I wouldn't worry about old leaves falling if it is putting out new ones. And I don't think I would bother snipping the old dying leaves either. Just let them fall when ready. I would certainly expect many more peppers off that plant this year than you got last year. Good luck.
Bruce

The old leaves are probably not used to the environment outside after being inside all Winter.

If there is new growth, I wouldn't worry about it at this point. Just let things work themselves out.

Thank you. More or less what I thought but it is nice to have confirmation. Has anyone one else had these peppers for more than one year and what are your successes? I have heard that they can live for 10-15 years. Pretty much everything I see on the web talks about germination and the first year.

I think the majority of pepper plants to include the Bhut, can live for several years. 10-15 is probably long for any plant as most will succumb to some type of affliction sooner or later. I have seen many on this list claim 3-5 year projects and Smokemaster I know has gone double digits with one or more. There is varying opinions on how the productivity changes as they age and how the "hotness" changes as the plants age but many list members overwinter a plant or two each year. Last year was my first year doing so and I have successfully brought two Hot Hungarian Wax peppers and a Naga through a Wisconsin Winter and they are out on the porch as we speak trying to call in an early summer.

Bruce

I have a couple of plants that are on their 4th year now. :-) I did have one that made it to 3, and I don't have any indication that it wouldn't have gone longer, but, I chose not to keep it this year. I just wanted to make room for something new. All other overwintered plants I have are on their 2nd year.

This leads me to a question. I have read, that when collecting seeds, it's best to collect from the first fruits, they will have a higher percentage of viable seeds, plus, you will have seeds that are genetically tuned to producing fruit sooner (the longer you wait to collect, you will have a much lower percentage of viable seeds and they will be genetically tuned to produce fruit later and later)..... SO, if that is true, would it be wise to collect seeds from plants that are years old? Or, start new plants for seed collection each year? (this info was in a book about peppers, not just something written about annual plants).

Pam

I don't know about that whole viability part. I could maybe buy into the early pods being more prone to early production, and if it's the first pollinated flower, then it would have a better chance at being pure. But, I think as long as the fruit is ripe, the seeds collected should be viable regardless if it was early in the season or late.

First fruits on an individual plant basis will not be any more likely to produce early bearing fruit the next generation than those gathered at the end of the season. Things like fruit and when they set are completely controlled by the mother plant, not the seeds (and the seeds are the only thing affected by fertilization).

Only picking from the first fruit in an entire FIELD, however, will help you get earlier maturing fruit as you will be picking the fruit from the plant that matures the earliest, and that is genetic.

Basically, differences between pods on the same plant are meaningless. You have to look at the plant as a whole compared to the other plants to try and identify some rogue genetics you could exploit.

We'll find out though if there is any actual genetic variation between first fruits and last fruits soon though. My NuMex Halloween first fruits were bell pepper shapped and sweet. Its putting out mostly bullet shaped hot peppers now (which is what it was supposed to do). Saved the seeds from the sweet first fruits, we'll see how those grow.

ok, Edymnion, pose a question. If you have your entire plant covered so to guarantee pure seeds (I've got them in pots and covered with row material that lets in 80% of the light) might that be the same as picking from an entire field?

interesting about the Halloween. I checked my NuMex Twilight and it had a big pepper hanging down. I threw it away since I knew that wasn't how it was supposed to grow... is it possible I threw it away too soon?

I have taken cuttings from my favorite Bhut plant last year, and saved my healthiest one. It had a few leaves and didn't do much over the winter, but stayed green. Once it got more light, it has been taking off like mad, and shooting flowers much earlier then the new Bhuts I started from seed. I suspect that the cutting, as it does in other plants takes on the maturity of the mother plant, and the reason it is blooming earlier. I did intend to overwinter the mother plant, but it was too infested with aphids so I trashed it.

Capoman: I took a cutting of a Naga last fall and it stayed green all winter and grew a new leaf every now and then and lost one every now and then. It hasn't really grown at all but now just recently it has started to grow more leaves and even a bud. It is still only about 1.5" tall though. I guess the fact that I have been getting it a bit more sun lately has it starting to get more vigorous. I was about ready to trash it a month ago. It is way behind my seedlings which are behind themselves. I guess I will keep it going if for no other reason than to see how it progresses with more good time outside in full sun.
Bruce

Interesting Bruce. My cutting was only about 3" tall with about 6 leaves. Never lost or gained any over winter. I kept it in a south window, not under my basement lights (I never bring former outside plants to my grow area any more to avoid pests). It started to take off in March, and is now about 8" tall with a bunch of flowers. It may actually be a Naga as well as per our previous conversations about the supposed Bhut seeds we got. Of my seeds I started under lights the Bhuts/Nagas are the last to start flowering and are quite behind the cutting. I gave the cutting some weak fertilizer as soon as I saw some signs of growth. I never fertilized in winter at all.

Here is a photo of my cutting back in mid February:

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Here it is today:

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Bruce

Hmmm, I guess I shouldn't have thrown all of mine away. They were still green,and looking healthy but they weren't doing anything, just sitting there. I got tired of waiting for any sign of new growth and tossed them all. Maybe I'll try again this year.
Pam

I never got a single bhut cutting to root, much less grow. I had them sit for upwards of two months looking green and fine and then plop, dead.

I did mine in 5:1:1, used cloning gel, and also used Root Excelurator which I find works well with cuttings. I kept the soil fairly dry over the winter, watering minimally. I actually managed to get several to root, but just kept the best one. Growth is unusual, as it's growing more sideways rather then up. It's growing flushes like a mature plant without a leader and branching where the flowers are. This is why I'm suspecting it's taking the age of the mother, not like a seedling. I'll have to create a photo account to post it.

I've had 3 Bhuts growing since about January, they're still rather short and no buds on them.. The Habaneros I put in with them, however, are budding like crazy. Attached a picture, maybe I'm just impatient, but I thought that they had a quicker process than this.

I never pinched mine before. Out of all my plants I had started Dec - Jan last year I only put two in big pots to save. 1 was my bhut jolokia, of course after the winter not many leaves came back on her, but i already got a harvest of 22 peppers and more to come, and my Jamaican Chocolate Habanero all its leaves came back great and gave me 6 peppers but she is slow on the flowering. Now I'm in the process of trying to get my Trinidad Scorpions to germinate and haven't had much luck with them.

Bhut Jolokia

They look nice, rustacator! They will probably grow / bush out a lot more over the next month or so. I'd be tempted to trim the lower branches off just to make them look more tree-like. :-)

Did you re-pot them or have they been in their current homes all their lives (more or less)?

I have repotted them a few times. They started off in very small containers (seedlings) then to a 3 gal then to a 7 gal gal until they got done fruiting for winter. Then they got in these 17"H x 17"W x 21-1/2"D pots. I was thinking about that to but they have baby peppers on them so I donâÂÂt want to cut them yet. But I got seedlings from them both growingâ¦11 of each, donâÂÂt know if they was crossed pollinated or not but I will see in a few months, if so then it would be chocolate bhut jolokiaâÂÂs :)