I made one last winter out of an ornamental (5 color marble pepper). Be sure to trim the roots and clean them thoroughly before potting. Also, trim the branches down so that you have a few main branches only. It will grow back quickly. Mine did good and looked cool, especially since the peppers are so small> I replanted it in the garden this spring. Planning on doing it again this fall. I also recommend putting it in a pot that gives plenty of room for root growth.

Biggest question I have at the moment though is "Peppers have fairly large leaves, is there a way to keep them small?", or do I just need to plan on trying to keep the plant to a larger scale?

I have not done it and really haven't even looked into it. I saw this posted here last year and bookmarked the page though. You may find it interesting because it is exactly whet you are talking about.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bonsai Pepper plants

Here is my Bhut Bonchi/Bonsai

Great job Noah! I personally do not know of any way to keep the leaves small, which is why I chose a plant with smaller leaves and peppers.
Noah...any trouble with aphids indoors? My bonchi had about with them this winter..

You can trim the leaves off when they get too big for your liking and if you keep the branches trimmed as well then the leaves tend to stay small. I had no issues with aphids indoors over winter, just fungus gnats.

Nice. I even went out hiking in my woods and found some interesting stones to have the bhut grow over next time I repot it.

I'll post pictures up when I do.

Hey Noah. Nice to see you old schooling it at the GW. I still think that thing is to big to be called a bonsai but it sure is cool looking. Maybe you should try to bonsai that c rhomboideum hiding in the background. That has to be one of the most beautiful pepper plants ever!

An abundance of light-hours should aid in smaller leaf size. Dunno if you can accomplish much with Bhut leaf size though, so big.

LED can do it. 16 hours per day. My plants stayed extremely compact and bushy under a 120W LED light. Once I took them outside, they started to stretch a lot. I think many LED lights are geared for very compact growth of a certain herb. Has the same effect on other plants including peppers.

You using a red/blue/white/white matrix LED, and did you make it yourself or buy a prefab?

You are probably right Romy, but I dont want to trim it up till I see for sure that the pods are Bhuts. Or maybe trim up the outer stuff and leave the pods hanging for a while. I am going out of town till mid next week and will probably trim it a bit when I get back so it looks more like a little tree.

AND... I am planning on chopping the Rhomboideum down this winter. It needs to get a lot bigger than it is now though, the stem is still really tiny.

Cool Noah. Thatwill make a cool conversation piece over the winter!

Here is a little update of my Bhut.

Nice. That thing is putting out those baby poop green pods like one of my Bhuts is doing. They other two plants are putting out pods about the same shade of green as the leaves. The yellower ones are more bumpy like yours too. My seeds all came from the same source so I dont know why the difference unless one is a hybrid. Actually, those baby poop green ones look much nastier than my usual green ones. Color withstanding.

After growing the Bhut Jolokia for 3 years now I have noticed some differences. The pods like those above that are lighter in color are the hotter/bumpier/pimplier pods. The ones that come in darker, more of leaf color are not as hot and not nearly as ugly.