October 2010

10-20: This is nearly the last harvest. All in all I would call this a very disappointing harvest. I picked 30 Bhut Jolokia chilies, 34 Ghost Hybrids, and 172 Caribbean Red hybrids. I don't understand why the Ghost chilies did so poorly, all the the chilies are covered with flowers even now and have been all year long. They seem happy and healthy, no pests or animals foraging them. There is always next year.

September 2010

9-19: 125 Caribbean Red Hybrids were harvested, at least that many still on the bush. There are about a dozen Bhut Jolokias still on the bushes but there are still tons of flowers on them.

9-15: I harvested 78 Ghost hybrids today, and 13 Bhut Jolokias.

9-10: I've decided that I'm going to break these chilies into 3 distinct groups. Bhut Jolikia, and the two hybrid types Ghost hybrid, and Caribbean Red hybrid. Ghost hybrid look very much like the Bhut Jolokias, the Caribbean Red hybrid very much like Caribbean Reds.

August 2010

8-24: 5 more purebred Ghost chilies are drying in the oven. The weather is getting extremely hot, in the triple digits this week.

8-22: I'm thinking of a plan for next year. I'm going to winter over the Bhut Jolokias from the Fullerton Arboretum because they are pure bred, dispose of the exhausted crossbreeds at season's end, and buy seeds from pure bred Bhut Jolokias.

8-20: Another harvest bringing the total up to 28 chilies. The plant that is loaded is not quite ready to produce but it is a very Caribbean Red looking plant. The ones so far, though being crossbred, are very Bhut Jolokia looking. I haven't eaten any of these yet so I don't know how the heat and flavor is panning out. Ken Charniak who provided the homegrown Bhut Jolokias sent an email saying that all his from Ghost seeds of the plants the year before were crossbred with the Caribbean Reds. At least we both love Caribbean Reds!

8-13: 11 more of the so called Caribbean Red / Bhut Jolokia crossbreeds have been harvested. Now that they are coming into season, they look very much like the Bhut Jolokia and very little like the Caribbean Reds. I've yet to taste one, that should be a deciding factor because the Bhut Jolokia has a very strong and distinctive flavor. Plus it should melt my mouth, eventually turning my teeth into cooled and hardened lava flows with tiny smoking coconut tree stumps sticking out. I'll let you know.

8-10: The first authenticated Bhut Jolokia has been harvested. It is a large, grotesque, twisted and knobby thing from the nether regions of hell. It has a very thin skin and is light in weight for it's large size.

8-8: Miracle-Gro for the peppers today. One of the Ghost Chilies is looking pretty ripe. I'm probably harvest it this week. It's a wicked looking little monster, grotesque, twisted and spiky.

July 2010

7-28: Well, I have my first harvest! I'm not sure what it is though. It is from this plant which looks very much like a Caribbean Red Habañero, so until I get confirmation on that from Ken and Charma, that is what I'm calling them as.

7-21: A reader named Warren who is growing Bhut Jolokias in Northern California wrote to ask if I had any recent pictures of the plants and flowers. Yes Warren, I do. Taken today and presented here for your viewing pleasure:

• Group Shot - This is the portion of the potted garden with the Ghost chilies. You can see a sunflower growing up in the middle back and some onions on the right. The pots are all well drained 5 gallon PVC pots hooked up to a drip system on a timer.
  
• Single Plant - This isn't the most producing plant but it is the most singled out one to take a picture of. This is one of the plants sprouted by Ken and Charma. Note that the chilies look somewhat like a Habañero ... I hope this is not the result of accidental cross pollination!
  
• Flower Detail - As advertised, here is a detail of the buds and flowers of a Bhut Jolokia from the Fullerton Arboretum. Flowers are approximately 3/8 of an inch across.
  
• Fruit Detail 1 - These Chilies Ken and Charma sprouted look scarily like a Habañero.
  
• Fruit Detail 2 - Now this chile is from the Fullerton Arboretum, this is what Bhut Jolokia's are supposed to look like. Dangerous, spiky, malformed, demon chilies! I've got to save the seeds from this nasty looking hellion.

7-18: A fifth Ghost chili has been spotted with fruit! Woot!

7-16: A forth Ghost chili has been spotted with fruit! It looks to be the size of a chili that started when the hot weather started. Here's hoping this hot weather turns these plants around!

7-14: Hot weather has finally arrived! Hopefully this will kick start the semi dormant state of the chilies caused by cool and cloudy weather. Now we will be having weather more befitting a plant that hailes from India!

7-11: The plants were fertilized today with Miracle Gro For Tomatoes. It was a little overdue because of all of the vacation time I was spending away from the garden. Normally I'll try to hit it every two weeks.

7-9: OK, a lot has happened since I last posted, mostly vacations and time away from the computer, but now I'm back and into the groove again. All the Bhut Jolokia chilies are in full bloom and 3 of them have chilies. One plant, in the sunniest location as one chili, the largest chili of them all, but only one chili. The second shadiest plant has several small chilies growing on it. The chili in the shadiest location has the most chilies, over a dozen.

Now that is completely unexpected. I would have expected it to be the other way around! Surely the sunniest plant would produce the most flowers. But such is not the case. The 3 chilies in the front getting the most sun are the chilies from the Fullerton Arboretum. The other 3 chilies in the back that are producing the best are the chilies Charma sprouted with seeds from last years Bhut Jolokias. Thanks Charma!

June 2010

6-7: All the Ghost chilies except for the runt have open flowers! No sign of chilies yet.

6-4: First flowers! Two of the Bhut Jolokias are in bloom this morning. One of the Arboretum chilies and one of Charma's chilies. The blooms are greenish white and are a good size for a chili pepper. Don't know about you but I'm excited, ghastly hot chilies are not far behind the first blooms.

6-2: I fertilized the Bhut Jolokias today with Miracle-Gro For Tomatoes. Each plant got a gallon poured into the pot and over the leaves. I've sort of fallen behind in the Miracle-Gro, but I started the pots out extra rich in chicken manure and Kellogg's Amend and didn't want to burn them. I'll probably keep to the 14 day schedule for the remainder of the season.

May 2010

5-28: I missed last weeks update because we went to Hawaii, so you see, I have the best excuse ever. All 6 Bhut Jolokias have flower buds now! Some of them are ready to pop. The weather still has not warmed up much with temperatures in the 70's and low 80's occasionally. The tomatoes on the other hand don't mind the cooler weather and are busy producing plump tomatoes. Chilies love hot weather though.

5-12: We have flower buds on 3 of the largest Bhut Jolokias! Ahhh... flowers in May, sounds rather pastoral doesn't it? It doesn't seem to portend at all the hellacious conflagration to come does it?

5-7: We are still having cold nights but at least the days have warmed up this week. The plants are stout and very bushy. This is probably the most pleasing to look at chili plant I've grown. In the morning dew they are picturesque.

5-2: I fertilized the chilies this week. They are looking pretty good even though they are stunted from the cold weather.

April 2010

4-30: We are still plagued by cold weather. To make things worse, we had the house painted this week and I had to move all the chilies, which were right beside the house away into less sunny locations so that they wouldn't get: trampled - sprayed - dripped on. On the bright side, they are developing a tremendous root system and when the weather warms up, and man does it ever warm up around here, (115+) the chilies will just jump out of the ground.

4-22: I don't know if I should fertilize again or not. It's been 3 weeks but it's been 3 weeks of cold and rainy weather! Perhaps I should do that this weekend, I've had the drip line running every night, it must be washing the Miracle-Gro out of the soil. I sure wish it would warm up, the cool weather is stunting the growth of these chilies. They should be twice the size they are now. Where is that global warming hoax Algore has been wasting all that bad breath on? I could use a little right about now. I normally have a dark tan by this time of year, but yesterday and today it is raining and very very cold like almost every week before it. I wish I would have built a greenhouse frame around the chilies, but it is too late now. By the time I get it built it will be warm enough to fry the chilies. Grrrr.

4-4: The remaining 3 Bhut Jolikia chili peppers got planted today. These are the home sprouted ghost chilies that Charma and Ken Charniak gave to me. They were planted in 5 gallon pots that had soil from last year in them. Actually, the soil was originally mixed together about 10 years ago from one equal part each of dirt, sand, wood shavings, and peat moss with a double handful of chicken manure and a handful of Ironite. Each year I need to replenish the soil with fresh organic amendments as they are consumed by the plants and soil organisms.

I dump out the pot into a wheelbarrow and break it completely apart. Then I add some sort of organic amendment and chicken or steer manure and a little Ironite, enough to completely fill the pot to within an inch of the top. The amendment this year was Kellog's Soil Amendment that is composed mostly of dark aged rice hulls. The soil has become very dark, loamy and rich, it breaks apart easily when it is not root bound.

Into this the Ghost seedlings go. I use a bulb planter to dig a plug of soil out, this allows the sprouting peat pot or the dixie cup in this case to be easily inserted into the ground without disturbing the root structure of the plant. I snug the soil around the root base to remove any air and then water the plant and soak the pot with Miracle Gro fertilizer. After that has drained I set up the drip line and sprinkle Metro All Purpose Bug Bait onto the soil.

March 2010

3-26: I really hadn't planned on growing any chilies this year. I have 9 large boxes of dried chilies stored in my closet. Thousands of them. Mean, angry, dangerously hot Thai, Habañeros, Red Savinos, and Caribbean Reds. I can only eat so many and I don't have many people to give them away to. Any more when they see me coming they press themselves into a crack with only their toes sticking out, throw a tarp over themselves, or lay on the ground and fein death.

A while ago I received an email from a website reader, Ken Charniak. Ken has contacted me before and was kind enough to send me some seeds. This time Ken wanted to buy me some Bhut Jolokia, or Ghost Chili seedlings that go on sale temporarily each year at the Fullerton Arboretum on condition that I give him half the crop. I counter offered to visit the arboretum and buy the seedlings myself then give him half the crop anyway. Ken said that I might not have much luck as the Ghost seedlings are few and sold out quickly and said that if I couldn't get them, he would give me his to grow... if he himself got some. Turns out they were sold out a couple days before my wife and I got there but Ken bought 6.

I gave him a call telling him about my bad luck and he gave us directions to his place so I could pick out some of his plants to grow. I picked out 3 nice Ghost chili plants and in addition his wife Charma gave me 3 ghost seedlings she grew from some of the seeds Ken had. It didn't stop there, Ken gave me a bag of his home made "Ken's Kick-Ass Jerky" made from a variety of chilies including the Ghost. It was actually the best beef jerky I've eaten. Charma gave me a small salt shaker filled with ground Ghost chili! Holy cow, the darned thing even had a skull and crossbones painted on it! Ken and Charma (and Fred their parrot) were charming and generous hosts.

Now that I've eaten some Ghost chilies, I now know the wonderful full flavor of this unique chili and why there is so much excitement about it. Hotter than hell by the way. This is as advertised, the world's hottest chili. I can't wait to harvest and dry some and experiment with a new series of hot sauces!

Here are a few pictures of the ghost chilies so far:

Arboretum sale ghost in a 5 gallon pot 1
Arboretum sale ghost in a 5 gallon pot 2
Arboretum sale ghost in a 5 gallon pot 3
Charma's home sprouted seedlings still in their dixie cups