Growing chillies has been popular for thousands of years. The Aztecs used to punish their children by holding them over smoking chillies, and there’s evidence of their cultivation going back 6,000 years in South America.
We’ve got chilli kits and chilli plants, which come with handy growing guides, but here’s how to grow your own chillies if you’ve already got the seeds and plants and don’t know where to start.
Growing chillies from seed
You can sow chilli seeds indoors from late winter to mid-spring, which will give you a long harvest thanks to the plants being established by the time it gets warm. As chillies originate from South America, they love the heat, so put them in a heated propagator for speedy germination.
Sow a couple of chilli seeds per seed tray well, without doing too many as chilli seeds germinate pretty well. Keep them in a warm place, and keep the humidity as high as you can (another reason a propagator is a good idea) until the seedlings appear.
Once they’re a couple of centimetres high, put each seedling into its own little pot. You should only use a bigger pot once your chillies are outgrowing their current pot. There’s no need to stress them out by replanting before then!
Growing chillies from a small chilli plant
Once they’re at small-plant size (about 30cm tall), take off the top of the main sprout to try and get branches forming. Each branch increases the chance of tasty chillies forming. At this point we’re still indoors, keeping the chillies above 15ºC.
As your chilli gets bigger, you can plant it out one final time into either a big pot or three to a grow bag (with over 20cm between them). Greenhouses are recommended if you’re going to plant outside, or wait until proper summer when temperatures won’t drop below 12ºC at night.
Continued chilli care
- Keep the soil evenly moist – a water-retentive soil or compost is best – by watering little and often.
- Don’t let them dry out otherwise you’ll have the sad sight of leaves dropping like flies.
- To get more fruit, use plant food once flowers appear (flowers mean fruit’s on the way!)
Chilli header Photo by Timothy L Brock on Unsplash
Chilli plant Photo by Jeppe Vadgaard on Unsplash
Moist chilli Photo by Prince Abid on Unsplash