I’m Growing Carolina Reapers

I’m growing my own Carolina Reaper peppers!

I’ve always enjoyed spicy foods and think there’s something special about this particular pepper. There are the fantastic reactions they cause (just take a look on YouTube), the shape, the bright attractive color, all become instant sources of curiosity and fascination.

The Carolina Reapers were considered the hottest pepper on record until they were dethroned in 2023 by the Pepper X. Both are creations of Ed Currie and he’s done more for the pepper market than probably anyone else.

If you want to grow your own, I invite you to visit the PuckerButt Pepper Company and order a handful!

November 7, 2023

I want to document the entire process, the entire adventure and like all adventures, you have to start somewhere. I ordered some Carolina Reaper seeds direct from the source, Ed Currie himself and they finally arrived.

There was also a card in the shipping envelope with additional information, including contact details. I’ve already bookmarked the page containing growing tips, but I like this extra bit of care taken for customers.

When it comes time to plant, the first step is to place the seeds in the refrigerator for 3 days to simulate winter and then to soak the seeds in black tea to help soften up the external shell. When I reach that stage, I’ll provide an additional update!

November 11, 2023

I have started the refrigeration process, placing the seeds inside the refrigerator for 3 days. There is no mention of exact temperature in the growing instructions so I have to just go with the current setting.

The goal of this process is to help simulate winter conditions, keeping the seeds cold so that when they’re removed from the refrigerator, they’re likely to think it’s spring.

On Tuesday, the next step is to soak the seeds in room temperature black tea for 30 minutes to help soften up the seed shells. In the lead up to Tuesday, I’ll be getting the planting materials together.

November 14, 2023

It’s planting day!

The seeds are still in the refrigerator, but I got a start on planting preparations. My wife Susie had some of these, which look like a great home for seedlings.

It isn’t part of the recommended steps to flood the seeds with water after they’ve been planted so I decided to moisten the soil ahead of time. There is a black plastic tray for holding these and it will really help when it comes to catching water. However, the soil was really dense, the water just wasn’t absorbing well.

I used a blue toothpick to stir up the soil until the water was completely absorbed and then I continued the cycle, adding water and stirring until the soil was saturated.

We didn’t have any Miracle-Gro or potting mix so there’s a part of me that isn’t confident with this direction. I can always order more seeds if these fail. I’ve seen a lot of people go all out with heating pads, thermometers, LED lighting, and greenhouses but I’m keeping it much simpler, especially since I don’t want to invest a lot of money in this project yet. If it works out and I enjoy myself then maybe that’s a path I can go down in the future.

After the soil completely absorbed all the water, I pressed the soil down with my fingers, leveling it out. I figured this would make it a little easier to drop the seeds in. I’ll be going down about 1/8 of an inch.

I brewed some black tea and am letting it sit to cool. Room temperature is the goal, and it should be ready when it’s time to soak the seeds.

I soaked a little more than 20 seeds, they shipped me around 40 which is far more than I was expecting. I’ll package up the remainders and put them in a cool, dry place for storage.

I swirled the seeds around in the tea with a knife, and by the time the 30 minutes was up, most of the seeds had sunk to the bottom.

I planted them about 1/8” down and then covered them with soil. I’m not sure exactly yet how I’m going to expose them to sunlight, but at least for today, I put them outside to get some fresh rays.

…and now the waiting begins!

November 25, 2023

The update is that there isn’t much of an update. I keep the soil damp without over saturation and take them out to the front porch each morning, bringing them in each night. It’s a long 4-6 weeks for germination!

December 2, 2023

We have the first signs of life! It’s only one of the initial 20 seeds planted but I’ll take it and who knows what the rest of the day will bring!

This sprouted much faster than expected but I’ve been keeping to my routine, taking them out to the sun each morning, bringing them in each evening and keeping the soil damp.

December 6, 2023

We have our second sprout showing itself which is a relief. With only a single sign of life up to this point, there was always a chance that it wasn’t a pepper plant, and that some other seed found its way into the soil but now I’m fairly confident that both are Reapers. Growing is slow but I’m a patient man.

My routine hasn’t changed at all, I still put the seeds out in the sun in the morning and take them inside in the evening, always keeping the soil damp but never completely saturated. A couple of days ago though, I noticed that the first seedling seemed to be struggling in the sun and started shriveling up, so I brought it inside, gave it some water and it opened back up again.

As a bonus, here’s an unusual looking bug that sat around on the seeds all day.

December 18, 2023

Only a quick check in this time, there are 5 sprouts clearly showing themselves with one that will more than likely show its head today. I’m making good progress considering I’m not using a heating pad or lamp.

January 7, 2024

Today is transplant day!

As you can see from the below picture, these seedlings are struggling somewhat. 2 just flat out, fell over dead and I can’t tell if it’s an issue of not enough sun, too much sun, not enough water or too much water. Are they too cold?

You can also see, just barely that some fungus has started to creep in so I moved up the transplant date because it doesn’t look like it’s taking any prisoners. The fungus looks like spider webs creeping across my poor seedlings and is more obvious in person, not so easy to see in the picture.

I picked the 3 seedlings that were the largest but I’m by no means giving up on the full batch yet, I’ll still put them outside each day. I got some fresh Miracle-Gro potting mix from Target and my wife already had 3 of these little pots to use so I’m good to go.

I used a spoon to dig out each of the seedlings for transplanting and was disappointed to see that the roots are really quite shallow and weak. I was hoping that they’d be much stronger after almost 2 months of growing.

They’re barely standing up on their own right now but I’m hoping that after a few days in better soil they’ll strengthen up. It doesn’t help that it’s been really cold in Southern California lately so I’m not putting them outside as early as I usually do, I’m waiting until direct sun is possible because up until that point, it’s warmer inside.

I’m not optimistic, they aren’t doing as well as I hoped but there’s still plenty of time to turn things around!

January 31, 2024

Unfortunately, none of the seedlings made it.

We had a wave of cold that hit and the ones that were still alive, just fell over dead. I’m disappointed to be sure, I did what I could for them but even winters in Southern California proved to be too much.

I’ll try again in the spring!