• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

"Bhut Jolokia Ghost Pepper" - ID please

We are aware of a few cases like this, where seeds that were sold as Bhut Jolokias turned out to be Red Habaneros. Our supplier is also aware of the issue and it appears that somewhere up the wholesale distribution chain, at least one lot of Bhut Jolokia seeds became commingled with the more common Red Habanero.

It is certainly not our intent nor in our interest to mislead anyone. While the problem is limited in scope, it is still of great concern to us. And anyone who has purchased Bhut Jolokia seeds from us and has experienced this problem should contact us for replacements or a refund.

Whatcom Seed Co.
seedrack.com
Email: sales@seedrack.com
 
It's nice to see a company step up to the plate and do right. Thanks. By the way, your "Yellow Scotch Bonnet" is labeled as a C. Chinense. It's not. It's an Annuum and the picture unfortunately is a misrepresentation. I e-mailed your company over a year ago with this info, but no changes were made. This concerned me. Just wanted to let you know. I didn't grow the red Scotch Bonnet, but I'm guessing it's another one with the incorrect species (Chinense as opposed to Annuum). These things are of concern to consumers who spend $3-4 on a pack of seeds. Take care.
 
cmpman1974: The Scotch Bonnet is a habanero type and definitely C. chinense, not annuum. Any authoritative reference I could find confirmed this.

charlesNYC: Yes, thank you for calling this thread to our attention. But it's also nice to know about this forum in any case. I tried growing some of the Bhut Jolokias myself this year but unfortunately lost the whole crop of seedlings in the process of hardening them off. Death by blanching in the hot sun. Doh!
 
Sorry seedrack. But if cmpman1974 says what he got was an annuum then it was an annuum. Scotch bonnets are chinense sure but there are other bonnet like varieties in the annuum family as well. They may have been mixed up.

Cmpman1974 is quite knowledgeable in this. And i am quite sure you are too.

Perhaps it would be best if both of you to pm each other.

Dont mind me i'm a nobody here.
 
We are aware of a few cases like this, where seeds that were sold as Bhut Jolokias turned out to be Red Habaneros. Our supplier is also aware of the issue and it appears that somewhere up the wholesale distribution chain, at least one lot of Bhut Jolokia seeds became commingled with the more common Red Habanero.

It is certainly not our intent nor in our interest to mislead anyone. While the problem is limited in scope, it is still of great concern to us. And anyone who has purchased Bhut Jolokia seeds from us and has experienced this problem should contact us for replacements or a refund.

Whatcom Seed Co.
seedrack.com
Email: sales@seedrac

Seedrack. I sent you an email on Friday, July 30 and have yet to receive a response. A follow up email was just sent.

Pete
 
I just realized that what I bought at the Asheville Herb Festival as a $7 "ghost pepper" start is a red habanero. They taste good, but I'm pissed. I told all my friends, and waited for months for a ghost pepper, and all I got was another habanero cultivar. People who mislabel and lie about the plants they sell suck. Now its August and I got no ghost-- maybe next year
 
Our supplier has provided the following information in regards to the variability of the Bhut Jolokia. I thought you all might be interested and we are adding this as a disclaimer to our website so people have a better idea what they may be getting:

-----
Pepper Bhut Jolokia
This pepper comes from a wild plant found in various parts of India. It is basically Capsicum chinense, but may hybridize with other species in the wild, such as C. frutescens or others.
It has a reputation for being one of the hottest peppers, and there is some evidence that its heat may be partly a function of the environment in which it was cultivated (with hot humid environments resulting in more heat than hot dry environments).
Its basic appearance is very similar to a red habanero pepper. Because it is found in the wild and is subject to cross-pollination, its appearance can be variable. The variability can extend to the color, skin smoothness/wrinkliness/hairiness, and pod shape.
The germination capability varies widely, but we have selected for the best possible germination, which typically runs from 75 to 85%.
It has various other names, such as Naga Jolokia, ghost chili, cobra chili.
-----
 
The disclaimer just tells me that I'm taking my chances if I really want a bhut jalokia and you have covered yourselves. I am convinced that I can go to thehippyseedcompany or others on THP and not have to worry about taking chances. It is such a struggle growing bhuts where I live, I don't want to get burned and then be told about a disclaimer. Thank God for THP is say.:clap:
 
cool man...we enjoy being nice to one another here...

IMO...if you want real Bhuts...go to the source that had them certified in Guiness...

http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/cart/seeds/other_varieties/


I went on that site. This may sound like a stupid question but here goes.......It says the price is $6 is that for 1 seed or a packet of seeds?
 
Shawn, thats for a package of seeds (not sure on count in the package though). If you ask nicely around here, you may be able to score some seeds for the price of a stamp, we trade them all the time, but you have to be nice about it. LOL
 
Shawn, thats for a package of seeds (not sure on count in the package though). If you ask nicely around here, you may be able to score some seeds for the price of a stamp, we trade them all the time, but you have to be nice about it. LOL

Lol...Thanks, for the info, Matt! :)
 
shawn, it's for a packet of seeds. and i believe there's a minimum purchase of $30? not sure might be less. it's written there somewhere.
 
The Bhut Jolakia will longer fruits and will bend about 45+ degrees in the bottom quarter. I got some from http://www.burnmegood.com/store/view/cart/item_category.cfm?CategoryID=46 and they even threw in a Caribbean Red. Not only that, when I planted them, one of the Bhut's leaves all fell off. I called them to see how I should treat it to get it healthy. They said just water it and they were going to send me another. Nice folks.
 
Thanks for your reply Richard. It was very imformative, looks like you know what your talking about.
Do you much about the Inheritance of certain traits in the peppers i.e. size, shape, color etc???
or do you know where I could find something more about this?
 
Our supplier has provided the following information in regards to the variability of the Bhut Jolokia. I thought you all might be interested and we are adding this as a disclaimer to our website so people have a better idea what they may be getting:

-----
Pepper Bhut Jolokia
This pepper comes from a wild plant found in various parts of India. It is basically Capsicum chinense, but may hybridize with other species in the wild, such as C. frutescens or others.
It has a reputation for being one of the hottest peppers, and there is some evidence that its heat may be partly a function of the environment in which it was cultivated (with hot humid environments resulting in more heat than hot dry environments).
Its basic appearance is very similar to a red habanero pepper. Because it is found in the wild and is subject to cross-pollination, its appearance can be variable. The variability can extend to the color, skin smoothness/wrinkliness/hairiness, and pod shape.
The germination capability varies widely, but we have selected for the best possible germination, which typically runs from 75 to 85%.
It has various other names, such as Naga Jolokia, ghost chili, cobra chili.
-----

i find it pretty much appalling that you guys are still selling bhut jolokia seeds knowing that it's all either crossed or mislabeled seed.
 
I have a friend grow bhut and my 25 "bhut jolokia" seeds from seedrack that turned out to be red habs look nothing like them, so how does "Its basic appearance is very similar to a red habanero pepper." make sense?????
 
I have a friend grow bhut and my 25 "bhut jolokia" seeds from seedrack that turned out to be red habs look nothing like them, so how does "Its basic appearance is very similar to a red habanero pepper." make sense?????

Yeah, I had massive hopes when the seedrack dude showed up here, but the fact that he's still selling mislabeled pepper seeds for 8 bucks a pack is completely unacceptable.
 
Back
Top