la bestia's 1st super hot grow

First time growing super hot strains, so any advice or pointers would be welcome and appreciated. I started some ebay scorpion moruga plants during winter indoors and ended up with 3 plants that lost most of the leaves but stayed alive and are coming back nicely outside, I hope they are actually morugas and not sweet peppers, lol. And recently made an order with Buckeye and their April fools special. I ordered 3 strains and received a bunch of freebies, nice knowledgeable people and great customer service. I planted about half of the Buckeye seeds of each variety, and had 90% plus germination except for the manzanos. I think I will need to use the paper towel method for the manzanos big black seeds.  
 
I ordered,
Manzano orange
Douglah brown
Carolina reaper
 
Freebies,
Bahamian goat
7 pot brainstrain red
Mafeking mauve
7 pot Rennie chocolate
 
I have given away a few baby moruga plants and one of the older ones from my ebay seeds to some friends. One of my friends is in Piedras Mexico and we will see what side of the Rio Bravo they like best, haha. I tried to make my soil mix as organic as possible but still cheap with local Texas ingredients.
 
50% Fertilome ultimate potting mix
15% Ladybug earthworm castings
15% Ladybug farm style compost
20% coarse perlite
1 tablespoon per gallon of each, Gardenville volcanite, pulverized garden lime, rabbit hill 5-6-3 fert.
 
The babies from Buckeye,

the 2 older moruga ebay plants,

the younger moruga ebay plants, kaffir lime in rear

 

 

[ArkansasJack]

Looking good so far........

 

[Zoli]

Never buy seeds/plants from ebay unless you know for sure you will get what you ordered. I highly recommend Judy@pepperlover.com, she is the best! Anyway, looks good!

 

[bestia]

I have been very busy working in Mexico this summer, sorry for lack of updates. I had too many plants for my small area in San Antonio so I gave away most of my established seedlings to friends, they are everywhere from San Antonio, Houston, Piedras Negras and Torreon. My friends in Torreon report that they had a real hard time in the scorching desert heat, 110 and 120 is not uncommon during summer in Torreon where I grew up.  I kept a few of the superhots and put 7 of the cheap recyclable 5 gallon grow bags you can get at walmart and the dollar general in a kiddie pool with  a drain hole, like the system on youtube. I found a cheaper soil-less mix locally called Berger BM7, which is their pine bark mix. Did the same type mix as in the 1st post but ran out of granule fert and used the Rabbit Hill tomato and pepper fert instead, at a 2 tbsp/gallon ratio. The plants seem to love the mix and blew up in the kiddie pool system where you water from the bottom, I have only given those plants water. I also ordered some plants from the Chile Woman since I only had superhots. I got  Hawaiian sweet, lemon drop, pong and firecracker, all did great and produced peppers unlike my superhots. My local grocery store in SA (HEB) also had some nice healthy plants on sale that I bought for $2 each. I got a rooster spur, peter pepper, orange thai, bhut and a black moruga. The guy taking care of the plants said the black moruga is the hottest pepper he has ever had and will blow away my red moruga, hahaha. We will see, I hope so and I wonder what the black moruga really is.  
 
I found the superhots very hard to grow in SA summer weather. I had a severe problem with aphids and pests for a while which only seemed to effect the superhots and was hard to control since I was traveling so much and had my cousin watering them, they hated the heat and I struggled with them when they were juveniles in smaller pots, the leaves all had wholes and were sick, yellow and weak. I only managed to get a few superhot pods all summer from the ebay moruga mother plant, the rest all dropped and didn't form. I took a moruga to a party and had everyone in tears who was macho enough to try it, lol. It's by far the hottest pepper I have ever tasted. I'm a rookie though, and have only tasted store bought bhuts and Trinidad scorpions that were actually less hot than habaneros I have had in southern Mexico. But these scorpion morugas I grew blew them away, nice tropical flavor as well. The good news is that they are loving this milder weather and I have pods setting on all my varieties including the superhots and have the pest problem under control. Hopefully I can harvest some peppers before winter arrives, better late than never!
 
Since my hot varieties were so small and doing so poorly I put 2 of each in 3 bags. The biggest one in the pic is the bhut I got at my grocery store. The Lemon drop is in the middle and is the smallest one but it has produced some delicious peppers, very citricy and tasty, perfect for ceviche and fish. The peter pepper has also produced and is tasty with a nice heat. The pong has produced the most and also tastes great with a nice kick. Here's my small kiddie pool jungle with 7 grow bags.

Peter Pepper,

Pong,

bhut jolokia,

getting crowded,

I also did 2 hempy buckets with perlite on the bottom and coco-perlite mix above the drain hole. The plants love the hempys, one is a reaper and the other is a 7 pot brainstrain red. I did a little fert experiment and fed the reaper dyna-gro foliage pro and protekt and fed the brainstrain urban farms vegetable fertilizer. I emailed both companies and this is what they recommended for what I was growing. They started of similar, but the brainstrain with the urban farm fert is the clear winner so far, on the right

little brainstrain pod forming in the hempy,

A reaper pod forming in the hempy

The hempy ferts,

 

[bestia]

This is the "I didn't do it" face. Not a very good guard dog since he's a big goofball, but he does keep critters away and protects my moms chihuahuas from coyotes. 

And the "alert, he might give me a treat face"

[SIZE=8pt]This is the ebay scorpion moruga mother plant that produced a few peppers. She's now producing a lot more pods in a bigger pot and milder weather. Also in the BM7 soil mix I made and only given water[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=8pt]she's got a thick stem,[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=8pt]This firecracker is very pretty and has produced constantly in a small clay pot. It tastes good but has no heat.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=8pt]younger rooster spur,[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=8pt]younger black moruga producing a lot of flowers,[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=8pt]and the orange Thai,[/SIZE]
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[Rymerpt]

Wow, nice looking grow!

 

[bestia]

The plants are doing very well loving this milder weather down south. It looks like I will get a small harvest of superhots for the season, but will have to bring the plants in once we get our 1st real cold front(below 40?) so they don't die and the peppers can ripen. 
Some of the Morugas are almost ready, cant wait.

Plant is about 5 1/2 ft tall now,

The 2 Hempy buckets are producing a lot of pods, but the Urban Farm bucket is now more than double the size of the Dyna-Gro bucket. It's so heavy it fell over in the wind so I had to support it.

The kiddie pool jungle,
 

Bhut Jolokia is the biggest plant in the kiddie pool,

Some Pongs starting to ripen

Hawaiian sweet hots,

The younger black Moruga plant that I got at my grocery store, wonder what it will be

I got the plant labels mixed up in the pool, unknown hot variety,

No ID on this hot one either,

 

[PaulG]

Looking good down there!

 

[bestia]

thanks PaulG
Reapers in Hempy,

Brainstrain in Hempy,

Reaper,

Brainstrain,

 

[bestia]

I got a small harvest before our first freeze. Brought all the plants in which was a pain, and they're back outside now. I want the peppers to ripen on the plants, still have green Douglahs, Bahamian, Rennie Chocolate and Mafekings in the kiddie pool. I have been picking reapers, brainstrains and morugas before this harvest and without a doubt the brainstrain is the hottest sob I have ever tried. I ate a quarter of one and one side of my jaw was really hurting for a while. And like they say, the real pain is not the hello but the goodbye, lol with cramps included, a real good flushing of the plumbing hahaha. It was very pungent, strong and harsh, both smelling and tasting with a little floral taste at the begging. The ebay morugas and brainstrains look identical, but the brainstrains pack a lot more punch. The ebay morugas is also very hot but It tasted better to me, more fruity and less pungent. In third place is the reaper, good flavor, but I've had habaneros that were hotter, still much hotter than your average hab though. The Urban Farm Fert hempy bucket is the clear winner, almost twice the size with double the peppers and bigger fruit. Next seasons comparison will be more scientific with 6 hempy buckets with 1 mother strain from clones and I will add Jacks all purpose fert to the test, I still have a lot of Dynagro and Urban fert left over. Whichever hot variety I like best I will overwinter and clone to make the fert test more accurate. 

 

[Runescape]

Weird that your reapers werent that hot... they look pretty awesome though.
 
Future experiment sounds interesting...ever had any success cloning peppers?

 

[PaulS]

Looking good

 

[bestia]

Thanks. The Reaper was extremely hot, a little sliver really put a hurting on my sister. But it just wasn't as hot to me as the Brainstrain or Moruga. Only tried one though, still have about 20 that are almost ripe. I cloned my original Ebay Moruga mother plant with success, using peat pellets in one of those self watering seedling tray.