Tag Archives: 7 pod brain strain

March 2011 Pepper Grow Update

The 2011 pepper growing season in Illinois is well underway. Yea it’s still dropping into the 20’s at night and we’re 6 weeks away from being able to plant out but when you have a short growing season you have get things kicked off inside if you hope to harvest any hot peppers before fall rolls around. My pepper lineup for this year is basically finalized. Here’s a complete list of everything that has sprouted and I have growing:

Red Bhut Jolokia (aka ghost pepper)
Chocolate Bhut Jolokia
Caribbean Red
7 Pod Douglah
7 Pod Brain Strain
7 Pod Jonah
Trinidad Scorpion Morouga
Pimenta de neyde
Chocolate Habanero
Orange Habanero
Fatali
Giant Jalapeno
Black Jalapeno
Early Jalapeno
Long Red Slim Cayenne

More than 1/2 of my superhots this year will be the red bhut jolokia and the chocolate bhut jolokia. My red bhut jolokia seeds originated from pepperjoe.com. He has them listed as his giant bhut jolokias. I grew those out last year and they did great. Plants were huge, pods were huge and production was high. I saved the seeds from the best plants and pods and am using those this year. Pepper Joe is using one of my photos from last season – the one with the 6 bhut jolokias with a quarter in the middle – on his site this year. He’s using a couple others too but that one’s probably my favorite.

I was given a few fresh chocolate bhut jolokia pods from neighbor at the end of last season and kept the seeds to grow out this year. I started some of them in Nov 2010 in a DWC bucket as an experiment. I still have one of them growing and transplanted the other into dirt. If all goes well I plan to sell some chocolate bhut jolokia seeds from my plants this year.

I’m growing a few of each of the other other super hots in my list and about a combined total of 15 – 20 of all the others…habaneros, jalapenos, etc. Really looking forward to trying the Trinidad Scorpion Morouga and the 7 Pod Brain Strain. I started one of the 7 Pod Brain Strain plants in DWC too but have since transplanted it into dirt.

Here’s how my indoor pepper plants look as of today:

I have around 70 pepper plants going right now. Will end up giving away 20 or so and the rest will be planted in my raised beds.

Hottest Peppers in the World

This is a not another “top 10 hottest peppers in the world” list and I’m not attempting to answer the question, “what is the hottest pepper in the world”. It seems what is considered to be the world’s hottest pepper is always changing and in many cases not officially documented or is in dispute. That’s why this won’t be an ordered list of the hottest peppers, but rather a list of peppers that are for the most part accepted as some of the hottest in the world. I plan to keep this updated as I discover other hot peppers worthy of inclusion. If you know of one or more that should be included here please add them in the comments.

Last Updated: February 7, 2012

Red Bhut Jolokia (commonly called a “Ghost Pepper”)
Chocolate Bhut Jolokia
Yellow Bhut Jolokia (also call “Lemon Bhut Jolokia”)
Bih Jolokia
7 Pod Barrakpore
7 Pod SR
7 Pod Primo
7 Pod Jonah
7 Pod Brain Strain
7 Pod Yellow
Douglah (pretty sure this is often referred to as a 7 pod Douglah)
Trinidad Scorpion Moruga
Trinidad Scorpion Butch T
Naga Morich
Dorset Naga
HP22B / Carolina Reaper

I am leaving 3 off of this list right now that have surfaced recently – the infinity, the naga viper and the new mexico scorpion.

What did I miss? What other peppers deserve a spot on the list of the world’s hottest peppers?

2011 Pepper Grow Update

A number of new pepper seed sprouts have emerged. Seeds that have sprouted so far include the 7 pod jonah, 7 pod brain strain, caribbean red, trinidad scorpion morough blend and the pimenta de neyde. Still waiting for the giant bhut jolokias, chocolate bhut jolokias and douglahs.

Overall germination rates are still really low but that’s not a surprise given my growing conditions. Last year I recall germination on a number of varieties taking 20 – 25 days or more. I was surprised that the 7 pod jonahs and 7 pod brain strains were the first ones up and have the most total seeds sprouted so far. For whatever reason I thought they would take longer.

2011 Pepper Grow Begins

Put some of my hot pepper seeds in the dirt today, the 2011 season is officially underway!

My 2011 grow list includes:

Giant Bhut Jolokia – Seeds from my own 2010 seed stock.
Jonah 7 pod – Seeds from BigT
Chocolate Jolokia – Seeds from Pepper Pat
7 pod brain strain – Seeds from Pepper Ridge Farm
Douglah – Seeds from Pepper Ridge Farm
Caribbean red -Seeds from my 2010 stock
Pimenta de neyde – Seeds from Orrevs

Have to start all of these strains very early in order to get a decent harvest in the short northern Illinois growing season.

I’m just using solo cups that I used last year. I don’t have a heat pad and the basement hangs around 65 so germination will likely be slow. That’s ok, can’t plant out until May so don’t need the plants to get huge. The faster growing peppers – various jalapenos, cayennes, charlestons, etc will be planted in another 4 – 6 weeks. Will probably plant an orange habanero or two then too.

If all goes well this year I will be selling pepper seeds, fresh peppers, dried peppers and pepper powders from this years grow in mid/late 2011.

7 Pod Brain Strain in DWC

I decided to grow the 7 Pod Brain Strain hot pepper in a homemade DWC bucket. I will update this post with progress in the coming weeks and months.

I got the seeds this past summer from user “Pepper Ridge Farm” at the thehotpepper.com. I have not tasted one myself yet but it’s supposed to be hot – as in as hot if not hotter than the current Guinness record holding Naga Jolokia aka Bhut Jolokia aka Ghost Pepper.

I’m not one to baby my seeds to get them to sprout and the brain strain seed I used was no exception. After soaking the rock wool overnight I inserted a single brain strain seed and immediately put the rock wool and seed into the 3 inch basket + hydrotron and into the 5 gallon DWC. That was November 6, 2010.

Here’s what popped up on December 8th 2010:

7 pod brain strain seed sprout

Still just in water (no nutes) here’s what it looked like 10 days later on December 18th 2010:

7 pod brain strain seed sprout 2

Still just enjoying ph adjusted tap water here’s where the brain strain sprout is on December 28th:

7 pod brain strain plant in dwc

Using the gallery on this site for the photos so they will be a in a different size from now on.

Still in the same PH adjusted water, not nutes. Here’s how the 7 pod brain strain looks on Jan 2, 2011

Dumped the water and added some nutrients today. Since I dropped the seed in the rock wool in Novemeber this 7 pod has been in just water. Here’s how it looks on January 8, 2011:

roots –

Here’s the January 18, 2011 7 pod brain strain update. Seems to like the nutes I gave it.

January 28, 2011 update. Growth seems to have slowed and have lost some leaves. Going to swap out the water/nutes this weekend and see if that helps. Not sure what the problem is. PH is in the right range. Nutes are diluted.

February 12, 2011 update. Lots of shoots growing under the min leaves. Roots have been growing like crazy and noticed small buds starting to form a few days ago. Will probably pinch considering the size of the plant. Under just about the same conditions the brain strain definitely grows a lot slower than the chocolate bhut jolokias i am growing.

March 5 2011 Update-
I decided to transplant the 7 pod brain strain from it’s dwc home to a pot with dirt to get it ready to move outside in the spring. I followed the same process a few weeks ago when i transplanted a chocolate bhut jolokia from a dwc bucket to dirt and that plant is doing very well. It was getting too crowded under my 2 foot grow light and since the chocolate bhut jolokia i am growing is so much taller it was hard to keep the light on both of them.

Here’s how the brain strain looked. Short and stocky and all the new growth was coming from the bottom portion of the plant.

The roots –

The roots cut back –

The 7 pod brain strain laying on a paper towel –

Brain strain in it’s new home –

March 27, 2011 Update

Still a slow grower but the Brain Strain seems to be enjoying it’s new dirt pot home: