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Bhut Jolokia?

Monsterhook87

Monsterhook87

In 2012, I purchased some "Ghost Peppers" at my local supermarket.  They appeared to be true bhut jolokia (I can't find the pictures), and I seeded them and planted the seeds that year.  The resulting plant was massive and incredibly prolific.  Plant was 8'x8' at least and over 7' tall.  It easily produced well over 5lbs of peppers, probably closer to 10lbs (most harvests contained 200-300 peppers).  The peppers, however, appeared to be smaller and smoother.  I'm not too familiar with Naga types, but if I had to guess, these really appear more like Morich's or something similar.  Anyone have any ideas as to what I had?  My assumption was that it was cross-pollinated, and the massive plant that grew was a result of possible hybrid vigor.
Bhut1.png

One of the larger pods produced. Pods were generally 3 inches long, 1 inch wide, and the most strongly aromatic pepper I've ever smelled (very floral and fruity).
Bhut2.png

A small harvest of my "bhut's."
 
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I forgot theliveculture. Sorry, it was about 2 years ago. I was just excited to find them at Farm Fresh, lol. I don't shop their often, but I'll see if they got them again. They were probably testing the market for them. They were imported from Holland, which I think is odd. Those naga morichs are very true to type.


Holland you say? That is kind of odd! I wasn't aware they were in to the super hot export!

I just started to germinate naga morich and black scorpion tongue. Can't wait to be harvesting pods!
 
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This year, I'm growing Red Bhut Jolokia, courtesy of Judy as one of her freebies that came along with the seeds I purchased.  It'll be interesting to compare them to my previous "bhut" plant.  I plan on putting it in the same place in the yard and growing it with the same growing conditions (assuming the weather is much the same). I really would like to grow the same pepper I had grown before.  Perhaps I'll have to invest in purchasing a vareity of Naga type seeds to grow in the spring to try to solve the mystery a bit.  I do have a good amount of powder I made from these peppers back in the day, at least, as well as some hot sauce I made from them as well.
 
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Monsterhook87 said:
This year, I'm growing Red Bhut Jolokia, courtesy of Judy as one of her freebies that came along with the seeds I purchased.  It'll be interesting to compare them to my previous "bhut" plant.  I plan on putting it in the same place in the yard and growing it with the same growing conditions (assuming the weather is much the same). I really would like to grow the same pepper I had grown before.  Perhaps I'll have to invest in purchasing a vareity of Naga type seeds to grow in the spring to try to solve the mystery a bit.  I do have a good amount of powder I made from these peppers back in the day, at least, as well as some hot sauce I made from them as well.
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My bhuts came from Judy. I grew them in different conditions and they looked the same.
 
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RobStar said:
Have a look at this: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/27630-genetic-variability-and-traditional-practices-in-naga-king-chili-landraces-of-nagaland/?hl=%2Bbhut+%2Bjolokia+%2Bhistory
 
Now click on the link and read the pdf. 
 
It is a Naga Morich.  They are very variable.  Just because you are used to seeing one phenotype doesn't mean there aren't others.
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Then why aren't the ones I grow variable? I've even grown them under different conditions. Naga morichs are not crimson red. It seems the variability is being breed out. You might as well call them bhut jolokias with your perspective.
 
Edit: The article says, "In Assam, this type of chili is popularly known as Bhoot jolokia or Bih jolokia." after equating "Naga King chili" with "bhoot jolokia." They don't know what they are talking about.
 
The bih jolokia's shape, skin texture, size, and flavor differ from both bhut jolokia and naga morich. It's more prolific than the bhut jolokia.
 
This is a bih jolokia:
9424259907_48bc2d3d80_z.jpg

 
 
If I grow seeds from the bih jolokia I will not get:
7919363262_0906df92a3.jpg

 
Edit: The article is from 2010 and from India. The way they look at the naga landrace is quite different. Chileheads breed out the variabilities. We want to know what to expect. We want the same flavors and pods we got from growing the year earlier. Farmers from Trinidad and Jamaica don't care about breeding true to type or breeding out variations. That's why there was a crisis in Jamaica with their beloved Scotch bonnet not breeding true to type. It lost its flavor and shape, so the Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture started a breeding project for Jamaican Scotch bonnets to breed it true to type. The same issue occurred (albeit a long time ago) in the US (our farmers don't care either) with Anaheim peppers, which the Chile Institute worked on improving. I've noticed in our stores that regular orange habaneros are all messed up. These are not habaneros; they are deviations from the standard. The flavor, shape, and heat are all wrong. What's good about chileheads is breeding out variability to ensure we grow what we want to grow rather than letting everything be outcrossed (we call these hybrids) or deviate from a standard. The reason we have all these named varieties for the same landrace is practical; we want to know what we are growing (not necessarily in terms of genetics but flavor, size, production, shape, texture, etc.).
 
Edit again: The scientists seem to look at this landrace in a way that doesn't help chileheads or other consumers of these chiles. They are not all the same as they say. This may be true genetically, but the characteristics of some compared to others are distinct enough to classify them and breed out variabilities.
 
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Dulac said:
 
They were imported from Holland, which I think is odd. Those naga morichs are very true to type.
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If these chillies are from Holland,and this is two years ago I am 99,999 % certain the source must have been a company called Westland. To my knowledge no other commercial grower existed then, let alone one capable of exporting and distributing abroad,
Westland is a big (very!) player in the world of bell pepper cultivation, From what I understand they do not only grow in (HUGE) greenhouses in Holland, but also "outsource" growing operations to farms in Spain, Morocco and Mexico. 
The company seems to be expanding their activities, venturing into chilli territory, They added jalapenos, serranos,several habanero strains and now also Bhut jolokia to their roster of products. 

Last year I bought 2 kgs of Bhuts from this company at 15 euro smackers a kg for various hot sauce making shenanigans, A good deal,esp. since the product was fresh, excellent quality,and good quantity you can't get anywhere else.
  
But nowadays they don't sell per kilo anymore,,,, you have to buy per 50 grams. So if you want a kg you gotta buy 20 x 50 grams.
So that's kind of a gyp. 

It is however one of many indications that chilli growing has commercial potential in the Netherlands.

There is now another supplier of professionally grown superhots in Holland, Glenn's Peppers, A more grassroots chillihead kind of company, who supply many sauce makers in the UK with fresh Morugas etc.







 
 
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Temps and growing conditions even the amount of sunlight or under lights can change how a pod looked like, I grew some Infinity peppers and while I trust the source for the seeds, although it doesn't mean that they could not have crossed at some point as the pods just didn't look right even though most of the pods looked like the other pods on some of the other Infinity peppers I grew but when I compared them to other Infinity pods on the net, they just didn't look quite right. The pods how ever were explosive right down to the last little piece that I had, so thats Ok with me.
 
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