Growing Chillies – Fresh Bhut Jolokia is the mission
Posted on 05. May, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized
I enjoy making hot curries and there is a lot of pleasure from trying dfferent chillies in my recipes.
Part one of my attempt at growing my own chillies.
I have to admit that the chillies I prefer are the hottest available and my favourite, not just for it’s Scoville Heat Unit is the Bhut Jolokia or Ghost chilli. The chilli has a wonderful flavour and at 1M+ SHU, is the hottest recorded. But I also have a variety of Jalapeno that whilst rated at a mere 3000+ SHU, exceeds this level when fresh.
I have enjoyed cooking with chillies and have decided that to be truly puritan, I should be growing my own chillies.
What I have done is taken the seeds that you find in the chilli and placed them in water for 2 days. I have then planted them 1/2 a cm into the soil and left them on the window sill. I have watered them if they dry out using water that is at room temperature.
I have 2 varieties which are very hot :
- Graham Bell’s Jalepeno Chilli
- Bhut Jolokia
I have succesfully germinated some Jalapeno chillies on my window sill at home in a plant pot and have separated them into individual pots.
As you can see the Jalapeno plants despite being grown using identical methods have produced plants of varying levels of development.
I have also acquired a heated propogator and have tried some seeds in this.
The Bhut Jolokia require heat to germinate and the climate doesn’t have the heat to germinate them without this assistance.
As I am writing this blog I am also the proud owner of 4 germinated Bhut plants as they have just started to germinate. When they increase in size I will add the images to the site. I also now have 10 Jalapeno plants and all are on the window sill doing well.
