Last edited on February 15, 2021. View history
Bhut Jolokia Chilli Pepper
A variety of Capsicum chinense
How to sow bhut jolokia chilli pepper: Direct seed indoors, transplant seedlings outside after hardening off
Sun requirement for bhut jolokia chilli pepper: Plant in Full Sun
The Ghost, or Bhut jolokiai, pepper is a hybrid of Capsicum chinense and Capsicum frutescens native to India. It is one of the world's hottest chili peppers, with a rating of more than 1 million Scoville heat units. Ripe peppers are 60-85mm long and can have red, yellow, orange, or chocolate skin that is very thin compared to other peppers. The red fruit variety can be smooth or rough and wrinkled. Ghost Peppers are extremely variable because they are interspecific hybrids - there is a wide range in fruit sizes and production per plant. Ghost peppers are used fresh and dried as a food and spice. The plant requires consistent heat and moisture and a growing season of at least three months of temperatures over 21°C. They can be grown in containers indoors to maintain these conditions.
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Bhut jolokia chilli pepper facts
Lifespan
Height
120cmRow Spacing
45cmGrown for
fruit harvested 1 timeCrop cycle
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For bhut jolokia chilli pepper, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 15°C and a shortest growing cycle of 120 days at its best temperature, about 960 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your bhut jolokia chilli pepper will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow bhut jolokia chilli peppers
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Bhut jolokia chilli pepper plantings
Bhut jolokia chilli pepper harvests
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Where bhut jolokia chilli peppers grow
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Who's planted bhut jolokia chilli peppers
- corvi seed trays · salt spring island
- shiny Sunny old raised bed · Wellington, NZ
corvi
Bhut jolokia chilli pepper harvests
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shiny harvested 3.
over 8 years ago
shiny harvested 3.
View all bhut jolokia chilli pepper harvests
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 120 to 150 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Capsicum chinense Jacq.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Solanales Solanaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | heavy, medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
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