hi there, I have now been growing the bhut jolokia for about 6/7 months and am now just starting to get fruit. Am afraid they dont look anything like mine and i also purchased them on e.bay but am afraid i'm not sure who from. They look pretty much the same as the pic of the red chilli's on this page but mine are green at the moment and have quite a wrinkled look about them. I have had one 400w sodium bulb over the plants from germination and out of ten seeds six have now grown to about SEVEN feet high and occupy half of a 10ft squre room.....completely........allmost to the ceiling!!! They where hard to pollenate at first but after trial and effort went to basics and rubbed 2 flowers together....BINGO!! Am just waiting for them now to change colour and ripen properly....cant wait!! :)

My pleasure! First, you need to use the HTML code to link your pics. It's the code that begins with one of these "I don't use Flickr, so I'm not too sure how that site works. Bark: I use Orchid Bark or Micro Bark. I screen the particles with a 3/8 and a 1/16 inch screen. That leaves the majority of the bark pieces between 1/8 - 1/4 inch, which is what I use. *Some folks use Repti-Bark (for lizards and such), purchased at pet stores. From what I've seen, it is more expensive...but it's also pre-screened and (I think) sterilized. Seedling/Starting mix: The Seedlings are in a 1:1:1 mix - Bark, Perlite, Pumice (scoria, lava rock). It is very gritty, and the drainage is excellent. There is no standing water, no algae, and no fungus gnats. As a precaution against aphids, you might want to pour boiling water into your bark (in a bucket) to sterilize any pests/eggs. Location: I'm in northern California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, at about 1,600 feet elevation. I start my seeds indoors in late February, using a very simple two-bulb 40w grow-light. I start my seeds in the nursery 6-packs, and I re-pot into 4-inch containers when roots peek out the bottom. Typically, I plant my peppers in the garden in May. I'll include a link that details my entire pepper season. Please, feel free to ask any questions. Josh Here is a link that might be useful: Greenman's Peppers 2010 (pics)

Romy6: if I do eat a Bhut, which is not my intention as of right now, it won't be filmed and it certainly won't make the internet. I may dice one up and taste a "smidgeon" of it, but I dont profess to be a pepper eater and I have a pretty good grasp of my limitations. Here is a picture of the first one. I picked these early in hopes they stimulate the plants into speeding up the ripening process on the remaining fruit. The top one is a Cayenne, the middle three are Bhuts (Two babies ripened up for some reason) and the bottom is a Long Red Slim.

Oh about 7 half pints. I was thinking of using instead of (or with, if you think it won't be hot enough) the Hinkelhatz I usually use in the Gold recipe. I just have to label that batch as the extra-hot version. I'm surprised that Southington farm does enough business to bother growing bhuts, though at $1/pod it doesn't take many to show a profit. I wonder how many takers they have? I sold 1 Hinkelhatz this year, a few years ago I had a young vendor boasting he could handle heat and I gave him a really small one, he cut off a piece with his jackknife and ate it, started gasping and sweating. People around here just don't know hot. DH shrugs at Hinkelhatz, I'm going to try the Aji Limon (if that's what it really is, it's Burpee seed but looks right) on him. I don't know if he could handle a straight bih but he might enjoy the jelly. I just made a batch of salsa, I usually put 1/2C of hot (serrano, jalapeno) and 1.5C of sweet peppers in a 6 pint batch, this time I put 1C of each and the jalapenos were hotter than usual, that should be enough for him but I think it's going to be too hot for me. It was very unusual this year, I had a ripe orange (?) jalapeno, even the green Jalapeno Gigantes seem extra hot, but this one almost blistered my lip when I touched it to it to see if it was a hot or sweet (my sweet orange minis are more flattened than conical though). I'm saving seed from that one ;-) As usual, I didn't wear gloves and the fingertips on my left hand are sill tingling though the lip/tongue aren't any more.