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"Chocolate Bhut Jolokia" turning Orange then Red

Most of the "chocolate" pods I've grown went straight from green to brown.  I think I remember one that went orange-ish first.  There is possibility that even seeds from a reputable seller could be some what unstable.  Or could it have possibly cross pollinated with another plant that has a red ripening pepper? 
 
I'm growing a "Bhut Jolokia Brown" from a reputable seller that is doing the same thing. They finish red but are pretty large. They taste like a red Bhut to me, so I guess I'm ok with it. Could be cross pollinated as stated earlier or it could even be a mislabel by the seller. All of my brown pods go from green straight to brown.
 
Oh it's a beautiful plant... I'm not mad. I just wanted to know whether I could pick em  :)

kbWDGf5.jpg
 
So they CAN be bhuts and not finger-y? A guy at work gave me pods and said they were ghosts but they looked like 7 pots or red habanero. But they were HOT!
 
Yeah it's gonna stay red. You must have more seeds though. I found there will almost always be some variation within a pack of seeds even if they are from the same pod. Plant some more and I bet you'll get what you paid for.

nattymari said:
So they CAN be bhuts and not finger-y? A guy at work gave me pods and said they were ghosts but they looked like 7 pots or red habanero. But they were HOT!
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I have a ghost pepper plant that was given to me by a friend who got seeds from a friend, etc. While I can't vouch for it's purity it's been providing me with mostly large and long pods that look exactly like a ghost pepper should but every now and then it will produce a short/round pod or even a fat smooth one that looks not very mainstream bhutish at all but the heat and flavor is there.
Mother Nature at her finest :party:
 
nattymari said:
Oh it's a beautiful plant... I'm not mad. I just wanted to know whether I could pick em  :)

kbWDGf5.jpg
Click to expand...
Not an expert by any stretch, but my Bhut Jolokia all have leaves with rippled edges.
 
Chocolate:
IMG_20150820_135111709.jpg

 
Red:
IMG_20150820_135126439.jpg

 
Your photo does not appear to show that. So, I would hazard a guess it is a cross.
 
My chocolate ghost go from green to brown, but I don't think that means the dealer did anything wrong.  I think there are occasionally throw backs, not that you should throw them back.  Just that sometimes a pepper will demonstrate its earlier origins.  Have not looked into how the chocolate bhuts came about, but willing to bet the genes for brown existed in the red, met up and then selective seed saving came into play.  Willing to bet some red dna stayed in there a bit.  I've had the same thing happen, a red that should have been a brown.  I also had a red that should have been a yellow.  I just figure I either screwed up the tags or some of the former dna came to the surface.

Either way they taste good.
 
  These pods are the 2nd year removed coming from the only bhut in the garden I grew which was chocolate.It was surrounded by 7pots.
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Not angry in the least AJ. They are pretty and big as my hand. Moving them out of rain I lost a green reaper and it was still pretty hot. The few Scorpions I've harvested were some of the hottest peppers I've eaten. 100% satisfied with this first year of growing.
 
NattiMari - So very many people do get angry when pods do not turn out as expected.  I figure most pods are less than stable simply because they are fairly new, so with every plant that doesn't look the way one thinks it should there is an opportunity for something new.  Its a huge part of the fun.
 
Randypo, assuming cross pollination?  I do think red trumps brown in the dna department the way brown trumps blue in the eye department.
 
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