Hi all
I hope this post helps anyone who has had similar problems growing Bhut Jokia peppers and hopefully answer some of those questions regarding causes of flower drop and lack of pollen from flowers.
I currently have an indoor grow room as I live in an apartment in the UK and weather is useless here, especially this summer (2015).
I have been growing pretty much all the superhot Chinense varieties this year under 200W PRAKASA COB LED lights in a few grow tents and have been extremely happy with the results.
Chinense Varieties:
Bhut Jolokia (Personal favourite)
Trinidad Moruga scorpion
Carolina Reaper
Cornish Naga (same as Dorset naga)
Naga Morich
Orange Habanero
Lucy
Katie (New British record holder)
Red Savina
I have tried to keep most varieties isolated once flowering to ensure true strain seeds although not always possible so Orange habs are in with Red Savina's etc.
My Experiences:
All plants flourished under the LEDs and vegetative growth was great, then all varieties started to bud and flower. This I was really pleased with and started hand pollinating although nothing was really happening. I then noticed that 1 of the 4 Bhut Jolokia plants started to set a fruit, only the one, but I was very hopeful of a bountiful harvest. As Bhut jolokia's are my favourite variety I was delighted but then to my disappointment nothing more was happening fast!
At first I was having major issues with flower drop and no setting fruit (apart from the single fruit on the Bhut as mentioned before) so I started to think of what the causes could be? After a lot of googling and trawling through forums I found various advise and it made sense to me that humidity and temperature was the biggest factor of the flower drop.
So I went out and got a humidity and temperature gauge/meter and after leaving in one of the tents for a while I could see the humidity levels were very low in relation to where the chillies originate (India, Trinidad etc).
As the LED lights do not give off excessive heat light HPS or MH I didn't have to worry about keeping temperature down so I just used a simple plastic spray bottle and misted the grow room periodically. This worked for a bit but soon the humidity levels dropped again so I thought perhaps it would be better to spray the walls of the grow tent and sure enough it keeps the humidity level between 73 - 85%. I only need to spray the walls a little every few days to keep it constant and is far cheaper than a humidifier or mister. The new humidity solution now also keeps the temp constant between 70 - 85 degrees too.
Sure enough after a few days the Moruga's and Carolina Reapers responded to the higher humidity and started to set fruit like mad and I could see plenty of pollen from the flowers, although the Bhut Jolokia's were completely different.
The Bhut Jolokias had the same humidity and temperature levels but the flowers just kept falling off and I'm talking shed loads, I know as I had to keep sweeping them off the floor of the tent!
I ended up picking the single chilli from the plant to see if it encouraged fruit to set but it didn't, just kept dropping flowers. This happened for a weeks, if not a month and I was at my wits end thinking I would never get them to fruit indoors, but the single pepper kept me thinking I must be doing something right, be patient.
Sure enough after about 1.5 months of the plants flowering and hand pollinating every other day, less flowers were falling off and I finally started to see pollen from some of the flowers. There didn't always appear to have visible pollen and as I work during the week was unable to ascertain exactly what time of day the flowers produced the pollen. I then made it my quest to check all weekend and was able to see that between 11 am and 3 pm was the most productive time as the flowers opened right up, so I started the hand pollination during these periods.
Finally success, I started seeing fruit setting and I was delighted although with working was not able to perform this during the week. The simple solution was to push the plants close together ensuring the branches were overlapping and then I used a small 6" clip on fan to blow across the top of the plants for a few hours of the day, primarily between 11 am and 2 pm. This has worked a treat and the 4 plants are now fruiting like made although I'm still hand pollinating to increase my odds.
Final thoughts:
Bhut Jolokia are by far the hardest chilli I have grown and understanding how to grow them indoors successfully is a science in own right. One piece of advice I read time and time again, was have patience and they will come good in the end and I completely agree.
You must have patience with this variety, especially indoors, but humidity is the key to ensuring you get pollen and expect the flowers to be dropping for a good month or so but finally you will notice the majority of the flowers stay on the plant and hand pollinating becomes far easier.
Also remember to check certain times of the day for the flowers to be completely open as pollen production is at it highest at these times (usually between 11am- 3pm) so hand pollinate then.
Good luck with this variety, I'm certainly going to be growing loads more!!
Will post some pictures soon of the grow rooms and the fruiting plants for anyone who is interested.
HB
I hope this post helps anyone who has had similar problems growing Bhut Jokia peppers and hopefully answer some of those questions regarding causes of flower drop and lack of pollen from flowers.
I currently have an indoor grow room as I live in an apartment in the UK and weather is useless here, especially this summer (2015).
I have been growing pretty much all the superhot Chinense varieties this year under 200W PRAKASA COB LED lights in a few grow tents and have been extremely happy with the results.
Chinense Varieties:
Bhut Jolokia (Personal favourite)
Trinidad Moruga scorpion
Carolina Reaper
Cornish Naga (same as Dorset naga)
Naga Morich
Orange Habanero
Lucy
Katie (New British record holder)
Red Savina
I have tried to keep most varieties isolated once flowering to ensure true strain seeds although not always possible so Orange habs are in with Red Savina's etc.
My Experiences:
All plants flourished under the LEDs and vegetative growth was great, then all varieties started to bud and flower. This I was really pleased with and started hand pollinating although nothing was really happening. I then noticed that 1 of the 4 Bhut Jolokia plants started to set a fruit, only the one, but I was very hopeful of a bountiful harvest. As Bhut jolokia's are my favourite variety I was delighted but then to my disappointment nothing more was happening fast!
At first I was having major issues with flower drop and no setting fruit (apart from the single fruit on the Bhut as mentioned before) so I started to think of what the causes could be? After a lot of googling and trawling through forums I found various advise and it made sense to me that humidity and temperature was the biggest factor of the flower drop.
So I went out and got a humidity and temperature gauge/meter and after leaving in one of the tents for a while I could see the humidity levels were very low in relation to where the chillies originate (India, Trinidad etc).
As the LED lights do not give off excessive heat light HPS or MH I didn't have to worry about keeping temperature down so I just used a simple plastic spray bottle and misted the grow room periodically. This worked for a bit but soon the humidity levels dropped again so I thought perhaps it would be better to spray the walls of the grow tent and sure enough it keeps the humidity level between 73 - 85%. I only need to spray the walls a little every few days to keep it constant and is far cheaper than a humidifier or mister. The new humidity solution now also keeps the temp constant between 70 - 85 degrees too.
Sure enough after a few days the Moruga's and Carolina Reapers responded to the higher humidity and started to set fruit like mad and I could see plenty of pollen from the flowers, although the Bhut Jolokia's were completely different.
The Bhut Jolokias had the same humidity and temperature levels but the flowers just kept falling off and I'm talking shed loads, I know as I had to keep sweeping them off the floor of the tent!
I ended up picking the single chilli from the plant to see if it encouraged fruit to set but it didn't, just kept dropping flowers. This happened for a weeks, if not a month and I was at my wits end thinking I would never get them to fruit indoors, but the single pepper kept me thinking I must be doing something right, be patient.
Sure enough after about 1.5 months of the plants flowering and hand pollinating every other day, less flowers were falling off and I finally started to see pollen from some of the flowers. There didn't always appear to have visible pollen and as I work during the week was unable to ascertain exactly what time of day the flowers produced the pollen. I then made it my quest to check all weekend and was able to see that between 11 am and 3 pm was the most productive time as the flowers opened right up, so I started the hand pollination during these periods.
Finally success, I started seeing fruit setting and I was delighted although with working was not able to perform this during the week. The simple solution was to push the plants close together ensuring the branches were overlapping and then I used a small 6" clip on fan to blow across the top of the plants for a few hours of the day, primarily between 11 am and 2 pm. This has worked a treat and the 4 plants are now fruiting like made although I'm still hand pollinating to increase my odds.
Final thoughts:
Bhut Jolokia are by far the hardest chilli I have grown and understanding how to grow them indoors successfully is a science in own right. One piece of advice I read time and time again, was have patience and they will come good in the end and I completely agree.
You must have patience with this variety, especially indoors, but humidity is the key to ensuring you get pollen and expect the flowers to be dropping for a good month or so but finally you will notice the majority of the flowers stay on the plant and hand pollinating becomes far easier.
Also remember to check certain times of the day for the flowers to be completely open as pollen production is at it highest at these times (usually between 11am- 3pm) so hand pollinate then.
Good luck with this variety, I'm certainly going to be growing loads more!!
Will post some pictures soon of the grow rooms and the fruiting plants for anyone who is interested.
HB