Bhut Jolokia – The World’s Hottest Pepper
Bhut Jolokia is the reigning world’s hottest pepper. The most pungent tested over 1,000,000 Scoville Units. That’s beyond hot!
I decided to grow some jolokia in my garden, along with some mustard habanero and some scotch bonnet peppers. The ultimate comparison should be quite interesting!
About Bhut Jolokia
This nuclear-heat chile pepper is known by several names. In addition to Bhut Jolokia, it’s also known as Naga Jolokia, Nai Miris, Ghost Chili, Ghost Pepper and Naga Morich. Yes, it’s a little confusing (to say the least).
This chile pepper comes from the Indian sub-continent, and thought to have originated in Northeast India, in Nagaland.
There’s been some controversy over this pepper; some say that the testing (done by 3 different labs) was hoaxed and nothing could top 1 million Scoville. But, the Chile Pepper Institute, run by New Mexico State University, ran tests in 2005 and yes, it was over 1,000,000 Scoville.
In February 2007, Guinness World Records certified the Bhut Jolokia (Prof. Bosland’s of the Chile Pepper Institute’s preferred name for the pepper) as the world’s hottest chili pepper.
There’s a question if the jolokia pepper is a member of the capsicum chinense or capsicum frutenscens family. I’m going to go with c. chinense, because the plant looks very similar to the Mustard Habanero plant I am growing in a different part of the garden.
(You can read read my pepper types post for more information on the different species.)
Growing Bhut Jolokia
The seeds aren’t exactly cheap (I paid about $1 per seed), and I started 2 seeds. Both sprouted, but one was felled by (I assume) the weather. The other one is doing beautifully!
The photo above is about a week before I planted it in my new raised bed garden. Since it’s been in the raised bed it has flourished and is a beautiful plant. It’s just now starting to form some flower buds, and before the buds open, I am going to bag the blossoms, so I can be sure of having more seeds going forward.
I’ll be posting more about Bhut Jolokia, the world’s hottest pepper, in the future, especially once the peppers start to form. And it will be quite interesting to compare it against my Mustard Habanero and Scotch Bonnet Early peppers.
Stay tuned!
So exactly what do you plan on doing with these? They must be too hot to eat…
That’s certainly a reasonable question, Alison! I plan to dehydrate some of the peppers and grind them up very fine for a “hot pepper dust”. I little pinch is enough to flavor a dish.
Also, one of my neighbors adores hot peppers, and eats scotch bonnets like candy. She’ll be getting quite a few of the jolokia peppers.
And then of course I will be saving some of the seeds.
Sadly, I don’t have any peppers available — just some seeds, as it’s about time for planting here. Thanks for asking, though!
I’m growing a Bhut Jolokia, as well. Currently the plant is about 22″ and I transferred it to a new larger pot, and lowered it in the soil about 3″ or 4″ for better stability. It started forming pods about a month ago, and blossoming about 2 weeks ago.
From your experience when should I expect to see peppers forming?
I’ve been doing as much research as I can about the best soil/nutrients, temp, light cycles, ect… to get the max heat possible. If, you have any tips I’d appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
I didn’t see much in the way of peppers at first, but once my plant started really blossoming, I began to see tiny peppers a few days after the petals fell off the blossoms.
Peppers like heat and don’t like to dry out too much, so lots of sunshine and warmth are your best bets for heat! And remember to let them turn really red before picking, so the peppers are at their hottest.
Best wishes!