Tag Archives: 7 pod brain strain

2013 Pepper Grow

My 2013 pepper growing season is officially underway! Last year wasn’t all that great primarily due to the drought. The season started great but then the rain stopped and the temperatures climbed. I still managed to harvest a decent amount of peppers but none of them really grew to their full potential and some plants only produced a handful of stunted peppers. Fingers crossed for a better 2013 growing season.

Here’s the the lineup this year:

Giant Red Bhut Jolokia x 2
Yellow Bhut Jolokia x 2
Chocolate Bhut Jolokia x 2
Caramel Bhut Jolokia x 2
Peach Bhut Jolokia x 2
Red Douglah Cross x 1
7 Pot Brain Strain x 1
Carolina Reaper x 1
Chocolate Habanero x 2
Big Cayenne x 2
Caribbean Red x 3

I put seeds in the dirt on February 3 so should have the first sprouts and day. More than likely I will add some more plants but this is enough to get things rolling.

Morouga Scorpion = 7 Pot Brain Strain?

Or is it 7 pot brain strain = morouga scorpion? Shortly after the announcement came out that the morouga scorpion had tested at over 2 million scoville heat units a rumbling started in the hot pepper community that the morouga scorpion wasn’t actually a scorpion at all. It was a 7 pot, and not just an y 7 pot, but the 7 pot that in recent years has been referred to as the 7 pot brain strain. Right now the discussion of this topic is taking place in a few different forums and does appear to be resolved. Here’s what I’ve been able to piece together.

In July 2008 and August 2008 cmpman1974 posted pictures of what he was calling Trinidad Scorpion Morouga Blend. He indicated he received the seeds in early 2007. As usual great pictures, to the right is one from the forum thread linked to in the previous sentence. Check out the thread for the other pictures. In another area of that same site there are pictures and mention of the word “morouga scorpion” as early as September 2007. The author seems to indicate that the morouga scorpion is “new” and it likely a scorpion 7 pot hybrid. Specifically he says (translated):

“In 2007 and even more in 2008, many fans have grown varieties now known as super-hot.
Because of cross-pollinations, scrolls or random, have appeared a whole series of hybrids and variants.
In some cases the results are significant because they have been retained some typical characteristics (such as the sharpness, the roughness dell’esocarpo, the coating on the inner walls of placenta), but variants have shapes and / or new colors very interesting.
They saw and 7Pod Yellow Scorpion, Scorpion and 7Pod hybrids, super-hot chocolate-colored etc..
Among all deserve a mention Morouga Blend (probably hybrid Scorpion/7Pod) and Trinidad Douglah (super-hot chocolate with an incredible amount of placenta) “

Those mentions and pictures are the earliest I could find for the morouga blend scorpion. Overall there’s quite a bit of evidence online that supports the timeline and look of the morouga scorpion. Seems Chris was the best known source for this pepper and pictures and posts validate that he probably did indeed receive the seeds in early 2007.

Where the takes a turn for the interesting is when you start talking about the 7 Pot Brain Strain. I wrote a post on the brain strain in 2011 that includes links and photos…worth checking out if I don’t say so myself:-) The earliest mention I could find of the word “brain” in association with this pepper was September 18, 2008. While I haven’t been able to piece it together exact it looks like Pepper Ridge Farm aka Brain Strain also acquired his seeds in 2007. At this point it’s safe to say that PRF and cmpman1974 did not get their seeds from the same person. Same country/region…probably but not the same person.

If that was the end of the story, based on all of the pictures I have found and the dates when various things were posted I would say cmpman1974 and PRF received seeds from the same pepper from different people that were called different things. Happens all the time in pepper land. I would defer to the name Trinidad Scorpion Morouga Blend too since by all written and photo accounts it was the first name with an official name. Of course though that’s not where it ends though or there would be no point in this post! There’s speculation that as the post title suggests, the Morouga Blend is actually not a scorpion at all, it’s the 7 pot brain strain. Here are a few of the theories I have read…none of which at the time I am writing this have been proven one way or the other.

1. Jim Duffy received seeds for the 7 pot brain strain and grew those as well as the morouga blend scorpion seeds he indirectly received from cmpman1974. When it came time to send in seeds/samples for the test he sent in Brain Strain seeds, not Morouga Scorpion seeds.

2. The Morouga seeds cmpman1974 originally received were mislabeled and were indeed 7 pots, not scorpions. While no one’s flat out said this I’ve read posts by a number of people that indicate every morouga scorpion they have ever grown or seen has been smooth not bumpy like the morouga’s in cmpman1974’s pictures.

3. The 7 pot Brain Strain is not a 7 pot at all, it’s the morouga blend scorpion and was mislabeled when the original seeds were received.

4. Unbeknownst to PRF and/or cmpman1974 one or both sets of original seeds were crosses. What they ended up growing and subsequently spreading around was not what they thought it was.

What do I think…I’m not sure and by no means any kind of expert. If I had to put a theory out there I would say that the brain strain and morouga scorpion are not the same pepper. My guess is that the morouga scorpion is a 7 pot / scorpion hybrid and if you have the real deal it should look similar to all the pictures that cmpman1974 has posted. The Brain Strain is probably a 7 pot that shows traits that were picked up by the morouga scorpion when it was originally crossed with a 7 pot. The two peppers probably share some similar genetics and traits but if tested would be found to be distinctly different. Keep in mind a theory is just a fancy word for guess:-)

I’ll try and keep up with the conversations and will post updates or corrections as more facts come out.

7 Pot Douglah – The World’s 2nd Hottest Chili Pepper

For now. The recently released test results for the moruga scorion also included results for three other peppers, one of which was called “chocolate 7-pot”. The chocolate 7 pot tested at 1,853,396 SHU on the high end and 923,889 SHU on the low end. It’s mean SHU of 1,169,058 was second only moruga scorpion. Given the chocolate 7 pot’s high highs and consistently high lows I don’t think it’s unreasonable to speculate that if tested again in the future it would not be a shock to see the chocolate 7 pot surpass the 2 million scoville mark of the moruga scorpion.

At this point you ay be wondering why the title of this post is “7 pot douglah” but all I have mentioned is the chocolate 7 pot. In a recent post Jim Duffy shed some light on the chocolate 7 pot used in the tests. Jim said: “Now the Chocolate 7 Pot they mention was Douglah. I got my Douglah seeds from Neal and Semillas. “

News of the douglah possibly being the hottest won’t come as shock to those who have had one. I’ve read post after post and watched countless taste test videos where the verdict was that the douglah was the hottest pepper the person had ever tasted. My personal experience is the same. I think it’s a toss up between the 7 pot brain strain and the 7 pot douglah. While both peppers tore me up I was not at all fond of the douglah taste. The brain strain has a pleasant taste for about 2 seconds until my face started to melt.

I grew a douglah last year but it turned red. The common theme in the discussion was that douglah can’t be red. Fast forward a few months and another forum member had the same thing happen, a red douglah. That person happens to sell seeds and I noticed that this year seeds from those red douglah pods are being sold as Trinidad Red Douglah Offspring. The ones I grew were super hot..right up there with the hottest I’ve tried. I saved a bunch of seeds from the one I grew, maybe I should plant a few this year…

Should be interesting to see how this plays out. My money’s on the douglah taking the record for hottest pepper at some point…now the question is will be it the classic brown douglah or a red douglah offspring?

Links to Douglah information / discussions

Douglah
Trinidad Douglah
Trinidad Douglah (C. Chinense)
Brown 7pod Vs. Douglah
Various forms of trinidad douglah pod in a plant, is this normal?
Red Douglah
Red Douglah
Sam vs the 7 Pot Douglah Chile Pepper

Douglah Taste Test Videos

2012 Super Hot Pepper Grow

January 22, 2012
Here’s the super hot pepper grow list for 2012. May have some slight changes (additions mostly) but this is the core. Could say this is the year of the bhut!

Yellow Bhut Jolokia – 10
– 6 cmpman1974
– 2 Spicegeist
– 2 BigT

Caramel Bhut Jolokia
– 6
– 6 My own seeds from 2011

Chocolate Bhut Jolokia – 2
– 2 My own seeds from 2011

Giant Red Bhut Jolokia – 2
– 2 My own seeds from 2011

7 Pot/Pod Brain Strain – 2
– 2 My own seeds from 2011

Caribbean Red – 2
– 2 My own seeds from 2011

I’m growing a bunch of non super hots too. I plan to periodically update this post as the season gets rolling.

The 7 Pot/Pod Brain Strain

2011 was the first season I’ve grown the 7 pot brain strain pepper. I even messed around with growing it in a DWC setup in the winter months of 2010/2011. I received my seeds from Cappy AKA Pepper Ridge Farm in 2010. They were from his “mother plant”. I tried my first brain strain this year. I’m not eating whole peppers, my body knows better. I did take a nice sized bite though and the next day here’s what I wrote:

“Speaking of the brain strain last night my neighbor and I sampled the 7 Pod Jonah, T Scorp Morouga and the 7 Pod Brain Strain. The Jonah was mine and the T scorp and Brain Strain were from his gardens. His plants are are from the original PepperRidgeFarm seeds, I gave them to earlier this year because I was out of space. The Jonah had a nice heat level. Hot, but I didn’t think it was bhut jolokia level heat. The Morouga was a serious step up and felt like someone punched me in the lips. 1/2 hour later we sampled the BS and h*** f****** s*** it was like someone poured a cup of lava down my throat. Serious burn – hands down the hottest pepper I have ever had in my life. I had some of AJ’s scorps this year and they were not even close to the heat level of the brain. Not saying it’s the hottest pepper out there but it’s by far the hottest pepper I have ever tasted.”

Here’s a review from Tony AKA BigT from back in 2009:

“Everything Cappy said is true! I thought he might have been exaggerating about the heat but he wasn’t. (Sorry I doubted you buddy!) My method of comparison is always the same, stick it in a can of tuna with a little mayo and onion to make it tolerable, enjoy and note results. I just had half of one of my Fatabanero’s (a cross of Fatalii & Habanero) a few days ago and that lit me up pretty good. Then yesterday, I had one fourth of a large Bhut (over 3 inches) and that didn’t do much damage at all, very pleasant, good heat and great flavor. Hardly broke a sweat. The Cappy 7 Pot “brain strain” doesn’t have the flavor of the Bhut IMO, but for heat, no comparison. I had one fourth of this little monster pictured below and it crushed me. Mouth on fire for 20 minutes. Profuse forehead sweat. Burn going all the way down the esophagus and into the stomach. An hour later, noticeable stomach burn and then, shortly thereafter, the exit strategy commenced with predictable destruction. All that from eating just 1/4th! I’m not a newbie, I’ve been eating hot peppers for many years. That’s it, if there is a hotter pepper on the planet than this, I want nothing to do with it. “

Learn more about the 7 pod brain strain in the following sections of this post.

History of the 7 Pod Brain Strain

Where did the name “brain strain” come from?
Brain strain is the name give by this thread to this lineage of 7 Pod that I am growing and shared by me to numerous members of this site (thehotpepper.com). I did not name it that just what people refer to it as. This seed came from Sara a couple years ago when this pepper was first introduced to this site. Link

I’ve done some more research and the source of my 7 Pod seed is from Trinhottie 2 seasons ago. I’m just passing along what I know so those of you who grow this seed will also know. Link

Here’s one of the earlier threads that talks about the brain strain and includes a lot of great pictures: Link

7 Pod Brain Strain Videos

Pictures of the 7 Pod Brain Strain

7 pod brain strain

7 pod brain strain

7 pod brain strain

7 pod brain strain

7 pod brain strain

7 Pod Brain Strain Seeds

The best place to find the 7 pot brain strain seeds is straight from the source, BrAin sTrAiN 7. You can also try thehotpepper.com pepper/seed marketplace.

7 Pod Brain Strain Peppers

The best place to find fresh 7 pot brain strain peppers is at thehotpepper.com pepper/seed marketplace.

You might be able to find some 7 pot brain strain powder in the powders & seasoning section of the thehotpepper.com