Whats up chile growers. I have some experience growing super-hots, Bhut Jolokias and others outdoors and in my greenhouse these past 2 summers. YES chile plants are indeed commonly slow starters from seed. I like to start mine ideally in January/Fed indoors under MH or T5. The main key for germination and getting thru the slow starts is to KEEP THEM WARM AND COZY. The genetics evolved in pretty warm parts of the globe so bright and warm gets you off to a good start. For awesome yielding bushes try to have them nicely vegged inside in containers and even starting to bloom before putting them in the ground or final pots. These plants are fun to grow and fun to cook with/ prank with. My avatar is my Joloks in full bloom. I get pounds per plant each season and even sold some for $30/lb to a hot sauce fanatic! Yes I did grow way to many to eat. But my Grandma, Dad, and I gave it a good go.
1)3/29 after planting seed 2/14 2)5/15 Finally in 1 gallons out in ghouse 3)8/1Setting friuit 4)9/16 RIPE Harvest begins 5)11/26 Still Yielding!
The mid-November big harvest yielded pounds of super hot chile and covered our whole table!; (mostly) Red Bhut Jolokias, (middle) Yellow Bhut Jolokias, (bottom) scotch bonnets, (left) purira, right (chile de arbol) New Mexico is the ancestral home of chile and they still LOVE it here!
Have fun hope your chile is hot and full of flavor!
PS Ghost Chile is a misnomer way of identifying the many Jolokia varietys (first word "Bhut" refers to region of origin over there) which originate in Bangladesh and India and are the worlds hottest naturally occuring chile peppers with a sample from Bangladesh topping out over 1.5 million on the scoville scale! They BURN, and taste amazing if you can handle the slow burn that intensifies to ultra from the back of the mouth forward. Amazing experience lemme tell ya. Made my dad and my grandma cry which is quite an achievement as they claim to be able to handle anything. Ha! Not the weapons grade chile!
