Naga Chilli

That's the flower. Provided it gets pollinated the flower will turn into the chilli pod. Normally insects or the wind will help pollinate chillis growing outside, as your's is indoors, you need to help pollinate by gently touching the flower inside bits with your finger, do this for every flower you see once a day. That will transfer the pollen about. Soon you will have the chilli pods forming. Naga will blow your head off!

 

That's a nice healthy looking plant :thumb: which is a bit surprising seeing that you have it indoors in what appears to be fairly low light levels.

Nagas are one of the hottest chillies you can get but if they don't get enough sun and warmth they sometimes don't as hot. Also the heat of nagas can vary considerably but I would be careful when eating them. They have a very distinct musty type of flavour and smell.

Don't worry if they are not ready until towards the end of the summer. They should then continue cropping right through the autumn as long as they are free from very low temperatures - and through a lot of the winter of you keep them in a temperature in the mid sixties.

 

Almost all the Naga varieties go red when they are ripe. They may still be hot if you pick them green but they won't have the distinctive Naga flavour. If you have loads of them you could try one whilst it is still green. Be very careful as the Naga is one of the hottest chillies on the Scoville scale - the scale that measures the amount of capsaicin in the chilli, which is the chemical that gives the heat.

I shall put below some of the different varieties and how they fit on the Scoville scale - Scoville Heat Units (SHU). You may find the same names in different parts of the scale as there are variations in the same variety. Those of you that are regular chilli growers will probably know where in the scale your chillies fit or can find out on the net. If you let me know then I can fit them into the chart :thumb:. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of varieties.

They go from mild to mind blowing. The gaps between the groups of names show increasing amounts of heat.

The first section are all mild and go from zero on the scale up to 5000.


Bell, Pimento, U.S. Paprika, Sweet Banana Pickled Pepperoncini

Anaheim, Canned Green Chiles, Cherry, Hungarian Hot Paprika Mexi-Bell, New Mexican R-Naky, Pepperoncini Pepper

Chili Powder, New Mexican Big Jim, New Mexican 6-4, Tabasco Sauce/Green Pepper

Coronado, Pasilla Ancho, Cascabel, Poblano, Sandia

Cayenne Large Red Thick, Louisiana Hot Sauce, Mirasol, Rocotillo TAM Mild Jalapeño Mild

This next section are medium and go from 5,000 to 15,000

Aji Amarillo, Chipotle, Early Jalapeño, Serrano, Tabasco Sauce/Original Pepper, Wax Pepper, Tabasco Sauce/Habañero

Then we have Medium Hot - 15,000 to 30,000

Crushed Red Pepper, De Arbol, Habañero Hot Sauce, Manzano, Serrano

Then Hot - 30,000 to 50,000

Cayenne Long, Pakistan Dundicut, Piquin, Thai Prik Khee Nu

Hot to Extremely Hot - 50,000 to 100,000

Chiltepin, Chinese Kwangsi, Rocoto, Santaka, Thai

Extremely Hot - 100,000 to 500,000

Jamaican Hot 200,000, Scotch Bonnet 325,000, African Birdseye, Habañero 350,000, South American Chinenses 450,000

Super Duper Hot

Red Savina Habañero 570,000

Mouth Busting

Dorset Naga, Francisca, Naga Jolokia or Tezpur 855,000

Oh My God!!!

Bhut Jolokia 1,001,304

Pure Capsaicin â?? 16,000,000