for the past two seasons i have grown ultra hot pepper seeds. they are called ultra hots because they go far above the hottest habanero in terms of scoville units (the more scoville units the hotter the pepper) in 2007 the bhut jolokiia [a pepper from india) broke the guiness book of records when it recorded a scoville unit of 1,000,000. the red savino habaner was considered the hottest with a scoville unit of 350,000 to 750,000.

i ordered my seeds from the university of new mexico. there were 14 seeds in the package and the instructions said that they sometimes take 5 weeks to germinate.

i started all 14 seeds in late february and after only 10 days i had three germinate.
unfortunately they were the only seeds that did germinate. i repotted them when they had their second set of leaves and the stem looked nice and sturdy. after a week or two the plant was loaded with leaves. one day when i returned from work i noticed that some of the bottom leaves were falling off each of the three plants. the top leaves looked nice andgreen and the stem weas still looking strong and getting bigger. after hardending them off for a week i put them outside into my 5 gallon containers on june 1st. after about a week i noticed that the leaves were starting to grow back. about mid july i started to get flowers on the three plants. i could hardly wait to see a pepper start to grow. unfortunately little by little all the flowers fell off the plant. i finally got 3 peppes from the plants but by then it was september and they were still green adn when i tried them they were not hot aat all.

last year i started peppers called 7 pots. so named because they say one pepper will heat up 7 pots of chili. LOL

i did the same with these peppers as i did with the bhut jolokia's and the same thng happened. the leaves fell off, grew back but this time when the flowers came out they did not fall off and i was rewarded with over 200 of the hottest peppers i have ever experienced. they were so hot that when my hot pepper loving neighbor tried one she ended up with a blister on her lips.

at the moment i have a few seeds for next year including different strains of 7 pot. i have morousa blend, dougla blend and the original bhut's. also have very hot chili pper seeds.

just wanted to tell you about my experience with these testy seeds. .

I couldn't imagine peppers that hot....It must just suck the breath out of you.

Did you know that adding about 1 tablespoon of Epsom Salts ever few weeks will give you more & bigger fruit. I tried that last year & it worked very well. It aids in the plant uptake of nutrient. I put a link in the "Links" in the right column.

i heard people dloing that with their vegetables but i am a little worried that with my plants in containers it might be too much. what do you think

All my peppers were in pots last year and they did awesome. You can not "over do" epsom salts. It's not a fertilizer. It helps the plant uptake the nutrients. My bell peppers had about 12 peppers on one plant. They were the Northstar variety. They also ripened red quite quickly and I had a continual supply of both green & red peppers.

Here's the link that explains everything
http://www.epsomsaltcouncil.or...

then i will try it with my basil and with my fig tree.

I grew a bhut last year. It germanted well and grew well right in the garden. I almost pulled it up becaus the foliage looks different than I am used to. We moved and i lifted the plant and put it in a small pot. I ended up with 2 peppers on the plant. likely would have done better without the move. DH tried to eat one of the peppers and he couldn't manage it. LOL saved the second for seeds. Didn't plant any this year. Hope to have a GH next year. I have wanted to try the 7 pots.

I like hot, but not that hot! Even when we've grown habaneros , we only ate a few all year. Too hot for me! Jalapeno is hot enough!

Karen

I've got a question, if you more experienced folks don't mind...

I'm new to saving pepper seeds, but a coworker gave my husband a couple Bhut Jolokia peppers and I took the seeds out of them to plant. I've had them in a wet paper towel to germinate for 2.5 weeks now, and I'm starting to wonder if they're ever going to.

Is there some necessary step I missed between 'remove from pepper' and 'place in wet paper towel', or do I likely have dud seeds?

did you dry the seeds completey before you put them onto the paper towel??
i have never triedeto ernate sees in paper towels bt i can tell ou that some ultra hot seeds can take over 5 weeks to germinate.

I am totally clueless how to collect them

I don't know either.

Karen

No, I didn't dry them at all. I have others that I dried, so maybe I should try to sprout those instead. Is drying necessary for pepper seeds to germinate?

I started all my peppers (as well as tomatoes and eggplants) in paper towels this year, but they were from seed packs. I don't mind being patient if it's just slow germination, but I keep reading that people have really fast germination with Bhut Jolokia.

Thanks for the help. I'll be patient for a bit longer. If I get a really late start on these plants, they can probably overwinter indoors and produce next year.

bit - i am not positive ou have to dry the seeds but whatever i have read about saving seeds them mention to dry them. i prefer starting seeds in a soiless seed starting mix instead of paper towels.

onewish/karen - after thepepper has matured simply slice in open and removethe seeds and put hem on a paper towel to copletely dfry. after a day or two you can put them in a jar for next season.

I have read that the bhut plant will do well for 3 years. The second year is the best.

anything you want to know about ultra hots visit www.thehippyseedcompany.com
it is an amazing site.

Thanks for the help and the link, Franklin.

Cheryl, yeah, I'd heard that they at least do well for two years. The fruit I have came from my husband's coworker's overwintered plant - and was harvested in April! I would overwinter some plants inside just to get peppers in April...

I would love to have a GH so I could keep some late tomatoes and start spring stuff really early.

visit www.farmtek.com and in the search area type in mini greenhouses. keep clicking forthenext page until to get to them. hey cost about 63 dollars.

I'll check it out. Thanks. Do you have one?

yes but i use it almost exclusively to start my seeds and i keep my seedlings there until i'st time to put them outside. the shelves are removable so you can make room as the plants get bigger.

p.s. would you mind sending me your e-mail as i get some funny things that i know you and your husband would like like the ones i passed you on c-mail.