Jamie’s Little Allotment: Gayton-based gardener shares tips on how to grow chilli plants

Returning from a break, Gayton based gardener Jamie Marsh discusses how to grow chillis…

In my honest opinion, the slowest, dullest part of the year has passed. So we can now start to get excited about the upcoming gardening season.

The jobs in the allotment and garden are soon going to be building up, but there is still plenty of time for those.

One thing we can start looking at doing now is seed sowing.

When I say seed sowing, I don’t mean just any seeds. We can’t start sowing anything directly outside yet because obviously it’s still way too cold.

What we can sow now are chillis, peppers and aubergines.

All of the above need a long growing season to get the most out of them.

Sowing them earlier gives them a bit of a head start, but what we have to remember is they will need to be kept warm and given as much light as possible.

I like to sow most of my seeds in cell trays, the main reason for this is minimal root disturbance.

Cell trays are just individual compartments roughly 3-4cm square.

Sowing in cell trays bypasses the pricking out stage therefore there is less chance of damaging those precious roots.

The cell trays I use are propagator-type ones, it just means they have a clear lid to let the light through but it will keep the heat and moisture in.

I filled the cell trays with a peat-free seed sowing compost which is much finer than any multi-purpose peat-free compost.

The problem with using a multi-purpose compost for seed sowing is it has much larger lumps within it, creating lots of air pockets. Air pockets are not great for seeds because if the seed sits in one of these pockets, there’s a high chance it might not germinate.

Once you’ve filled your tray, tap it on the bench to level it then firm it slightly with a dibber or a pencil.

Make a hole in the compost roughly 10mm deep and drop a single seed in each hole, then cover it with more compost and firm it down again.

Give each cell a good water and pop the lid on, don’t forget to write a label, you might think you will know what you’ve sown, but trust me, I’ve learnt from experience, you definitely will not remember what you’ve sown.

As I said earlier, chillis and peppers need to be nice and warm to germinate so either put the tray in a nice warm room or treat yourself to a heat mat.

A heat mat just gently warms the base of the propagator and also the compost, and tricks the seed into thinking it’s the right time of year to germinate.

Chillis and peppers can take up to 21 days to germinate so be patient. When they finally pop their head through, they need to be warm and light so keep them on either a south-facing windowsill where you should rotate the seedlings every day.

Because they will stretch for the light, or to complete your seed growing kit, you can now buy an LED grow light for a very reasonable price.

Some people I know sow their tomato seeds now as well, I don’t, because tomatoes grow a lot faster than what we’ve sown today.

You’ll soon be wondering what to do with all the massive plants, which can’t go out into the greenhouse, or outside until after the last frosts, which could be as late as May.

I’d love to hear from you so if you want to ask me any questions about gardening or even to let me know what you're up to. Please email me at Jamieslittleallotment@gmail.com.