Brown Moruga Thread

CAPCOM · Nov 22, 2014

I am starting this thread to pay homage to what I consider to be the tastiest super hot pepper. I was introduced to this variety last year shortly after becoming involved with growing super hot peppers. An offer from Judy to get a sample of her brown moruga flakes was the start followed shortly by a SFRB of these brown nuggets of gold. Along with the Xalapas, the brown moruga has become one of my favorite peppers. Fresh, or powdered it has flavor and heat profiles that are IMHO, unmatched. I kept a couple of last seasons plants and will germinate a couple this year for various reasons and will post photos of all of them on a periodic basis.
The following are recent pics of my now, indoor morugas. They are under a 1000w MH set at about 600w output for 8 hours a day

Devil Created Pods · Nov 22, 2014

Awesome!! once my brown moruga seeds pop ill post pics

snowmanaxp · Nov 22, 2014

Here are my two plants from last year. I'm trying to overwinter them. Unfortunately I have not had any luck the last two years overwintering plants.
Hopefully the third year is the charm.

FD-Ducky · Nov 22, 2014

I'll be growing the brown moruga this year, its actually the pepper I'm looking forward to the most! Nice pictures

CAPCOM · Nov 22, 2014

snowmanaxp said:
Here are my two plants from last year. I'm trying to overwinter them. Unfortunately I have not had any luck the last two years overwintering plants.
Hopefully the third year is the charm.

what seems to be the cause of the failures?

FD-Ducky said:
I'll be growing the brown moruga this year, its actually the pepper I'm looking forward to the most! Nice pictures

Thanks for the compliment. You have a lot to look forward to. get them started early so you have a long season. and give em shade from that afternoon Alabama sun.

snowmanaxp · Nov 23, 2014

The last two years I had them where I don't think they got enough light. This year I'm using supplemental light to see if that helps.
The only problem is this years setup is in my garage where it can get very cold at times.

CAPCOM · Nov 23, 2014

snowmanaxp said:
The last two years I had them where I don't think they got enough light. This year I'm using supplemental light to see if that helps.
The only problem is this years setup is in my garage where it can get very cold at times.

Over wintering is a process that you place the plant into a state of dormancy. Cutting the roots reduces nutrient intake . Cutting back the foliage reduces the plant capacity to use photosynthesis. the biggest mistake most people make when over wintering is feeding and watering as usual.

Kyox89 · Nov 23, 2014

I'm growing brown moruga too!! Here's what it looks like now. Hope it goes all the way. Haha

SL3 · Nov 23, 2014

Ate some of Judy's this year and was sold. You're right probably one of the best tasting Super-Hots. Will get my shot at growing these next year. I hope they're as productive, say as my TS Scorpions were.

CAPCOM · Nov 23, 2014

Last years crop. They got to about 2x this size before transplanting to 1 gal growers pots. After about a month they went to 3 1/2 gal pots where they stayed for the duration of the season. The Brown Moruga from my experience, short as it is, is more tolerant to having wet feet than most other peppers I have grown. Or it is just more thirsty. I have subjected the variety to what most would consider adversely wet conditions without the typical penalties. I am not recommending this or implying that those conditions are preferred. I am just pointing out that the Brown Moruga may be more forgiving. The solo cups the plants are in have no holes in the bottom and the morugas have never been bottom watered. I am not convinced that bottom watering has any significant advantage over conventional watering methods and feel it is, at least were large quantities of plants are concerned and IMHO, a waste of time and money.

This Brute container has no drainage holes,and thus, as the season progressed the plant did ultimately begin to (not do as well as expected). Lesson learned.

CAPCOM · Mar 22, 2015

Brown Moruga 2015.

Gonna keep a keen eye on these two. The plant on the left is from a plant that produced normal colored pods and the plant on the right is from a plant that produced dark brown colored pods. see below.

Last season despite good advice, I conducted an ill-fated project called 20 gal brutes. http://thehotpepper.com/topic/46153-20gal-brutes/
Had I heeded the advice provided by the forum these plants probably would have produced some huge yields. That is the speculated conclusion anyway.
This year, the project will be carried on with the recommended changes as well as the implementation of a full line of nutrients.

stoney's_ghost · Mar 22, 2015

Very nice plants. Have not tried growing this one yet. The only chocolates I have are the Habs

socalgardengal · Mar 22, 2015

Very interesting..Good Luck

nzchili · Mar 22, 2015

I tried crossing brown moruga with C galapogense yesterday..hope it sticks

CAPCOM · Mar 22, 2015

nzchili said:
I tried crossing brown moruga with C galapogense yesterday..hope it sticks

What outcome are you looking to achieve? little brown bird pepper sized pods that make you see God?
You my friend are on the right track.

Roguejim · Mar 22, 2015

CAPCOM said:
Last years crop. They got to about 2x this size before transplanting to 1 gal growers pots. After about a month they went to 3 1/2 gal pots where they stayed for the duration of the season. The Brown Moruga from my experience, short as it is, is more tolerant to having wet feet than most other peppers I have grown. Or it is just more thirsty. I have subjected the variety to what most would consider adversely wet conditions without the typical penalties. I am not recommending this or implying that those conditions are preferred. I am just pointing out that the Brown Moruga may be more forgiving. The solo cups the plants are in have no holes in the bottom and the morugas have never been bottom watered. I am not convinced that bottom watering has any significant advantage over conventional watering methods and feel it is, at least were large quantities of plants are concerned and IMHO, a waste of time and money.

20140628_221931.jpg

This Brute container has no drainage holes,and thus, as the season progressed the plant did ultimately begin to (not do as well as expected). Lesson learned.

20140622_191139.jpg

Yeah, I've found that most of the claims for bottom watering are baseless. And, if you agree with Scott Ostrander, it simply pushes salts back up into the root zone.

CAPCOM · Mar 22, 2015

Roguejim said:
Yeah, I've found that most of the claims for bottom watering are baseless. And, if you agree with Scott Ostrander, it simply pushes salts back up into the root zone.

I theorize that bottom watering may force the plant to push roots deeper earlier if the only source of water and or food is coming from below the active root zone and in smaller quantities since you are not saturating the entire root zone at feeding time. I also have not had any issues with what I perceive were root maggot flies that never materialized as a real threat from my conventional watering. I utilize drinking straws early on as a promotion of my deep root theory.

Roguejim · Mar 22, 2015

CAPCOM said:
I theorize that bottom watering may force the plant to push roots deeper earlier if the only source of water and or food is coming from below the active root zone and in smaller quantities since you are not saturating the entire root zone at feeding time. I also have not had any issues with what I perceive were root maggot flies that never materialized as a real threat from my conventional watering. I utilize drinking straws early on as a promotion of my deep root theory.

When I top water, the roots always grow down. What other direction would they grow? I see no benefit to parching the upper root zone. And, what exactly is the claimed benefit to earlier, deeper root growth anyway? My plant roots, this season, outgrew their #1 pots at about the 2-2 1/2 month mark. I water like nature does, from above. I'm just questioning here.

nzchili · Mar 22, 2015

CAPCOM said:
What outcome are you looking to achieve? little brown bird pepper sized pods that make you see God?
You my friend are on the right track.

lol..anything interesting is what im looking for. Im sort of moving away from the super hots and more towards peppers I can actually use a fair bit of.

I just thought that because the galap is rare, fuzzy and tastes quite good, there is potential for something...interesting and good tasting.

iv been focusing on trying to make annum x chinense hybrids where the annum is the mother. not that the galap is an annum, but same reasoning..

CAPCOM · Mar 22, 2015

Roguejim said:
When I top water, the roots always grow down. What other direction would they grow? I see no benefit to parching the upper root zone. And, what exactly is the claimed benefit to earlier, deeper root growth anyway? My plant roots, this season, outgrew their #1 pots at about the 2-2 1/2 month mark. I water like nature does, from above. I'm just questioning here.

I never indicated the roots grew anywhere but down in any circumstance. The thought was that the plant wont waste time and energy growing roots where there is no food and water and will concentrate growth where it does find them. As I indicated, it is only a theory that harms nothing to adhere to. One advantage that id does have going for it though is it severely limits the humidity in the grow room as all the moisture is 8"+ below the top surface of the soil, and except for what the plant expels it pretty much stays there. this is easily noticeable when watering 200+ plants when the room is 95o.