Growing Chili Peppers
Growing chili peppers is a lot easier than many people think. Most inexperianced gardeners think that growing chili peppers is something that can only be successfully done by expert horticulturalists. However nothing could be further from the truth.
Germinating Chili Peppers
Some chili pepper varieties can take a while to germinate so to try and speed up the process you can place the seeds in between two sheets of damp kitchen roll. Place this tissue into either a plastic bag or sealed box to keep the moisture and heat in and place somewhere warm.
Check the deeds every day. After a few days (maybe less) you may notice the seeds start to swell or even begin to sprout. As soon as you see this it is time to transfer them to a propogator or seed tray. If you have neither of these don't worry anything will do really; old yogurt pots, ice cream containers anything that will hold compost! Simply find a suitable container and plant the seeds about 1/2 a cm deep in fine compost.
Potting chili peppers
Seeds should be spaced about 5cms apart using any compost you can find. Try to keep the compost moist but not wet. Place the seeds somwhere warm, dry and humid such as in an airing cupboard or room where the heating is always on. Placing a plastic cover or bag over the tray will help keep the moisture in during the first week or two. As soon as the seedlings emerge from the soil, remove any cover to allow the maximum amount of light onto the seedling.
The time taken for germination varies greatly between varieties. More common varieties may germinate in just a couple of days, others may take up to a couple of months.
Let there be light
Chili peppers are much more hardy than most people think. Obviously as they originated in the warm climes of Asia and South America, they thrive when they have lots of light and warmth. That said they can be successfully grown in cooler climates, however they should be positioned to receive as much light as is available. This means ideally they should be grown in a greenhouse, conservatory or failing that on a Southerly facing window ledge. Once summer arrives, and the threat of frost passes you can place them outside.
One great tip is to grow you chili peppers in pots as opposed to planting them outside in the ground. The main benefit of this technique is that you can easily move the plants around throughout the day to get the most light. In addition if you keep an eye on the weather forcast you can avoid losing your crop to an unexpected frost by moving the plants inside if a cold snap is on the way.
Harvesting chili peppers
When growing chili peppers you can harvest the fruit at almost anytime. Most fruit tend to start off green and then change through orange to red as they mature. Virtually all varieties can be eaten at either the green or red stages. As a rule they tend to sweeten as the fruit become red. The difference in heat is not affected by colour. As a rough rule of thumb the smaller chili peppers tend to be hotter than the larger varieties.
Eventually you will see that some of the flowers will go brown and drop off. This is usually no need for alarm as the cause will be a chilli pushing it?s way through the flower. All you need to do now is to keep up the water/food and wait for your chillies to ripen.
Next if you are anything like the king you will have to find a solution to one more question: How to use the chillies?!