I have been reading the message board for a few months now, but this is my first post on the forum. This is also my first season with growing hot peppers.
Back in early June I was with my wife buying some plants for our flower garden. While we were at the nursery I happened to stumble across a section of hot peppers and I noticed a small section in the back that had four Bhut jolokia plants that caught my eye. I have always been a fan of fiery foods my entire life so I thought it would be kind of cool to grow a few Ghost Pepper plants. I bought the 4 plants that were about 12” tall at the time, and they were starting to show signs of pods forming. Well, that was a little over 3 months ago and I am now hooked on growing pepper plants. I find it extremely relaxing and almost therapeutic to come home from work every night and to check out what kind of progress my plants are having. My plants are are now 3 feet tall and seem to be in good health. In a week I’m about to pick the first harvest of the plants which looks like around 15-20 ripe peppers, and there are tons of new flowers and several small pods forming on each of the plants besides the 20 ripe peppers.
I have two questions for the message board and it has probably already when answered a million times but I figure I would ask anyway. I know my first harvest is nothing to write home about but I was wondering what most of you do with your super hot peppers once your plants start to produce a lot of fruits at a time. I was thinking about dehydrating most of them and making a powder to add to our family’s cooking. What are other board members doing with their super hots when you have 100’s of pods to harvest?
My second question is, do I still have time to get ripe fruit by the end of the grow season if my plants are starting to flower and small pods are starting to form? I live in the Midwest and I suspect our first frost will come sometime in mid October.
Back in early June I was with my wife buying some plants for our flower garden. While we were at the nursery I happened to stumble across a section of hot peppers and I noticed a small section in the back that had four Bhut jolokia plants that caught my eye. I have always been a fan of fiery foods my entire life so I thought it would be kind of cool to grow a few Ghost Pepper plants. I bought the 4 plants that were about 12” tall at the time, and they were starting to show signs of pods forming. Well, that was a little over 3 months ago and I am now hooked on growing pepper plants. I find it extremely relaxing and almost therapeutic to come home from work every night and to check out what kind of progress my plants are having. My plants are are now 3 feet tall and seem to be in good health. In a week I’m about to pick the first harvest of the plants which looks like around 15-20 ripe peppers, and there are tons of new flowers and several small pods forming on each of the plants besides the 20 ripe peppers.
I have two questions for the message board and it has probably already when answered a million times but I figure I would ask anyway. I know my first harvest is nothing to write home about but I was wondering what most of you do with your super hot peppers once your plants start to produce a lot of fruits at a time. I was thinking about dehydrating most of them and making a powder to add to our family’s cooking. What are other board members doing with their super hots when you have 100’s of pods to harvest?
My second question is, do I still have time to get ripe fruit by the end of the grow season if my plants are starting to flower and small pods are starting to form? I live in the Midwest and I suspect our first frost will come sometime in mid October.
to T.H.P. ! 
