How to Increase Yield for Ghost Peppers & Trinidad Scorpion

[Lonesomedave]

well, I told myself I was not going to do it this year, but I broke down

I was at the local plant place and they did not have any Thai pepper seedlings this year, but had some ghost pepper (bhut jolokia) and some trinidad scorpian seedlings (actually, baby plants is more apt...they were pretty good sized)....for those not familiar with these two, they are claimed to be among the hottest peppers on earth, even eclipsing the dreaded Habenero

I had grown both last year and while they did well, the yield was rather disappointing

talked to the guy and he recommended getting 2 of each...something about better pollination yielding better results, so I went with 2 of each

came home, planted them in a smallish container, but one that I successfully used for hot peppers last year...4 plants may be a little crowded, but it will be alright

my question is...does anyone have any thoughts about how to increase the yield in these two kinds of pepper?

[rainbowgardener]

To start with, if you want good yields, get them out of the one pot. They will compete with each other for nutrients, water, light, etc and all of them will be stunted and less productive than they could be. Give each plant its own pot, at least one gallon size, better 2 gallon.

Once they get well started, do not give them high nitrogen fertilizer. If you do, you will just get big leafy plants, but few peppers. Give them compost or something like Tomato Tone which is high in the P-K end. People say it improves eventual production to pinch off the first flowers that appear, for a couple weeks, to give the plant better chance to get established.

After that it is all about choices. Peppers are hotter when they are more mature, so if you want the hottest pepper, you would leave it on the plant until it is red ripe. But if you do that, it slows the plant down from setting more fruit. Peppers are hotter when they are grown lean and a little bit stressed - minimum water it can get by on and no fertilizer. But growing it stressed like that also cuts down the yield.

[feldon30]

I give at least 3 gallons for a pepper plant, or put 4 plants in a 15-17 gallon pot. You will remember the enjoyment of eating the peppers long after you forget the price you paid for a larger pot and peat- or coir-based potting mix. Also the pots can be used for many years. I got cheap pink/terracotta pots and spraypainted them a deep blue color. They look great.

Also, rather than side-dressing fertilizer every week, I calculate up roughly how much the plant will need over 3 months and thoroughly mix that quantity (it's over 1 cup) into the entire soil in the pot. I make sure to apply a good fertilizer for fruit. Something with a low-N number like 4-7-10, 3-5-6, 4-8-6, etc. And don't forget the dolomitic lime to stop BER.





P.S. Varieties above are Golden Marconi and Jimmy Nardello. Both sweet Italian frying types.

[Voices30]

Nice job, I don't even like peppers, but those look GREAT! I'm doing some bell pepper this year. This is the first time I have grown them in 30 years of gardening. I keep hearing the low nitrogen levels and I'm going to have to make a note of it because I am a nitrogen nut. I guess it comes from all the citrus I have done. Citrus is different and requires high levels of nitrogen to set fruit and I have to break my nitrogen enriched ways! I think it will be fun. I'm like a little kid in a toy store with plants.

[imafan26]

I agree, with the others. Peppers would rather be in the ground, but they need pretty big pots. The Trinidad scorpion is a big pepper tree and I have made the mistake of under potting it. It probably should be in a 4 or 7 gallon pot. It yields pretty good although it and the ghost pepper both need it to warm up before they really get going.

Bhut Jolokia germinated poorly, I had to put down a lot of seed and it had to be hot to germinate well. Make sure it is like in the 80's if you want really good germination. It is a smaller plant than Trinidad Scorpion, but both of them were relatively heavy feeders compared to my other peppers.

These were the former world's hottest pepper and have now been surpassed slightly by the Carolina Reaper, but I would not even attempt to eat these myself. I don't even eat the habaneros. Habanero is way to hot for me and my chili head friend who eats frozen Jalapenos for a snack says they taste like gasoline.

I use a starter fertilizer with peppers and side dress monthly. Once in a while I give it miracle grow or fish emulsion. The trinidad scorpion and Bhut Jolokia have funny looking leaves, they are not like normal peppers.

[feldon30]

Oh yeah it seems the hotter the pepper, the worse the germination. The super-hots seem to require 10 weeks or more from sowing to transplant, and that's WITH a heat mat.

As for peppers in the ground vs. pots, I don't know. I've had much better results in pots. I think it's the acidity and looseness of the peat moss that they like. I guess if you think of a pepper as a tropical plant, they would like that loose soil rather than clay.

[Lonesomedave]

thanks all.....I am growing all 4 in about a 4 gallon container

I did this last year, and the peppers grew real good.....I have about allotted my containers for this year, and my wife would not be happy if I were to get another BIG container....you know what they say...."if momma aint happy, aint NOBODY happy"

while undoubtedly your suggestions for a bigger container make sense, like I said about my asparagus, I am stuck with what I have got

as far as the heat, based on my one year of experience ( ), I would say the heat is sufficient....I just used less of them in anything that we used hot peppers for....the heat was more than sufficient

I have never started them from seed...bought baby plants at the local plant store...they did seem to grow rather slow, but grow they did....I guess I am stuck with a rather small yield per plant....but I will get by

[gumbo2176]

I grew Ghost and Habanero's last year along with cayenne, jalapeno, Belgian Hot Wax, and a few varieties of sweet peppers. It took much longer for the Ghost and Habs to start producing as opposed to the others, but when they started, they went nuts.

Our past winter was much colder than the previous 3 winters were and I lost all my pepper plants when the temperature got in the 20's several times this year. So, it's time to start over with my peppers and I have all of the above with the exception of the Ghost peppers. I saved some seeds but for some reason they are not in my normal seed storage area, so I may need to find some already started if I can find a nursery that carries them.

[Lonesomedave]

.... I saved some seeds but for some reason they are not in my normal seed storage area, so I may need to find some already started if I can find a nursery that carries them.

if not, try ebay....I have never bought any from them, but I checked last year and they had a lot




ps-edit- just for the heck of it, I went on ebay....yes, you can buy live plants of these as well as others...some, such as Carolina Reaper, seem so hot as to make me afraid...I am contemplating getting some Jay's Ghost Scorpion....don't know, seems too hot...

[gixxerific]

What momma don't know can't hurt her. What about sneaking them into a flower bed somewhere? I always have this and that hidden in my landscaping. Even had a few peppers amongst my canna's last year in most shade that did amazingly well.

[Lonesomedave]

What momma don't know can't hurt her. What about sneaking them into a flower bed somewhere? I always have this and that hidden in my landscaping. Even had a few peppers amongst my canna's last year in most shade that did amazingly well.

when you're right...you're right!

ordered some from ebay after I read your post....I know I told myself it was all gonna be containers this year, but I succumbed to the lure

gonna make a big pile of my topsoil in a bed we have in the front and grow them


this is absolutely all, momma...I promise...

[imafan26]

I got good yields from the ghost pepper and the Trinidad Scorpion. They took longer to start producing, but they are popping up all over now (Trinidad Scorpion). The Bhut Jolokia I have to start again. I only got 6 plants the first time around and I gave most of them away and the one I kept died.

[rainbowgardener]

hot peppers would be the last thing I would be tempted to plant more of, because what can you really do with 200 super hot peppers? Now if we were talking herbs or flowers ...

[Lonesomedave]

hot peppers would be the last thing I would be tempted to plant more of, because what can you really do with 200 super hot peppers? Now if we were talking herbs or flowers ...

ya don't plant more because you want more peppers...(although I will be making some hot sauce this year for the first time)...

you plant more because you want to try interesting new varieties...and Jay's ghost scorpion were just too interesting to pass up

[imafan26]

Actually, I have a lot of different varieties of peppers and I have a few friends who must have burn't out their taste buds a long time ago and I give them bags of peppers. Mostly they want the tabasco to make chili pepper water and chili pepper sauce, cayennes for making kim chee, cayennes, thai, thai dragon, and most of the hot and fiery peppers get dried for use later. We used the tabasco and hungarian wax in soups and stews. My husband made a mistake once and put in 3 habarneros instead of 3 hungarian wax and even he could not eat it.

The only caveat I have when I give anyone peppers is that I tell them, I pick them but I don't wash or clean them. They have to do that themselves.

I would rather have serranos instead of jalapenos for salsa, but I will use tabasco too. It is used for poke and ogo too.

There is a Guamanian hot sauce called fenadine. It is made a quart at a time and served on steaks, chicken, fish, just about anything. It is usually only mildly hot unless you actually bite into a pepper.

I keep the milder ones, banana, cal wonder, yellow bells and anaheim for stir fries and the anaheim is good for chile rellenos or stuffing.

I do know some people who actually do eat the ghost and trinidad scorpion but I think they are crazy.

The birds will cap all of the Hawaiian tabasco plants if it isn't covered.

[gumbo2176]

I got good yields from the ghost pepper and the Trinidad Scorpion. They took longer to start producing, but they are popping up all over now (Trinidad Scorpion). The Bhut Jolokia I have to start again. I only got 6 plants the first time around and I gave most of them away and the one I kept died.

I had 2 Ghost Pepper plants in my garden last spring that overwintered in the fall of 2012 and when they started producing, they put out tons of peppers each. If you plant 6, you should be lousy with them when they start maturing. Hope you have a lot of friends that like super hot peppers.

I now have a couple gallons worth of extreme hot sauce, several quarts of pepper jelly and too many jars to count in pickled hot peppers. Then there's the dehydrated peppers ground up for dried pepper flakes. I can't even begin to think about how many Ghost and Habanero peppers I gave away to people when I simply got tired of fooling with them.

[valley]

I planted several 6packs of peppers some as far back as 5/23 nothing yet. Peppers I planted earlier are up and bearing, but no sigh of the latest planted.

Yesterday we were up to the mountains but I forgot to bring back the heat pad.

Richard