating Morugas and Ghost Peppers

wiscopeppers
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I had varying experiences with ghost peppers this year. In one planting I had germination begin between 6 and 30 days in a 72 cell greenhouse tray with bottom heat. Temps stayed about 90 degrees. In that set up I got around 40% germination. A few weeks later I started more in a little bottom watering propagation unit, it was on a heating pad, but the temperatures fluctuated greatly, 65-85 degrees depending on how much water was in the unit. This setup saw seeds starting between 10 and 20 days, but in the end I got 100% germination. All seeds from the same stock. It's so difficult following directions for these plants, it seems like in the end they're just going to do whatever they want at all times :)

bobjonsey
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Really good information and congrats on the plants and kid :). Thanks for sharing.

Cardo
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I live in Portugal and do not need to use light or artificial heat to germinate the seeds of Bhutan jolokia. A friend told me to put the seeds in the fridge for a week and then plant them to simulate the spring. A series of plants were born.
The problem is that different plants are germinating and I do not know how the leaves look like from the newborn plants. I'm going to make a weed to tear off the weeds and I don't want to kill the right ones.
They are almost 1 cm. Does any one of you have pictures of them at that age?

Cardo
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By the way, I have two more questions for the Bhut jolokia expert.
1 - It is true that if we recycle the seeds I.e. if we use seeds of the fruits of the previous year, the chillies are getting less spicy with each passing year?
2 - Last year the landlord of my farm planted the Bhutan jolokia near the garden where there were green peppers for the salad. The fruits of bhut jolokia were born very large and had almost no spice at all. Could there have been crosses between bhut lolokia and green peppers?

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rainbowgardener
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Cardo wrote:I live in Portugal and do not need to use light or artificial heat to germinate the seeds of Bhutan jolokia. A friend told me to put the seeds in the fridge for a week and then plant them to simulate the spring. A series of plants were born.
The problem is that different plants are germinating and I do not know how the leaves look like from the newborn plants. I'm going to make a weed to tear off the weeds and I don't want to kill the right ones.
They are almost 1 cm. Does any one of you have pictures of them at that age?
You posted this in a thread that has pictures of hot pepper seedlings at about that age.... Just look at the top of page 1.

imafan26
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Bhut jolokia can vary because it is a relatively new hybrid. It can be unstable. It takes about 10 generations to get a stable hybrid. Don't save any seeds from pods that were not hot. Peppers do cross, but it isn't always the case. If you are growing anything for seed, they should be isolated or hand pollinated then covered.



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