Not sure what zone you are in but 1 ft plants of the choc varieties if you are in a cooler zone may not make it to ripe pods at least outdoors.

You also could be baking seeds using heat mat and lighting for germination. Should be fine with heat mat until they sprout then place under light.

Hotter the pepper the sooner you should start seeds, Chinese usually take longer to grow. So Jan-Feb usually is when I start my Ghost. I am in Zone 7.

Mark

I'm in zone 5, and yes I start my peppers in jan feb as well, we start around 3000 plants indoors and the chocolate habs were my only failure this year.

They just never sprouted other than the one, I don't keep things on a heat mat more than 5-7 days if they dont germinate

This is the second time the variety failed on me so I'm thinking that may be the real issue

May want to keep hotter varieties on the mat longer than 5-7 days. Usually I give two weeks for germination for Bhuts, this season my Bhuts sprouted in 10 days last year it was more closer to two weeks before they sprouted. For some it takes as long as 30 days for the supers to sprout.

I have one choc Hab that I started late so I may have to overwinter but its thriving well so maybe it's your seed source.

My chocolaee habs, other habs, and other hotter varieties always seem to take longer to germinate for me too. I start early Jan, keep them on the heat mat for a minimum of 3 weeks to give them a fighting chance to germinate. As they germinate, I prick them out and pot up and move off heat so I can keep the ungerminated cups on the heat. I always grow habs and hotter peppers in buckets here in zone 4, producing well.

I have grown Chocolate Habs from peppermania. I don't recall any unusually low germination rates. But, I also let things go longer than 5-7 days. I can't imagine you would have any issue with THSC, though.

I'm getting around 95% germination on everything (including Bhuts) in about 4-6 days on the heat mats, most the time the extra heat from the MH systems is enough plus the room is kept at a overall higher temp

The only other pepper that didn't germinate for me well this year were the butch t's 2 out of 10 and I kept those on the heat mats for a few weeks

The jhc just looks sad I'll snap a picture later

I have had one chocolate hab plant for a while( it is 18 months old) now and it is one of my healthiest and biggest producers.It was a fast grower from the beginning. I have some open pollinated seeds if you would like to send me an email. But it sounds like you need a bunch.

Jamie

@romy thanks I may trying to do a bit more digging first but still may email you

also to clarify most the plants we start are tomatoes(1250 in the ground) and sweet pepper/milder pepper(around 900 in ground) the rest we start are either sold as starter plants or just random things like spices stuff we don't use for market

for tabs Ill never do more that 10-25 plants as they just don't sell at market that well, I wanted the chocolate habs to make a chili powder for me personally, I keep all the super hots at home

my 1 chocolate hab is on the right

and a lone picture of it, I did notice it is forming lower peppers on the bottom, its just looking sad compared to my others.

what do the choc habs taste like?
how long does it take to ripen to there true color?

They have a little bit more earthy smokey taste to them, that's why I want to use them for powder, the hear scale is on the higher side for habs

i had a chocolate hab starting to grow. i am seeing how long it takes them to grow from start to finish. it pollinated and had a tiny bulb on it starting july 4. will be timing it to see how long to ripen.
granted the heat will have a factor in it. finally pulled red and yellow ghost peppers today after three and a half months of grow time. from transplant to having a pepper ripen.

This is about my third year with jamaican hot choclate, and it is maybe one 10th the size of the scoth bonnet that started out the same size. I think my hot choclates have always seemd slow to start, then catch up. I must admit I don't feel really hopeful about that this year. It's about the same size as yours.

Oh, and when Ive done them from seed (Tomato Growers) they do take awhile to germinate, but most of them do.

Nanelle,

Ive had no luck with them, last year I think I got 3 out of pack up this year I got two they were in half a 72 cell tray with a eggplant that takes a while to germinate and it had around a 95% success then I swapped it(the eggplant) for half a tray of my Grandes and they germinated I wasn't too happy, Ill probably over winter the one plant I have and possibly bag the blooms to save seed