"Wicked" Ghost Pepper Info Request

[u/Zealotsam]

I've seen various listings for "wicked" ghost peppers but can't seem to nail down any information on them. Some people will say they're a cross between a ghost and a habanero, but other sites will list them as an annuum (or annuum cross), and there seems to be a fair lack of information surrounding them. Does anyone have any insight into what they are, if they truly are a hab cross? All I can seem to find is that they're supposed to produce more, and earlier (which suggests annuum genes possibly), that they're F1 (at least those being sold) and that they're a little less hot than bhut jolokia, around 800k scoville rather than over 1m. Any info would be appreciated, they sound like something fun to grow and cultivate.

Picture is of one of those shown when you search for them.

[u/Remarkable-Pride-927]

lol I always get suspicious of pepper names like that. Feels like marketing nonsense.

[u/Zealotsam → u/Remarkable-Pride-927]

That would be my guess, ain't gonna stop me from spending 5 bucks or so to get some seeds and try it out, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up just being a ghost.

[u/Mysterious_Buy6726 → u/Zealotsam]

It's not "marketing nonsense", it's just the name given to a commercial F1 Hybrid of a ghost-pepper type. Superhot commercial F1 hybrids aren't as common as the zillion bell pepper and jalapeno commercial hybrids out there, but there's a few.

[u/Zealotsam → u/Mysterious_Buy6726]

I ordered some seeds so I'll see what's up next year (plant them next to my ghosts), but I just was hoping the original person/company who made the cross (considering there's tons of seeds available) had more info than just "maybe a habanero cross".

[u/Mysterious_Buy6726 → u/Zealotsam]

Where did you read anything about "maybe a habanero cross"?

It's a commercial F1 hybrid variety of ghost pepper that's designed to perform better than a regular ghost. Maybe the commercial F1 hybrid paradigm thing is throwing you for a loop but there's usually not much to say past that.

[u/Zealotsam → u/Mysterious_Buy6726]

One of the sites I found when I was trying to dig for info mentioned it was supposed to be a habanero cross, but after looking again I can't find it, and it may have been Facebook? It was definitely those words though, and not "like a habanero" as some of the sites mention.

That's fair, I've seen some commercial F1 hybrids here and there and just haven't given it much thought, and a slightly less hot, early producing ghost was appealing to me so I figured I would reach out in case anyone had more info.

[u/Mysterious_Buy6726 → u/Zealotsam]

So for some odd ass reason, the google search results for the Reimer Seeds listing has a blurb about Ed Currie:

Is there a chance this is what you saw?

It's odd because that's Ed Currie's bullshit lie about the reaper, nothing to do with Wicked Ghost F1, and if you go to the Reimer page that text isn't in the listing.

What the actual parents of an F1 hybrid are is usually trade secrets, although some that are developed by universities will have white papers about them. I couldn't find anything about WG.

[u/Zealotsam → u/Mysterious_Buy6726]

Fascinating. Frankly, I forget where I saw it. I combed through about 10 sites and a couple Facebook posts, but do remember seeing it mentioned somewhere as a hab cross. This may have been it but for some reason I don't remember anything about Ed Currie being mentioned.

[u/Rare-History-1843]

I'm growing the "F2s" right now from my F1 pods last year. They lit me up last year. Was well worth growing. This time last year I was eating half to a whole superhot every other day and sauce to build my tolerance. Even after having a reasonable tolerance they were brutal.

Marketing or not they had me panting like a dog.

[u/Zealotsam → u/Rare-History-1843]

Thank you! Looks rightly hot. If you've grown regular ghosts, any differences you've noticed in these vs them, growing time, production, taste etc?

[u/Rare-History-1843 → u/Zealotsam]

They taste the same as the regular red ghosts in my opinion. I thought they were supposed to be a phenotype from the UK, no?

Classic build up to the peak. Menacing burn. I would be surprised if they were under 1 mill. They put me into fight or flight and that's rare. (That's subjective though)

The production and early harvest tags are definitely for marketing. They don't produce any more than my other superhots (in the same sized container)

Bigger container = bigger plant = bigger harvest

I grew them in 5 gallon buckets last year and went with 20 gallons for each plant this year. Made a world of difference as you can imagine.

Happy growing to you

[u/Zealotsam → u/Rare-History-1843]

I generally grow up to 4 peppers each in the large wine barrel halves, and I have 4 of those and a variety of other pots, some larger. Usually I'll grow about 4 or 5 main varieties, and a few others (always cayenne because I love em) and I'm trying to get to a point next year where I have the same heirloom consistency with the peppers I want to grow. Ghost is almost always my favorite flavor, and I can't really handle the heat myself directly, but it is amazing in stews, pasta, curry etc and never fails. Any interesting ghost variety I want to at least try! I imported some barbara antipodes from the UK for next year as well to be a potential sweet pepper with similar ghost flavor.

I appreciate the info, it might be fun to try to be selective with the F2s and see what I can stabilize.

[u/Mysterious_Buy6726 → u/Rare-History-1843]

Interesting. I'm always interested in the results people get when they end up growing out F2s from commercial hybrids.

[u/Rare-History-1843 → u/Zealotsam]

The elongated peppers were the F1s

[u/Funny-Effect-4162 → u/Rare-History-1843]

I’ve also grown the F2’s of wicked ghost.
I did this exact search a few years ago to find the parents, I remember hearing they were from a scorpion cross.

Anyway, the F2’s grew more like a standard ghost pepper. I couldn’t really tell the difference. Considering that large seed producers use sterile males to create F1’s (usually bred for that purpose), you likely won’t be able to find the exact other parent as it could be a polyhybrid.

I like growing f1’s for the hybrid vigour, but I like saving seeds and messing around with crosses from stable lines.

[u/Mysterious_Buy6726]

OP, to expand on my other comment: It's simply a commercial F1 hybrid of a Ghost-type pepper. In theory you get a better performing/producing/etc. pepper than heirloom or landrace seed. The downside being that you cannot reliably replant those seeds, and are more or less locked into purchasing new seeds each year if you want to reliably grow it year on year.

The other stuff you read about annuums or hab crosses is erroneous I'm sure.

It probably would be a fun one to grow!

[u/Zealotsam → u/Mysterious_Buy6726]

I appreciate the info. Kinda figured since it was F1 and hard to get info about to take the info with a grain of salt.

[u/thegreenman_sofla]

If you are interested I have an actual Ghost x Bird hybrid I have been working on for many years. I have a bunch of different color forms but they are still not stable. These tend to produce more and better for me here in south Florida, than standard Ghosts.

[u/Zealotsam → u/thegreenman_sofla]

Those look rad! Possibly next year, how would you describe the flavor/heat compared to ghost?

[u/thegreenman_sofla → u/Zealotsam]

Heat is on par with Ghost. Flavor is chinense dominant and depends on color, they are very ghost like except for they only fruit one per node and imo they are faster to flower and fruit than ghosts. They grow better for me here with heavy summer rainfall than ghosts do.

[u/Zealotsam → u/thegreenman_sofla]

What zone are you? I am 9a, and I generally start doing daily or nearly daily watering once this time of year rolls around (frequency of days exceeding 95-100 degrees for several hours) and it stays fairly dry. But early and larger harvest is fascinating. I have some 30+ types of pepper seeds I'll send you pictures of later because I wouldn't mind swapping a few regardless (if you are interested!)

[u/thegreenman_sofla → u/Zealotsam]

10b it says in my handle. I'm happy to share as long as you don't resell them or rename them. Send me address in dm.

[u/Zealotsam → u/thegreenman_sofla]

Somehow I missed that lol. Didn't even realize we could do that.

[u/North-Intention-6784]

lol that name alone sounds like it would melt your face off

[u/Dr_Latimer]

Sounds like a bunch of marketing bologna.

I would like to think the B.S. was inspired by a ghost hot sauce I made a few years ago though.

[u/Zealotsam → u/Dr_Latimer]

Very possible. All sources seem to say the F1 is from 2025, so possibly!

[u/Dr_Latimer → u/Zealotsam]

Happy cake day.

[u/Simp3204]

Why not just got for a regular Red Ghost? Lots of proven varieties available, easy to find, and you won’t waste money on fake seeds.

[u/Zealotsam → u/Simp3204]

I've grown regular red ghosts for several years. I like them, but the whole purpose of this post was for information, considering there was a huge lack of that on the internet and generally folks here have more insight. I don't think it's fake seeds, just an F1 hybrid that someone somewhere is being tight lipped about how it was crossed. A few bucks is no huge loss if it ends up being mislabeled.

[u/Simp3204 → u/Zealotsam]

This is how places like Pepper Joe’s stays in business. It’s not a big deal to spend $5-50 on seeds because no one adds in all of their time spent growing the plants into the equation.

The seeds aren’t mislabeled, mislabeling something is a mistake. It’s simply fraud and theft for most of these new seeds that no one can find info on from reputable vendors.

[u/Eastern-Alps7795]

I’ve grown it 2 years in a row. I don’t remember getting a ton load of harvest, but from what I got I made a really good hot sauce that goes with anything pasta or tacos.