Bhut Jolokia gardens hot pepper growth update

How to Grow Your Own Hot Peppers

If you are going to take the plunge into growing your own hot peppers, you might well want to consider including other ingredients you will need for salsas and sauces, including tomatoes, onions, and sweet peppers.

Have you ever seen recipes for homemade salsa? They certainly do look fresh and tasty. More and more people are discovering how easy it is to make their own tasty condiments, right at home! Another option would be to get into the habit of preparing your own hot sauces, of which there are many varieties ranging from Asian to Louisiana and Mexican. Before on embarking on this particular culinary adventure, it would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the method of measuring hotness, known as the scoville scale. And no hot sauce would be the same without the addition of jalapenos, as many as you can stand.

If you are going to take the plunge into growing your own hot peppers, you might well want to consider including other ingredients you will need for salsas and sauces, including tomatoes, onions, and sweet peppers.

A good gardening guide (check out the offerings at your local public library before you purchase one) will give you an idea of what types of vegetables would grow well in your geographic region. You will also need to consider how large a garden you will plant, which will depend in part on how much time you have to devote to your hobby.

Another factor in deciding what and how much to plant is the amount of space you need to leave between the different types of vegetables. The Internet is a great source of information about gardening, and you may have some friends or relatives who are avid gardeners who may be able to give you some assistance in this matter. A garden center will be able to provide you with the necessary gardening tools and fertilizer.

One thing you will also want to take into consideration is how many vegetables your garden is likely to yield. You might end up with a lot more vegetables than you were originally planning on. Not to worry, though: your friends, family, and co workers will have reap the benefits of your gardening efforts when you share your bounty with them. Another option is to donate extra vegetables to a food bank, shelter, or church organization.

Once you get to the point where you are ready to harvest your veggies, you can check out some yummy salsa recipes to try. If you find one that you particularly like, don''t be shy about making some changes to the recipe to really make it your own. A slight change in the combination of seasonings and types of peppers will make the basic salsa recipe into your own creation. Some people have even taken the additional step of starting their own business selling their wares at flea markets, fairs, and to local grocers. If you were to market your foodstuffs online, you could well end up having customers from any place in the world!
Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about this as well as a hot sauce at http://www.hotsaucesonline.com

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Growing the bhut jolokia hot pepper in our vegetable garden in Northern California has added an element of mystery and challenge to the project.Seeds were started at the begining of Febuary and kept in a small greenhouse in zone 7.

The native climate for these plants is much warmer than Northern California were it can get 0 degrees. 50 degrees appeared to damage these plants, leaves turned yellow on all the plants, some lost all the leaves. The leaves that grew back are a nice deep green but yellow leaves can be seen low on the recovering plants.

Slow to germinate, kept moist and at about 90 degrees in an indoor hothouse. The pepper seeds sprouted in a time span of 15 days to almost 2 months. The result is different sized plants 3 inches to 20 tall as of June 27 2008.

Greenhouse tempature stays beetween 70 degrees and 120 with relative humidity at 80%. A close comparison should be made to the hot peppers homeland, the Assam region of India.

The Plants are watered twice a day for thirty minutes. A single micro spray head delivers 1 gal of water per day to the garden in a 7 foot by 12 ft greenhouse.
The greenhouse has proven essential to growing these hottest of peppers Northern California grown bhut jolokia.

Here is another great article by
Phil Peters
Adams County Master Gardener
Pepper garden
Among the many demonstration beds at the Penn State Extension Office of Adams County, the pepper garden offers the visitor the chance to see six different varieties of pepper plants that can be grown by the home gardener. The peppers chosen demonstrate a wide range of size, color and flavor. All of the plants have been chosen for their suitability to provide edible fruit and at the same time to produce a colorful display. Consequently, they can be grown in the vegetable garden or used in an ornamental setting as colorful accents in the flower garden or to brighten up the floral border. All the plants can be grown in a container if so desired, though some will require a large pot. And, since peppers are perennials in their native areas, these plants can be brought indoors during the winter and put out again the following summer. All the varieties on display were raised from seed in the author’s basement.

Treasures Red is a colorful little plant that is ideal for the container garden. It grows 8" tall by 10" wide and produces large numbers of 2-inch conical fruit. The peppers come in white and as they mature they gradually turn through light green to bright red. The fruit stands up prominently above the dark green foliage.

Another delightful ornamental that is a perfect candidate for a container garden is Black Pearl. This unusual pepper has the distinction of being the ‘first-ever totally black pepper’ according to the purveyor, Park Seed. The plant grows about 14" to 18" high and about as big around. The leaves are a very deep purple turning to black. The fruits are round and turn from a beautiful black to deep red. A treat for the eyes but also for the palate, the fruits are fiery hot and can be used to spice up your cooking.

Jackpot is a hybrid pepper that produces yellow fruit up to 8 inches long weighing about 8-10 oz. Ripening in 75 days, these should be ready in mid to late August. This is a sweet pepper with a thick skin. It is crack resistant. These were a free gift from the Park Seed Company and thus are large for the container garden. Yet with a big pot …

Costa Rican Sweet is also a large pepper on a tall bush. It is advertised to have a fruity sweetness and is more flavorful than the bell pepper. The fruit is longer than round and has a broad shouldered appearance. Like Jackpot it can be roasted or grilled and is big enough for stuffing. It matures to a deep red in 70 days.

Holy molé is a new introduction from Central America. According to the distributor’s catalog it has a "nutty, tangy bite." At 700 scovilles (a habaZero = 250,000 to 500,000 scovilles, a measure of heat) this mild, nine-inch long chocolate brown pepper is ideal for Mexican dishes. Again the plants are large, two to three feet tall by 30 inches wide. The fruit starts as a dark green and turns chocolate brown in a couple of weeks.

An heirloom introduction from Ecuador by Burpee is Hot Lemon. This plant produces three to four inch tapering fruit that is a bright lemon yellow. It has "smoky, citrus-like, spice hot flavor." It matures in 70 days.

Treasures Red and Black Pearl are especially suited to growing in pots and can readily be wintered over. Take them indoors before the first frost and place in sunny, not too hot location. Water only enough to keep the roots from drying out. They can be moved back outside when all danger of frost is over – mid to late May in our area. The Black Pearl will hold onto its fruit for some time, allowing for an interesting decoration for Halloween or Thanksgiving.

Every year more Americans are turning to peppers to brighten up their cuisine. All of the above varieties can be used in salads or in salsa. If you choose to roast the larger pepper to remove the skin, quickly sear the outside of the pepper over an open flame until the skin is black and blistered, or roast under the broiler for a few minutes. Then put the pepper in a paper bag for 5 minutes to allow it to sweat. When you remove the pepper from the bag, the skin will peel off readily and the flesh will still be firm enough to work with.

Remember, the heat of the pepper comes principally from the inner ribs and seeds. Removing these will cut down on the spiciness of the fruit. Wear plastic kitchen gloves when doing this or when handling any hot pepper. And be careful not to rub your skin or eyes. If you inadvertently do so, milk will help take away the burn.

If you want to learn more about peppers, I recommend you read The Edible Pepper Garden by Rosalind Creasy (Periplus Editions, Ltd., 2000) or The Great Chile Book by Mark Miller and John Harrisson (Ten Speed Press, 1991). In addition to excellent photos and readable descriptions of a wide variety of pepper, both sweet and spicy, they each offer a number of recipes that will be sure to please.
Recipe By Florita
Hot Salsa
1 Onion
4 Tomatoes
1 Basil Leaf
4 Garlic Cloves
1 Lime
¼ Slice Tomatillo
Cilantro to taste
Salt
Hot Pepper of Choice ( Jalapeno, Bhut Jolokia , etc)

Choose your hot pepper depending on the heat element you wish for your salsa.

We are growing the bhut jolokia and jalapeno peppers and will be making salsa with both when the peppers mature. We also grow our own tomatoes, onions, basil in our garden for fresh salsa.

I use a hand operated chopper and use only fresh ingredients when making my salsa, for you who like your salsa less chunky you can use a blender instead of chopping by hand.

You can also add beans, pineapple, etc to salsa to customize it to your taste.

Dip with your favorite chip, or use for tacos, burritos, etc...
growing hot peppers