Hybrid Hot Pepper, Ghost Pepper 'Bhut Jolokia'

Probably the most infamous pepper out there, even though it is now far from the hottest in the world, the Bhut Jolokia is a real favorite...Read More of mine. This is the pepper that separates the pepper heads from the pretenders. They are easy to grow, but germinate slowly. Nitrile gloves are recommended to handle these bad boys because the oil will mess you up. Latex doesn't always cut it with the super hots. Be careful when blending, cooking with, or grinding dry peppers. Many people wear surgical or filtration masks when cooking with them.

The flavor is good, if you can take the heat, and they are a staple in my hot sauces. Contrary to click bait articles, unless you have serious health conditions or have a very bad allergic reaction, these and other super hots won't really hurt you, but they will trick your brain into thinking whatever they tough is dying.

4/5 Bring ice cream.

Take longer to germinate and fruit than most varieties but not as long as other ultra-hot peppers. Produced more and fruited faster the ...Read Morefirst year than trinidad moruga scorpion when started from seed at the same time. Plan on overwintering if you can and are in a climate with a shorter season for peppers, the second year will have much better fruit production than the first. Does well in partial shade to full sun. Compact kind of bushy plants. Heat was impressive but didn't need a gas mask to cut open like the trinidad morugas. Usually used 1-3 in a large pot of chili depending on how hot I wanted to make it and made a good kind of tart sauce out of the others in large batches. A little goes a long way.

Seeds can be dried and planted but the peppers themselves do not dry well. They're not very fleshy to begin with and tend to attract mold when dried hanging from a string. Freezing them fresh or grilled with some oil is better to preserve the leftovers you have.

I grow Red Bhut Jolokias (have tried chocolate and yellow too but the flavor is best in red) Grow em every year in z5 just fine, planted ...Read Moreabout a foot apart to stop eachother from getting too huge. Great producer and we eat a lot of them green (as the supposedly do in India) for the great flavor minus a lot of the heat. Lovely plants!

Am over-wintering a few under lights. Dug them out of garden, cut back, now, lots of new growth. What I've found is that the bhut DOES ta...Read Moreke a long time to mature and DOES require more water than most hot pepper plants I've grown. This year--neck injury, bla, bla--am ordering more of the plants, rather than going from seed, but will order early and put in small greenhouse to keep them growing until going into garden. In zone 7, it's the only way I seem to get a bumper crop mature before frost: start early. No; insects don't bother them! But from my experience, bhut need water almost as eggplant does. They both originate from subcontinental India, unlike many hots peppers from South America that don't need as much water to thrive. And they do become enormous, or have at least for me: tall, wide, bushy. Nearly a tree. I used one pepper per six pints of sauce in a base of butternut squash. Nice smokey sauce that still BITES! I primarily use these for sauces, drying, as they dry really well over low smoker heat, grind into Chipotle Bhut. Mixed with some ancho powder, it's nice. And yes, I've eaten one. Thus, the name "ghost." Cheap thrill (that I probably won't repeat). Have also diluted juice in olive/jojoba oil and used as a rub, but then I probably think that hot peppers prevent and cure lots of stuff. We had a problem with groundhogs in gardens until I planted these on the perimeter of gardens. Even when not mature, kept g-hogs out of garden. They also kill rats, if not fortunate enough to have a black snake in residence. Supposedly, Indians used to rub these fruits on fences to keep elephants from entering.