# Super hot peppers



## Whitetail_hunter (Mar 14, 2012)

I do have 60 pepper plants but those range from bell peppers up to the Carolina reaper, only 5 of the plants are "super hot peppers". Most of the plants are in the ground, those in pots are definitely doing best though. So far out of what has ripened my favorite is the super chilli, really sweet pepper with a nice level of heat. I'm patiently waiting for my scotch bonnets to ripen, supposed to be pretty tasty and hot as a habenaro.


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## JimP (Feb 8, 2002)

Whitetail_hunter said:


> Not sure why there are white spots in the photos but I'm not a photographer. :lol:


Hot spots from the peppers...


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## Thirty pointer (Jan 1, 2015)

Ghost hanging around the ghost peppers .


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## Whitetail_hunter (Mar 14, 2012)

Ghost peppers









Scotch bonnet









Scotch bonnet isn't a super hot (1+ million scoville) but I am looking forward to these.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Whitetail_hunter said:


> Ghost peppers
> View attachment 324460
> 
> 
> ...


Now those are scotch bonnet. Every time I get them from the local greenhouse they end up looking an awful lot like Caribbean red habs.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

NICE pepper plants. Bigger pots do grow bigger plants, and they do produce more fruit. Those Reapers look fantastic, and you just need to wait til they turn red. Same with the Scorpion, but they will be more orang-ish.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

My ghosts looked a little more gnarly when I grew them. Next time I do I will cage them. By end of season they were nearly 4 ft tall and falling over from the weight of the peppers. They really take off in August.


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## Whitetail_hunter (Mar 14, 2012)

Those are some nice healthy looking plants there. Was that in a raised bed or tilled ground? I only got 1 ghost pepper plant this year and that went in the ground, it's maybe 2 ft tall but loaded down with peppers. 

Also just realized one of the scorpion peppers is ripening.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Whitetail_hunter said:


> Those are some nice healthy looking plants there. Was that in a raised bed or tilled ground? I only got 1 ghost pepper plant this year and that went in the ground, it's maybe 2 ft tall but loaded down with peppers.
> 
> Also just realized one of the scorpion peppers is ripening.
> View attachment 324490


Raised bed.

The first year I had the garden I filled the beds with pure compost lol... good and bad. The plants were insane huge. Literally over my head. The poblanos were like trees! No super hots this season. This year not so good for healthy plants... they're just okay. I didn't do any soil amendments this spring and haven't kept up with fertilizing. It's amazing how much time a < 2 yr old can take lol


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Dont remember what this is... some sort of big sweet pepper.








I think this was October when I was tearing the garden down. Forget which year. Ghosts had fallen over. 









This is the "Scotch bonnet". Not confident in that... just had to prop it up because it fell over a week ago lol


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## wannabapro (Feb 26, 2003)

Whitetail_hunter said:


> Most of the plants are in the ground, those in pots are definitely doing best though.


What do you attribute that to? Did you use potting soil and/or are you watering them more? Do you think the pots allow for hotter temps in the plants and roots? Fertilized differently? Also did you sink or partially sink the pots or are they above ground?


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## Whitetail_hunter (Mar 14, 2012)

wannabapro said:


> What do you attribute that to? Did you use potting soil and/or are you watering them more? Do you think the pots allow for hotter temps in the plants and roots? Fertilized differently? Also did you sink or partially sink the pots or are they above ground?


I'd say lots of factors the main one being able to control for the most part when you water or feed. The pots are not buried at all, although the 7 gallon is a clothe pot so the roots on the underside can grow into the ground if not moved often. The roots on the side also naturally air prune. I did use an organic veg fertilizer and a organic bloom fertilizer on all the plants but the potted ones have the advantage of no competition for said nutes.

The dirt was leftover from other potted plants, it's just promix HP with some amendments. I think the mobility of the plants has helped some, especially on the days it's 90. Next year I plan on having many more in pots, they have turned out great so far.


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## Shoeman (Aug 26, 2000)

This should be a good year for the hot stuff.

I remember a year this hot and dry. Even my regular jalapeños would light you up.


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## wannabapro (Feb 26, 2003)

:coolgleam


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

Sureshot, that large red conical pepper is a Cubanelle (I think). That last pic of the "Scotch Bonnets" is actually a Red Savina Habanero. Before Ghost Peppers came along, those were commonly thought of as the hottest peppers around. They have great taste, and decent heat. 

My plants aren't that large, and the peppers aren't as large, either. I am officially jealous, although I certainly grow WAY more peppers than I can use every year.


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## Quack Addict (Aug 10, 2006)

I picked the first ghost out of our garden this morning and chopped it up to dry. Tried a couple little slivers and they were great - I love the flavor and the heat was good. I can see where you could hurt yourself if you overindulged or had stomach issues. 

We need to do something with our soil - it grows a few things well (asparagus, tomatoes, garlic) but the pepper plants never turn out better than so-so at best. Tried some carrots and peas a couple years and they probably still wouldn't have any fruit if they were still growing today. All those use to grow great at our last house...?


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

Dang! I have a Trinidad Scorpion plant that is about 2 feet in diameter and 18 inches tall but has zero flowers on it yet. I hope I get some fruit before Fall. 

As far as drying goes, remove the stem cap and use a dehydrator. Store the dried peppers in a glass jar and they will last for years. I like them for making spicy mayonnaise.


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## Whitetail_hunter (Mar 14, 2012)

I've been looking more into these scotch bonnets and I'm not sure I have the real deal either. Seems there is a lot of contradicting info out there on what a true scotch bonnets look like. Pretty sure mine are not actually what they were sold as.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Whitetail_hunter said:


> I've been looking more into these scotch bonnets and I'm not sure I have the real deal either. Seems there is a lot of contradicting info out there on what a true scotch bonnets look like. Pretty sure mine are not actually what they were sold as.


They definitely look more like SB than mine!


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Fishndude said:


> Sureshot, that large red conical pepper is a Cubanelle (I think). That last pic of the "Scotch Bonnets" is actually a Red Savina Habanero. Before Ghost Peppers came along, those were commonly thought of as the hottest peppers around. They have great taste, and decent heat.
> 
> My plants aren't that large, and the peppers aren't as large, either. I am officially jealous, although I certainly grow WAY more peppers than I can use every year.


The red one is supposed to be "italian roaster". Although, its a great guess and I do have cubanelle which are slightly smaller and thinner walled. Both have good flavor.

I'm freezing the bonnets (habs really, I agree they are not scotch bonnet) to do something with later. I also have 5 - 1 gallon freezer bags full of ghost peppers from past years... as well as 3 bottles of hot sauce that I'm letting "mellow" because when fresh they are just to darn HOT!!!

I will try to find the pics from the peak of my first season with the garden... it was ridiculous how well everything grew!


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## dntnddb (Jan 15, 2009)

sureshot006 said:


> I will check out the link!
> 
> Yeah they sure do get soft when thawed, but I don't use frozen ones in a way that I'd need them to be whole. They go into sauce or a pot of chili.
> 
> ...


Not in the realm of the super hot, but I grow Thai and Cayenne, freeze them whole. If I take out of the freezer and cut up while still froze and throw in a dish. Avoid the need for gloves.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

dntnddb said:


> Not in the realm of the super hot, but I grow Thai and Cayenne, freeze them whole. If I take out of the freezer and cut up while still froze and throw in a dish. Avoid the need for gloves.


Yeah quality of frozen thin wall peppers is better than thick.


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

All of my Trinidad Scorpions are still green.  Hopefully they will turn red soon but we're starting to run of of time.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

Freezing peppers is a poor way of preserving them. Drying them works much better. I have probably 600 peppers on my plants, yet. Lots of green Reapers, and Ghosts, and 7-Pot Douglahs to ripen. 

Those Scorpions will turn red before long. I used to grow them, but just am doing 2 superhot varieties this year. How many crazy-hot peppers can one family use in a year, right? I give a ton away, dry a lot, and smoke a lot. Every year I give whatever is left from the previous year away, since I have fresher peppers. The dried super-hot peppers do lose some of their heat in the drying process, and they lose more over time - even in canning jars. They are still plenty hot.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Fishndude said:


> Freezing peppers is a poor way of preserving them. Drying them works much better.


Depends on what you're doing with them. If you're making a hot sauce it's better to freeze. Gonna be blending them anyway. But for the majority of uses I agree... drying is better. But I think a lot of the good flavor is lost.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Got more than I thought from one thai hot plant that grew poorly. Fermented 3 weeks with a little onion and garlic. So bright and beautiful! Great tang and heat but its missing depth. Gonna let the garlic settle in for a bit and try it then. Pretty good for first pepper ferment anyway. Next time I would probably take the extra effort to remove the seeds. I thought they'd blend up better. Might just need a better blender though.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Finished my first try at fermented hot sauce. 4 varieties. Thai hot, "scotch bonnet", lightly roasted jalapeno, and some large yellow chili that had the bite and smell of a habanero. All had similar quantities of garlic and onion. Gonna let them sit a while and see if anything starts growing or pressure building. Would rather it happen in the jar than in my gut lol


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## GIDEON (Mar 28, 2008)

My peppers hit great this year, scorpions, reapers, ghost. I run them through a dehydrator, then thru a blender, then into pepper jars..............homemade pepper of varying heats cant be beat.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

I picked around 500 peppers last week, and another 600+ this week to finish off my pepper harvest. Currently drying the last picking, and I'll smoke quite a bit of them. I had a great year for peppers.


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## Sasquatch Lives (May 23, 2011)

You guys are insane! Coworker gave me some salsa made with chocolate bahootlas (sp?) and could not believe the heat! Mouth burned for three hours even after I threw up. Will spare you the details of the following gastric distress that occurred that night.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Sasquatch Lives said:


> You guys are insane! Coworker gave me some salsa made with chocolate bahootlas (sp?) and could not believe the heat! Mouth burned for three hours even after I threw up. Will spare you the details of the following gastric distress that occurred that night.


Wow that's unfortunate. The blowout usually waits til morning.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

Sasquatch Lives said:


> You guys are insane! Coworker gave me some salsa made with chocolate bahootlas (sp?) and could not believe the heat! Mouth burned for three hours even after I threw up. Will spare you the details of the following gastric distress that occurred that night.


Probably Chocolate Bhut Jolokia. Or Bahootlas, if that works better for you, lol. Ghost Peppers. There are MUCH hotter peppers, but those are surely hot. I shared some salsa I made using Ghost and 7-Pot Douglah peppers to a buddy, and he shared it with some co-workers. They loved it, and asked for HOTTER. So, I gave him some salsa I made with Carolina Reapers. I haven't heard from him since, lol. 

http://www.chileplants.com/search.a...uct=&Letter=&SearchButton=Pressed&pagesize=20


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## junkman (Jan 14, 2010)

Fishndude said:


> I picked around 500 peppers last week, and another 600+ this week to finish off my pepper harvest. I'll smoke quite a bit of them. I had a great year for peppers.


Do you put them in a pipe or roll them in Zig Zag's.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Fishndude said:


> I shared some salsa I made using Ghost and 7-Pot Douglah peppers to a buddy, and he shared it with some co-workers. They loved it, and asked for HOTTER. So, I gave him some salsa I made with Carolina Reapers. I haven't heard from him since, lol.



I've personally decided recently there's not much difference between a chunk of ghost and chunk of reaper eaten fresh. They are both insanely hot and I can't really tell a difference in the grand scheme. But, I can see if you put 1 ghost in a jar of salsa vs 1 reaper there could be a noticeable difference in potency.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

junkman said:


> Do you put them in a pipe or roll them in Zig Zag's.


They're tough to keep lit, but well worth the effort, lol.

Interestingly, Super-hot peppers are 2nd only to Cannabis for most lucrative crop per acre. People pay crazy amounts for super-hot peppers. I've considered purchasing some tropical land (maybe Central America) to farm super-hot peppers, when I retire. How many peppers could you grow on a 10 acre parcel? And, if you could sell them for $1 @........... How about on a 20 acre parcel????

Reapers are noticeably hotter than any other peppers I've grown. Sure, everything from Ghost up is ridiculously hot. But there are definitely differences. 7-Pot Douglahs aren't the hottest peppers (close, #4), but there is something in them that elicits stronger reactions than Reapers do from most people. But they all have different flavors, as well. Ghost peppers are quite "smoky" tasting. 7-Pots have an incredible intense pepper flavor. Reapers are mildly smoky, but crazy-hot. I enjoy them all in various ways.


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