Your plant is looking great. Very healthy. There are several things that may be causing your flower drop.

The weather may be contributing to other problems, but the Bhut Jolokia shouldn't have flower drop because of the heat exclusively. You mentioned MG. That stuff is great for plants that "look" good, but I never suggest it for plants that are for providing food. The nutrients in MG are simply not the best for fruiting plants. MG will make almost any plant grow vegetative growth like crazy and will make your plants look great. However, the nitrogen in MG is a little much for most fruiting plants and causes flower drop quite often.

I would suggest that you use a nutrient on your plant that is made exclusively for fruiting plants. There are many on the market and available at common stores.

Stress is also a major cause of flower drop. In your case, the stress involved would be a radical change in ambient temperature followed by cloudy conditions. The plant goes through a lot of changes when these things happen and none of them are favorable to blossom retention.

One trick is to put misters near your plants. You may have seen them in your local plant sellers green houses. They spray a very fine mist of water into the air that drifts with the breeze. This helps cool the plants and provides a nice watering of the foliage. It will help reduce the plants need for watering and will help eliminate the stress to the plant as a result of radical temperature changes.

During very hot, no rain conditions, stretching cheese-cloth over your plants to lessen the amount of direct sunlight hitting the plant will also help. Four corner stakes set at three foot intervals with the cheese-cloth stapled to them with a moderate stretch will lessen the sunlight enough to keep peppers and other fruited plants from becoming stressed from the sun.

Thanks for the info! About the heat..I have the plant up on a little stand to keep it off the concrete. I was wondering if maybe that was causing it to heat too much. Other than that, I agree that it should be able to handle the heat fine (at least from what I've read about it).

So you think I should transfer the plant into more suitable soil or just start adding more nutrients (minus the nitrogen)into the soil?

Also, should I water the plant when the leaves start to shrivel up or is this something that it will bounce back from once the sun goes down? I don't want to over water it but so far when I see it looking like that I instantly panic and either mist it really good or water it until it returns to looking like the above picture. Yet I keep hearing how these plants are better dry than having too much water.

Thanks again for the info. I might get a mister for myself while I'm at it. Ugh..Florida.

Yes, you should water when the leaves wilt. The wilting is more related to a lack of water than overly hot temperatures (which obviously increase the evaporation of water from the soil as well as the plant itself). It's ok to let peppers wilt a little bit as it supposedly makes them more drought resistant. In general if the soil looks dry on top it's ok to water the plant, peppers just don't like to be swimming in wet soil all the time.

OK good then, I went out and watered it anyways right after I posted that. I couldn't help but see it out the window sitting in the sun. Now at least I know for sure and I appreciate it guys.

You don't want to over fertilize. You've already got the plant in MG. That is all it should have until the MG expires. Adding more to it WITH the MG, while the MG is still active, will cause you problems. Most MG expires from the soil after 3 months. Then, it would be safe to add a fertilizer that is good for fruiting plants. Or, you could transplant it into a good mix of potting soil that has a good amount of either vermiculite or perlite. That would eliminate the MG ferts so it would be safe to use others.

As for watering, you should always water in cool mornings or late evenings just before the sun goes down. If you water during the middle of the day, it causes more harm than good. The container should be of adequate size to keep the soil moist all day without watering. The soil should be of a mix that allows proper drainage but also retains enough moisture to last the full day. With MG soil, you shouldn't need to water but each 3 days or so. Your plant will wilt slightly during very hot days. This is normal. Don't, repeat DON'T water it during the mid-day temps. Only water in the morning OR evening. You should NOT have to water every day. If you do have to water every day, your container is not large enough.

That may well have been what happened. I'm pretty sure it was more than 2 months that it was in the MG before I started fertilizing it but not quite 3 months. First off I added some Osmocote because the place I ordered it from recommended it. I thought maybe it was all disolved and I heard the Tomato feed stuff was good for peppers and I rushed into using that too soon most likely. I have only used the Tomato food fertilizer (not sure what brand) and epsom salt (2 weeks apart) so far. I'm gonna back off on it all and see if that helps and also transplant it into some better soil. ANY BRAND OR TYPE THAT YOU WOULD RECOMMEND?

As for the watering, that totally makes sense to me now. I really appreciate that..it didn't occur to me until you put it that way. It's been moved to a 3 gallon pot so I have already started to water it less. I put the only question in caps so you can avoid all the babble in between. But if you read that, than I'm sure you endured it already. I do really appreciate the help, thank you!

I would strongly suggest putting your plant into a minimum of a 5 gallon container. 7 gallons would be the best. It will use all of the 5 gallon and most of the 7 gallon.

3 gallons is too small. The roots can't properly develop and you have to water too often.

If you mix any good quality potting soil with perlite, at a 3 part soil to 1 part perlite, it'll work fine.

The potting soil needs to be a kind with NO ADDITIONAL nutrients added. Nothing.

If the potting soil has perlite in it already, just add more until you figure that a 3 to 1 ratio is reached. Close is good.

I'll explain why the large container; If you use a 3 gallon container, even with the proper perlite/soil mix, when the plant is in full fruit, it would need more water than you could provide once a day unless you used too dense of a soil mix. If the soil mix is too dense, the nutrient uptake is bad. The root growth is bad. The soil would be either too wet or too dry and very difficult to control.

When you have the right mix of soil, the roots are in MOIST soil that allows the proper amount of oxygen to permeate the area of the roots and this, combined with the proper nutrients allows the plant to grow at it's best.

The large "tree" type container is what you want to use. They are more expensive, but what is your time and happiness worth? If you waste a bunch of time messing with something that only works so-so, and your plant gives you nothing but grief and worry, what have you gained?

The right soil, the right container and the right nutrients will make you AND your plant happy.

You'll have plenty of peppers and less worry and work.

I will get on that today. What's the best nutrient ratio for pepper plants..or am I just looking for something with more of everything but nitrogen or really really low nitrogen? I'm not really sure how low I'm supposed to be keeping the Nitrogen compared to everything else. Just for the record the stuff I've been using is: MG Tomato Plant Food at 18-18-21. Is there something better I could be using? Thanks again, wow..I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with all of this. Thank you.

Something along the lines of 5-10-10 would be a good ratio for hot peppers. Find something as close to that as possible. Bone meal mixed into the soil is a good idea also. It provides the calcium that peppers need.

OK the deed is done. Well, partly anyways. I transplanted it to an 7 gallon pot with regular soil and perlite. The only problem I'm having is finding a fertilizer that is close to the 5-10-10 so far. I'm still using the MG tomato food for now until I can find something to those specs. Some of my flowers have tannish or grey washed out looking spots on them and I was wondering if you were on to something with the bone meal for calcium. Since I don't have fruit yet I can't really tell if that's what it is, but I'm guessing I might have a calcium deficiency causing blossom end rot..maybe? Let me know what you think. I can say for sure that I do see the petals of the flower falling away from the end of the flower leaving just the stigma behind with the rest until that falls off as well. I bought some blossom end rot formula for calcium instead of the bone meal because that the bone meal the store had had nitrogen in it..which the MG Tomato food already has in it and I don't want to overdo it again with the nitrogen. whew!

Plantsagainstus I notice how lush and green your jolokia is i've included a pic of mine which is far smaller but also much lighter in colour do you think epsom salts would help?

biggestdav, I'm totally sold on epsom salt as a foliar spray. I mixed 1 tablespoon with a gallon of water and misted down the leaves really good. I noticed that the plant shot up and the flowers seemed to open up a lot quicker (plus a lot more bloom growth) within 48 hours. However my plant was also getting a lot of nitrogen at first and was already pretty green before hand which turned out to be a bad thing as I haven't been able to get fruit to set at all. That's all I can really tell you - I'm still learning and one of these guys on here can probably give you better info.

Thanks for the advice im going to give it a go and see what happens, this is my first year growing peppers so your not the only one still learning!

Just wanted to thank everyone for their input. My plant seems to have stopped dropping flowers. The flowers are opening up way more than they used to, the anthers are larger as well and appear to have pollen on them as opposed to before when I couldn't even see a trace of it even after rubbing a Qtip on it. Now we'll see if I can get any peppers. Thanks again for the answers..I'm sure there will be plenty more questions coming.

Hey Biggest Dav, the Epsom salt will last longer if you use it in your watering of the plant. The foliar spray is a quick fix, but has little lasting value.

Good luck to you!

That's good to know. The website I read it on said they used it as a foliar spray but I watered with it as well and it was still great. Datilman, how often can you safely use Epsom salt?

If your containers get a good flushing like mine do with the rains, you can do it as often as you like. I've heard others say that it can be used with every watering, but too much of anything will turn bad. Most of the professional gardeners I've read or heard on the subject suggest a two week interval. The plant shouldn't need it more often than that once it's good and healthy.

OK cool. I have my first pepper starting finally! Thanks to you and your help. Now, how to get rid of those tiny black ants that are always running up and down the plant and hiding in the flowers? Will they help polinate or are they just there to cause me more headaches?

You need to put an ant killing product around the base of your plants. They could be aphid farmers that will work together with aphids to harm or kill your plants. You also need to use something to prevent aphids. It sounds like you may have them. Micro farming is fun! Nature has so many critters that like the same things we do.

I know, it's so cool. I almost feel bad ruining their little world. Life's a b*tch. I was looking at a few products but I wasn't sure what the best solution would be since it's in a pot. Should I get something to spray on or something in a powder form. I'm probably gonna screw up the spelling but..Diotomacious earth..or something along those lines? Borax and sugar mix? A typical indoor/outdoor black ant trap? The regular spray on ant killer? I've been looking for aphids and haven't seen any anywhere and it's almost fun picking off the ants as they scream (at least in my head) and run down the stems. You've been spot on in helping my plant so far, what would you use?

I have an aversion to spraying insecticide on something I'll be eating. I would use one of the many that are safe for use on veggies. Walmart has several. I haven't had to use any for some time now. Just read the package carefully and make sure it's safe to use in food gardens. You should sprinkle it around on the surface around the plants, not on the plant.

Hey Datilman thanks for your help my plants much happier now!

ditto to what biggestdav said.

My pleasure, folks. I'm glad I could be of help.

I have a question about fertilizer and the ratios. I was given a tomato fertilizer that someone wasn't using..it's a 1-1-4 mix. I was wondering since it's so low if you double the mixture would that increase the ratio to 2-2-8? Would this be safe to do? Just curious. Thanks in advance.

Espoma Tomato Tone seems to work for me

LINK

I always have loads of jalapeno's and habanero's

Thanks ssj4, I checked out that link and I'm gonna pick some up. Thanks for the suggestion!

Anyone know the best way to get rid of whiteflies?

I am so glad that I found this site and this particular post
I have the same exact plant and I am having the same exact
issues with it .. its growing real nice I bought it as a 7"
plant over ebay and have had it for 2 months now and its
huge but the flowers bloom on it and fall off

I have read this whole page and got alot of wonderful tips
from it thanx for the info ...

I have a pretty small pot for it as well and I have to water
it quite often glad someone said to get a bigger pot to fix
that issue

I am going to try these things and some others from people
I have talked to

I have pics from a week after I first got it
http://www.zipcodecentral.net/images/plant

the images are big but I will get some new pictures
of what it looks like after a month

oh on the whiteflies, aphids issue I use worm castings soil
on the top and a bit mixed in .. its supposed to make the
plant not taste good to bugs it seems to work pretty well
I have not seen much for bugs on it so far

Ok, I'm going to ask a total newbie question and I hope people don't gasp in horror that I am even asking this but...

What's the big deal about the Bhut Jolokia pepper? Is it that it's hard to grow, is it hot/tasty...? I see a lot of postings that are specifically about this pepper and was just wondering why it was so popular.

Thanks in advance for the schooling.

~Erin

yes its a hard plant to grow since its from north east india
it needs a hot environment and lots of water

it is supposed to be the worlds hottest pepper beating out
the red savina which was the former world breaker

here is a site that shows a list of hotness for each type of pepper

http://www.chilliworld.com/FactFile/Scoville_Scale.asp

I have heard that this pepper has a very good fruity taste
till the heat kicks in ...

you can also go to youtube.com and find tons of videos of
people trying out the peppers

this video is quite funny but I warn you there is quite
a bit of language involved but what do you expect from
something this hot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6gNKryYWR0

Actually, worm castings do not make the plant taste bad to bugs. Worm castings are full of micronutrients, humates and other naturally occuring beneficials that will make a plant healthier - thereby making it more resistant to insect attacks. The Bhut Jolokia is one of the easiest to grow chili plants I have grown, mine are huge, and the yields will be phenominal. The pepper itself is a thin walled pepper, and it is succeptable to bottom rot so you must have adequate calcium, and try to keep excess moisture to a minimum. Yeah right, after the 6+" of rain last night!!
Not trying to bash the above statements, but a minimum 4 gallon, and even better a 5-12 gallon container with a good draining organic mix and lots of slow breaking down organic ferts will make these plants literally explode with growth and fruit. I have 6 of them, and the largest is over 4' squared with close to 115 fruit now. The heat from the pepper is misleading at first - not immediate, but creeping up on you then oh my gosh what in the bloody name of heck did I get myself into????? The chili's great in smaller quantities diced and cooked into those foods you love spicy. Anyone want an organic soil recipe that these love, let me know. Good Luck TiMoTeOOOOO their hot!

tekgeek, that video was hilarious. I must admit, I love that rush you get when things start to burn, however I don't think I would willingly chomp down on a pepper that hot. Makes for good entertainment though!! Thanks for the info too!

I have a few bhut jolokia plant i've been caring for,for a few years and i'm getting these little red/orange bugs on only the new leaf spourts.What are they and what can i do?

Warren Richmond VA

I'm growing 4 Bhut Jolokias here in S. Florida. Have each of the 4 in 3-gallon pots. They are currently about 2 feet high with lots of flowers.
I noticed the same problem with flowers falling off. I read that this type of pepper is not such a good self-pollinator, unlike the Thai chili peppers I am also growing. Those things flower and fruit like crazy and my plants are covered with ripe chilis now.

So, I have been painstakingly hand-pollinating the jolokias with a small brush. Right now, 2 of the plants have quite a few fruits on them.....15 on one plant, about 11 on another. The other 2 plants are not fruiting as well....only 1 fruit on one plant, and zero on the last one. (I also wanted to self-pollinate to reduce the chance of cross-pollination from the Thai chilis, although they are about 20 feet away).

I am also using Miracle Gro Tomato food. I figured this would be good as peppers are in the same family as tomato.
I feed them once a week at 1/2 the recommended dosage.
I also feed the Thai peppers with the same mixture and they are covered with fruits, so I'm not sure if the high Nitrogen in MG is what is causing the Jolokia flowers to drop. Seems to be more an issue of them not getting pollinated. I noticed that the Jolokia flowers just don't seem to have as much pollen as the Thai peppers.

But, I'm thinking of trying your suggestion of a lower-N fertilizer, just on the one plant that is not yet fruiting, as an experiment. Should be interesting.

BTW, I think the first peppers should be ripe in a couple more weeks. Anyone ever tried biting into one?
Anyone ever seen the video of that Indian woman who ate like 15 whole ones in 5 minutes, then took all the seeds and residue and mashed it into her eyes ?? NUTS !!

Doug

Another thing I noticed about growing these plants in Florida....they don't dry out as fast if you put them in plastic containers versus clay pots. My friend has a Jolokia plant I gave him. It's in a bigger pot than mine, but clay instead of plastic, and nearly every day when he comes back from work it's showing signs of wilting.

I also keep them elevated off the hot concrete patio. That seems to help too.

Doug

Ok, I've been reading an absolute muriad of info about raising Bhut Jolokia's but still cannot find a solution to my own problem. I bought one recently without any buds or anything on it, took it home, repotted it into a bigger pot and it started to grow some buds... here is where my problem lies... nearly every single bug it develops dies and shrivles up before even turning into a flower (I've only had one flower which also proceeded to die)... haha, I'm not even worried about fruit at this point, i can't even get a damn flower to grow... weird as I havent found any other posts on this problem. Can anybody help me?
I have recently purchased some epsom salt and misted it a few times and gave it a decent feed of seaweed fert... not sure if it's working yet... but yeah, any pointers or hints would be fricken awesome!! :-)