Naga Jolokia seeds

Once upon a time, way back in 2007, the Bhut Naga Jolokia seeds were recognised as the hottest in the world, and indeed, they still are horrendously hot having over 1 million Scoville heat Units (SHU’s). But they have been overtaken in the heat stakes by Morugas, the Carolina Reaper and quite a few others. The Reaper has the top spot at present (Oct 2020) coming in at 2,200,000 SHU’s though no doubt another hybrid will overtake it in due course.

Just for the record - the Bhut Naga Jolokia is also called the Ghost Pepper, a term it was given by the good people of India because they believed that this chilli was so hot that if anyone could eat one they must be a Ghost.

To grow these seriously prolific plants you really need a propagator as the seeds are not the fastest to germinate, so no propagator then no germination as your seeds will have rotted before they have time to germinate.

Bhut Naga Jolokia originated in Assam, India where it is hot enough for them to self seed and grow outside. In the UK growing them outside would be a complete waste of time and energy as they need the heat from day 1.

I have grown these chillies for years now because I love to do so but I always give away the fruits to neighbours and friends. They are prolific as I mentioned earlier and a good, strong plant should produce 200 fruits quite easily.

The Naga Jolokia are believed to be difficult to grow but that is not my experience. I believe that some growers tend to plant them too deeply when they are starting off the seeds. Of course that causes an immediate problem because chilli seeds do not have the strength to fight their way through 10 mm of compost or more to reach the light so there they will linger until they rot.

Place them into damp compost at about 3 or 4 mm down. Keep them warm and damp with as much light on them as possible and they will reward you with some 90 cm (3 ft) plants covered in fruit.