Bhut Jolokia - My Diary

[Matt_B]

After plenty of searches on the web I didn't find that much info about growing these chilli's in the UK, so thought i'd log my progress here for anyone interested in growing Bhut's

To be honest i'm not even sure why i'm trying to grow them as they sound one of the hardest to grow and inedible! But being one of the hottest chilli's in the world and knowing a couple of people who i'd get a lot of pleasure watching them eat one I thought i'd give them a go.

I bought a pack of 10 seeds online in the beginning of april, which from the little info I found online was a bit late in the year to start growing as it seems a good time to start is as early as january

I germinated in damp kitchen towel which was placed in a plastic bag, tied and placed in my boiler cupboard, within a week 5 had sprouted and was planted in pots, I did leave the others for a further week but with no joy

Out of the 5 planted I ended up with 3...

Picture taken 22/04/2010



... there was still frosts in the mornings so kept them inside near my rear patio doors at night then taking them out to the greenhouse in the afternoons

Unfortunatly whilst the 3 bhuts was doing well, one evening my dog decided to cock his leg up one of the chilli's when they was inside and killed the biggest out of the 3 so 2 left

the chilli's are now in the greenhouse full time and either fed or watered every other week, going by the other types of easy grow, the bhuts are way behind and do not use as much water


15/06/2010



These are the latest pictures taken on the 13/07/2010...





Quite a big bigger and starting to flower, In the hot weather I was watering once a day and now they are flowering I feed twice a week

I'm up to date now so will post any progress as it happens for anyone interested?

Matt

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Matt, your plants certainly look really good and healthy! I'm sure that Paul (Stupo) is also growing the same variety of chilli - you will be able to compare notes!!

[stupo74]

Hi Matt,
The "Boss Lady" is correct, i am indeed growing "Bhut Jolokia" or Ghost Chillies as they are also known.
I have a plant that is in flower, however, a lot of the flowers fall without forming fruit.
I started mine off very early, with the aid of a small artificial light to keep them going until i could get them outside.
Getting your seeds to germinate in a week is very good, some of mine have taken 3 times as long, even with the aid of a propagator.
Below is a pic of the Bhut, taken a couple of weeks ago, i do now have some small fruits, and hopefully they will ripen before the season ends..



As said in some of my previous posts, these "Superhot" chillies can take upto 120 days to set fruit and ripen, so they must be started early if you want or hope to collect fruit.
You say in your post, that they are behind your other plants, so can i ask what other varieties you have on the go???
Another way to ensure you get a decent start, is to try the "overwintering" method, where if you are sucessful, the plant will come back to life in the spring, with all the hard work already done (germination, good root system etc) however not the easiest of tasks.
My other plants are a Naga, and some of the "windowsill" varieties, prairie fire, numex twilight and a couple of small Thai 1's.
Good luck with your plants, i look forward to viewing your progress along the way.
Ps, there is a link here that might help you with the winter option
Overwintering Chillie Plants | The Chilli King
Hope the above info helps,,,, cheers stupo (paul)

[mikeyboy]

10/10 for persistence!

I will keep looking in on your updates as I want to start growing chillis next year!

Just need a greenhouse and know how!

[stupo74]

Hi Mikeyboy,
You will have plenty of time to collect all the info required, over the next few months, so you will have the knowledge for a great start to the next season.
However, a greenhouse is not a must, as you can grow indoors on a windowsil, with some of the varieties mentioned above.

As i like to experiment alot, i will be germinating some more seeds at the end of next month, to try and get a couple of plants to a stage that i think they will make it through the winter.
Like said in previous posts, if you can get a good "Headstart", the better the chances of collecting some decent pods next season.

A good thread started here by Matt B, so keep your eyes peeled for the updates.
cheers stupo.

[Matt_B]

Thanks for the reply Paul ( hoping you would)

It will be very interesting to see how we both get on, the first thing i've noticed is the difference in the leaves in our pictures

My seeds was purchased from suttons, but since I bought them they do not seem to sell them anymore, or maybe a seasonal thing they sell?

Heres a pic of their instructions that may interest you, even though I didn't really follow them...



I think we have 2 types of chilli growing, one being a jalapeno and the other? i'll have to get back to you with a name when my better half gets home from work, we also have a few peppers growing, with one of the peppers next to my BJ's, and the obvious tomato plants

Once I realised I was late starting to grow, I did stumble across something that said chilli's was a perennial which I didn't know, so your link about overwintering is very interesting

Your plant looks super healthy, how often do you water/feed? and what type of soil did you use?

Once again, thanks paul, this could be interesting

Matt

[stupo74]

Hi Matt,

Those instructions look to me if they have been printed with the general info required for numerous varieties, and the name added, whatever it maybe at the time.

I am not saying that they are wrong, however, the success rate of people who plant there seeds at the end of there said period (april) would i think struggle to attain plants that would bear decent fruit, fully ripened, by the end of our growing season.

My seeds are germinated in "Root Riot" cubes that can be just transplanted when needed, without disturbing the root system. (i will posts some pics later).
As for watering/feeding:
I start very early in the plants life, with a very weak solution of "High Phosphate" , which helps form a good root system.

As a general rule of thumb, the water is kept to an absolute minimum with my plants, i only water when i see the compost drying out.

I start to "Feed" the plants (weak solution again with high "potassium" content) when the plants start to flower, increasing the strength, as the fruits develop.

Today, i have taken a "Naga" fruit off 1 of my plants, as it is nicking all the food from the flowers and developing fruits surrounding it (Pic posted soon when "Boss lady" gets back to me about problem i have uploading snaps)

Hope some of the info is some use to you, not expert, but my own way i have found through my experiments with these plants,
cheers paul.

[Matt_B]

Root riot sound familiar, the fertilizer i'm using is from growth technology

When I repotted the plants from the first pots to the second, I put broken pieces of terracotta in the bottom, then when I repotted again from the second to the final pots the root mass was amazing, there was no way of removing the terracotta so I just left it in the root ball, hopefully with no ill effect?

Any info is a blessing, and to see some pictures would be good, maybe upload to somewhere like photobucket and post the .img tags would be easier?

Good luck, and I hope some day I can be as helpful to yourself

Matt

[stupo74]

Hi Matt,
In your pics, the two small plants, are they the same plants a"Month" later on, in the 2nd snap??? you must have the touch of a wizard or its good stuff,, that feed you have, they have plenty of "Veg" to them.

Will put some pics up asap, but have to go to kip soon, got a couple of jobs to do tonight, they have to be done "out of hours".

Like said before, "Great Thread", we might even convert some more members to give these plants a go, till later then,,,,,,,, cheers paul (stupo)

[Matt_B]

Originally Posted by stupo74

Hi Matt,
In your pics, the two small plants, are they the same plants a"Month" later on, in the 2nd snap??? you must have the touch of a wizard or its good stuff,, that feed you have, they have plenty of "Veg" to them.

Yep, the 2 that I ended up with are the 2 smallest from the first picture, the bigger one was the one my dog destroyed ( which showed more promise )

Touch of wizard?? I normally break things Maybe I have been lucky with the hot spell we had in Essex for a good month? just hope this bad spell we are having now doesn't spoil things and the summer continues

Matt

Just to add it's chilli focus that i'm using

[Matt_B]

[Reweed]

Good read this thread.

I have 2 chost chilli plants, and 2 "Fatalli" plants which apparently as just as insane. Both about 2 foot high now. This warm weatehr we've had has made them shoot up. On each branch out bit (none technical term) there are at least 5 or 6 flower buds forming.

I've just harvested about 18 chilli's off my "Ring of fire" plant. Fastest growing plant i've ever seen. apart from maybe bamboo.

[stupo74]

Hi Matt,
You must be "Rich" i could not afford that stuff, i have to make do with the cheap feeds, however, they seem to do the job.
These are the 2 main 1's i use,,,,,

Firstly the root builder, high "Phosphate" content,



This 1 is my high content "Potassium" feed, which helps the flowers & fruit



These pics are in my user CP, so already on the forum here somewhere else. However, i still cannot upload any new pics yet, the "Boss Lady" is on the case though, so should not be long.
cheers paul.

[stupo74]

Hey Reweed,
Glad you could join us on this thread.
I have tried "Fatalli" myself before, but alas the seeds must have been duff, as i did not get 1 to germinate

As for the "Ring of Fire", i did get some seeds, but have not used them yet, but now i know they shoot up, they will be in for next time, in fact i will start some now, to test germination rates etc etc.

The Bhut's & Fatalli are almost identical in strength according to the "Scotsville Scale", I believe, they both reach a Million + units,but do not quote me on this,,,,,

Very Hot indeed, but i just love them, even though after eating, 1 does suffer slightly in the "Toilet Department" and sometimes have to resort to the "Running Cold Tap" treatment,,,, but i think enough said about that.

Look forward to your input on this thread, we can all help each other out now,
cheers stupo (paul)

[Reweed]

I'll posdt some pics later. I recommend ROF they are my go to chilli for heat+speed of growth. I got my seeds frommfrom chilli-seeds.co.uk i think when i ordered some others.

I'll be saving seeds this yeat though. I had 90% of seeds germinate this year. Rockwool worked a treat.

None of my birds eye chilli's germinated. which is a shame.

[mikeyboy]

"Very Hot indeed, but i just love them, even though after eating, 1 does suffer slightly in the "Toilet Department" and sometimes have to resort to the "Running Cold Tap" treatment,,,, but i think enough said about that."

Learn to do hand-stands in the shower, meh!


This is a bonza thread...I'm really getting revved about growing chillis!

Going to ask on Freecycle to see if anyone has an electric propagator until closer to the time I need it then I'll buy one.

[Reweed]

I just posted some pictures of my ghost chillies.

Ghost Chillies 16th July | Reweed Allotment Blog

[Matt_B]

Originally Posted by Reweed

I just posted some pictures of my ghost chillies.

Ghost Chillies 16th July | Reweed Allotment Blog

Very nice

Also nice to see a flower, I was kinda hoping the flower would be a fire red

Are you going to pollinate manually? or rely on critters to do it?

Matt

[Matt_B]

Originally Posted by stupo74

Hi Matt,
You must be "Rich".

Far from it unfortunatly, and to be honest I did think it was a bit expensive

Thanks for showing what you use, it's obviously working well

[Reweed]

I actually let most of my flowers pollunate themsleves. I do get loads of bees flying around when i put them otuside though. I have cross pollunated my RoF seeds with the Bhuts.

Also crossed my RoF + Jals. Mainly as an experiment.

I also hand pollunated the RoF plants i have seperated from the rest as i want to save pure seed for next summer. They have so much pollun it coats the leaves when you shake the plant. Madness, doesn;t do my heyfever any good.