It sounds as though you were sold the wrong seeds. I had never heard of a Carolina Reaper, had to google it to have a look. Wow! The hottest pepper in the world. As the site I looked at said "Oddly enough this pepper doesn’t just have heat, but excellent fruity flavor to boot. Well, that is before it melts your face off!" I'm not sure I could cope with that amount of heat. I grew Krakatoa peppers last year, that was enough heat for me, plus it was an attractive plant.