I putzed around with Jolokias last year & got hooked on them. I started a few plants indoors & eventually moved them outdoors during the outdoor grow season. The results were acceptable for a first-time grow, but I’m already anticipating better yields on my future runs.

More information on growing Jolokias can be found at http://www.thehottestpepper.com/how-to-grow-bhut-jolokia-seeds.html and at http://garden.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Bhut_Jolokia_Seeds. Or you can just read this blog & find out how I did it.

This is how it was done…

Bhut Jolokia: Germination & Vegetative Period

01-30-09: a Jolokia seedling thrives. The seeds are really finicky: too much moisture rots them very easily. Yet, once that first radicle appears, it thrives rather nicely.

Bhut Jolokia pepper holds the 2008 Guinness record as the world's hottest pepper, @ an estimate 1,500,000 Scoville heat units. Basically, you'd need 1,500,000 drops of water to neutralize the heat of a single drop of pepper extract. Can't hardly wait for harvest! Grown with organic tea, in coco coir.

This one ended as a donation to my local hydro shop. It proved incredibly proliferous. Its fruit was regarded by all who tried it as the hottest thing they had ever had the misfortune of trying. Some smart growers asked for sample peppers, surely to harvest their seeds as well. Its high productivity & lack of a timely re-vegging program left it aesthetically inappropriate for the shop's showroom & now sits on a table in the warehouse, under some distant fluorescents, a shadow of its former self but refusing to give up.

Bhut Jolokia: Preflowering

Bhut Jolokia in the foreground.

Bhut jolokia setting fruit. After the initial fruit drop that some Capsicum Chinensis exhibit, the jolokias are beginning to adapt. A tiny pepper has already set; this can only mean one thing: from now on, there will never be enough witch hazel at home.

Bhut Jolokia: Flowering, Fruit Set & Ripening

First (and only) pepper to set. Climactic conditions in my grow room were quite chaotic back then.

Look at that thing swelling up! Notice the Chile Piquin bush in the background, laden with set fruit.

The pepper begins to take its characteristic horn shape.

First signs of ripening.

Red, gold & green. Irie.

Hmmm... not bad, 45 days from set to ripe. The trick is to get them to flower AND set fruit. Its next bloom ought to bear more peppers.

MOTHERF***ER! Uh, sorry. I just tasted Bhut Jolokia for the first time. It was hotter than anything I’ve ever tasted (except perhaps Chinese mustard). It was great! A true rush. Problem was, that I tried washing it off my hands with olive oil & then soap; it didn’t come off. It got onto my right temple, my right brow &, eventually, down into my right eye. That was NOT fun @ all. As a matter of fact, it was freakin’ infuriating! The heat felt like my face had been scraped by a cheese grater soaked in lemon juice. That bad. Those were the longest 15 minutes of my life! Oh, it also got under my right thumbnail. Two hours later, it still feels like someone pulled my nailbed with a pair of pliers. This devil only yielded 5 seeds; they will be preserved for sowing.

…so I did what any sensible person would do: I pickled it! I added some ají caballeros, some chile piquines, cut the jolokia up into 4 long slices & voila! Up it goes on to my pickled peppers collection.

Bhut Jolokia: Outdoors

The Bhut Jolokia plant has been moved outdoors to make more room indoors for more seedlings & young plants. It has been trimmed down as far as safely possible.

There. Nice & ripe. A third green Jolokia was also harvested; it ripened in 3 days.

Three pickled Jolokias & some caballeros & jalapenos. This one was sent to my good friend Clay.

Four Bhut jolokia peppers setting.

...& then there were seven ! Five more have set on another branch & new flowers bloom daily.

Six Bhut jolokias from my outdoor plant. There was a 7th pepper on this branch but a neighborhood kitten knocked it down while pouncing at it. We had cat curry for dinner, later on that evening, hee hee heeeee!!!

Grown in coconut coir & perlite, these Jolokias are fed a tandem regimen of General Hydroponics’ Maxi Series base nutrients (+ Floralicious Plus), Alaska Fish Emulsion, Indonesian bat guano (& other guanos & molasses in an actively-aerated microbial tea solution), & foliar feedings at dusk, using Spray-N-Grow & Bill’s Perfect Fertilizer. Absofreakinglute pest control achieved using a mixture of neem & coriander oils. Extra chi (for increased resistance to extremes in temperature & strengthening of the plant’s cell walls) achieved by the regular addition of PyroSol pyrophyllitic clay to the nutrient solution, high in silicates & micronutrients. The microbes in the guano tea & fish emulsion take care of breaking down whatever salt residues are left behind, thus making them more easily-assimilated by the root zone. In the end, all hydroponic salts are used up, leaving little-to-no root zone exudates. The result? Well, some of the finest peppers I’ve ever grown!

A fusion reactor was used to enable photosynthesis & climate control (the sun!).

Four more Jolokias.

...& just when things were looking good, disaster strikes. Some wicked gusts of wind knocked a few of these peppers off the plant. I decided to wait a few more days. The winds intensified & more peppers continued to fall. Yet in 3-days' time, all those peppers that had fallen off began to change color from green to orange to red. A few days later, I decided to pickle them.

This is what the flames of hell look like when you slice them in half.

Bhut Jolokia were pickled in 1/2 vinegar, 1/2 water. A pinch of sugar, salt & a few peppercorns were added as well. It sits untouched. So it shall remain.

Bhut Jolokia Peppers in an Ebb & Flow Hydroponic System

Botanicare's Microgarden set up & ready to rock!

Here we’ll grow some aji dulce, purple bellpeppers, dorset nagas & bhut jolokia. That is, until I run out of space; those suckers tend to get big & tall. Under the tank we have some of Botanicare’s top products: the CNS-17 line & Liquid Karma. Substrate is composed of Bitanicare’s silica rocks & Ready-Grow soilless mix (which is coir-based). A weekly neem & coriander oil spray keeps the foliage lookin’ purty!

Flood cycle.

These are the same plants seen on the first picture stamped 08-05-09. The Microgarden ebb & flow system initially housed 8 plants. But they ran out of space in a little over 4 weeks. Five plants were left in; they are quickly running out of space & have entered their preflowering stage. They will soon be transfered to the larger ebb & flow table, under a 400w HPS lamp.

Two young Bhut Jolokia plants now rest on the lid of the Microgarden, after 10 ass-kicking days of root-exploding flood & drain cycles. They nobly yielded their spot in the tray to other younglings. The Jolokias have exhibited rapid, proliferous growth despite being irrigated less often than their in-cycle counterparts.

Aphids on Chile Pepper Plants

Aphids have nested on the leaves of these pepper plants. Neem oil decimated their numbers, but did not eliminate them completely. The one thing that neem oil did do is turn my leaves leathery from all that frequent spraying. It took a few sprays of pyrethrin-based aerosol to kil them all.

Aphids carry many diseases, among them the anthracnose blight virus (characterized by the leaf spotting shown on several leaves of this picture). Once infected, the plant cannot recover from it. Ever.

All of these plants ended up in the garbage: my Bhut Jolokia, Dorset Naga, Sweet Banana pepper, Cayenne, Grandma’s Pimento, Aji Dulce, Orange Sun bellpepper & a Chile Piquin bush. Lessons learned.

More aphids.

...& yet some more. I. HATE. APHIDS. i hate them i hate them i hate them!!!

The Future

These two young Bhut Jolokia are approximately 8 weeks old. Their stem has begun to bifurcate, lateral growth has begun, & it is full of tiny inflorescences (which will most likely fall off during the next few months of growth). Fruit-setting is anticipated for the end of Feb 2010.

Days-old pepper seedlings of all kinds get their photons. Among them, many Bhut Jolokia seedlings will star in next year’s venture. Growing Bhut Jolokia is addictive; I cannot imagine my grow room ever not having one or two of these plants growing in it!

Want to read more blog posts from master grower Eliab? We’ve got ‘em!

Please note: blog posts are the opinions of independent growers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Urban Garden Magazine or its affiliates. Do you have your own ideas on how to grow Bhut Jolokia? Share below!

FEEDBACK

Was the system easy to set up and install?
Yes.

Do you think the operating instructions are clear for all levels of grower?
Yes. What could represent a challenge for the novice (e.g. plumbing fittings) is already pre-assembled.

What growth media did you use?
I used what was included: Ready-Gro mix and silica stones.

What plants did you grow in the system?
Purple bells, Bhut Jolokia, Dorset Naga, & Aji Dulce.

How often were they dripped/flooded?
Flooded every 3.5 hours for 30 minutes, 4 times per light cycle.

Did you use natural light or artificial?
Artificial, under compact fluorescents totaling 7,450 lumens at canopy level.

Were the growth rates satisfactory?
More than satisfactory: it surpassed all my expectations!

Did the system become overcrowded?
Yes, it did, in only 15 days after seedlings were transferred to the system. But that’s a good thing: it translates to rapid, no B.S. growth!

Was it an easy system to maintain? pH, nutrient changes, etc?
Yes. CNS-17, the nutrient sample included, is an excellent hydroponic nutrient & very pH-stable.

SUMMARY

Any tweaks you would suggest to the design?
No, these guys thought of everything! For a system its size, it is one tough pony!

How was the harvest?
I have never tasted more flavorful, redder & fleshy Aji Dulce peppers than those that went into my saucepan today.

Would you use it to grow again?
Are you kidding? This baby’s staying with me for as long as I grow indoors!

Did you use the supplied nutrients with the system? If so, what did you think?
Yes; CNS-17 is awesome. Too bad my local shop does not carry it!

What do you think the ideal application is for this system?
Early veg/rooting cloning (by growing in smaller, shallower planters, removing 2 of the 3 drain extensions & decreasing watering frequency), and for late veg/pre-flowering. Smaller plants like herbs & some orchids may be grown to maturity.

ELIAB RATES THE MICROGARDEN: 100%

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FEEDBACK

Was the system easy to set up and install?
Yes, everything was included and easy to locate and set up.

Do you think the operating instructions are clear for all levels of grower?
Absolutely. Anyone who can put together a cardboard box shouldn’t have any trouble.

What growth media did you use?
Rockwool. I would have used the soil-less mix, but I haven’t used that particular media before and I wanted to use something familiar so that I could see the results as they pertained to my growing style.

What plants did you grow in the system?
I’m vegging 6 cuttings of Bhut Jolokia (ghost pepper) in them as we speak. This is a difficult plant to grow, so ANY success is a great sign.

How often were they dripped/flooded?
Only once per day; they simply didn’t need more.

Did you use natural light or artificial?
Artificial. I’m using daylight T8s with heating mats on the sides of the cabinet because the ghost pepper likes high heat.

Were the growth rates satisfactory?
Yes, they were substantial.

Did the system become overcrowded?
Using only 6 cuttings, no. I’m sure 8 would have fit fine, too.

Was it an easy system to maintain? pH, nutrient changes, etc?
Very easy. The pH adjusters are quite strong and it takes very little to get the job done.

SUMMARY

Any tweaks you would suggest to the design?
This thing fits PERFECTLY into the cab I’m using. The bottom half of the cab I use for food storage and the top for growing food!

How was the harvest?
No harvest yet.

Would you use it to grow again?
Yes, I’m going to use it until the plastic breaks down and collapses! (Possibly in 100+ years!)

Did you use the supplied nutrients with the system? If so, what did you think?
The nutrients worked great. No deficiencies to speak of … but this is what I’ve come to expect from Botanicare.

What do you think the ideal application is for this system?
Probably good for spices and small food crops from start to finish. Works great for vegging out larger plants before flower phase. For a grower looking for a great micro grow system, this is probably the product to get!

JEFF RATES THE MICROGARDEN: 90%

For additional grow reports on this product, click here.