Bulgarian Carrot Chilli

by Daniel Carruthers

In March we embarked on a project to grow a selection of chilli peppers. These ranged from the very mild to the very hot and these have been plotted on a scale. The scale starts at 1 with the mildest chilli, Anaheim, and each time you move up the scale the heat of the chilli doubles. The scale covers popular chillies such as Jalapeno (in position 4) and Cayenne (in position 7) and goes all the way up to 10. For a bit of fun we also included a previous World Record holder (The Hottest Chilli in the World) which as you might expect is off the scale.
So with harvest season approaching here’s an update of how a couple of the varieties are performing.

Look closely and you might see some small chillies growing on this Bulgarian Carrot Chilli plant.

The ancho poblano was the first to bear fruit.

If you have the patience or inclination to grow some chilli plants then you should give serious thought to including the bulgarian carrot chilli. It’s relativley mild but has a little kick – particularly if eaten raw. There is such a range of heat across the spectrum of chillies within the challenge that you’ll be sure to find one that is palatable.

In coming weeks the plan is to get a few people around to the house to try out a few of the chillies and to see how far up the scale it is possible to get. Watch this space.

The Bad News

Unfortunately the Cayenne was a non starter – I used the same compost, pots and growing conditions as the other chillies and did several sowings but it was not to be. The other none starter was anaheim (the mildest chilli in the challenge)– again several sowings in the same compost as the others resulted in 0% germination.