Chili seeds

hobbitfancier

A few months ago I got these cute complimentary packets of seeds in Wahaca restaurant in London. I'm not green fingered at all and was wondering how I should go about planting them - could I plant them in old tin cans? I have limited funds to buy anything else to house them - so suggestions would be welcome!

Leif

You need to get on with it. Get some compost, a large bag costing ~£4 is fine, and some small pots. Yogurt pots, cleaned, with holes in the base are fine. Fill with moist compost, place 3 seeds, on edge, in each, and cover with ~1/4" (6mm) moist compost. Place in a plastic bag or sealed plastic box (to keep humidity in) in a warm place ~20-25 C. They should germinate in 5+ days. Keep a watch on them and as soon as one appears, remove from warm place, remove bag/box, and place on window sill. What I do is use a teaspoon to transplant the newly germinated seed into a new pot of compost, and put the pot back in the warm place, but if you only want a plant or two, then just keep the best shoot, and kill the other 2.

After a while you'll see shoots out of the base. Repot into larger pot. Once the frosts have gone, you can put them out in a sheltered sunny spot, but you might have to harden them off first before leaving them out.

Feed weekly with dilute tomato food once they have many real leaves.

I could go on but there are better guides online in many places.

forgotmyname

I put mine on top of a tropical fish tank, Approx 25 degrees.

They germinated nicely.

foxgloves

Mine have germinated too. I always use a cheap heated propagator as we have a cold house. They do need starting off good & early, as they get bigger, I will put them into bigger containers. I usually get a really good crop over summer keeping them in an unheated greenhouse. You can freeze them whole to use in recipes requiring fresh chillies or you can hang them up to dry then keep them in airtight jars. If you whizz some of the dried red ones up in a grinder, you'll also have a supply of the chilli flakes.....that's about all your chilli requirements covered. Hope they grow for you!

rolstherat

Check out your local home base or similar, they leave suitable plant pot holders of varying sizes, great for germinating seeds in

Strider590

I'm currently growing some scotch bonnet chillis and as it's been a tricky learning curve, I might have some advice. Firstly I recommend heading to your local Morrisons and picking up a window sill propagator (cost about £4 iirc).

To start with don't use compost (because mould sets in and kills the seeds), place 10 seeds in a small container (I use glass tealight holders), with some kitchen paper in the bottom, water and cover the container with cling film, place on window sill and keep the paper damp. Once they start to grow, carefully pick the strongest/best one's out and move them into small pots with compost.

Now get your propagator, place some capillary matting in the tray, put the young chilli plants in their pots ontop of the matting and replace propagator lid.
Swap them into bigger pots once they hit the top of the propagator.... Simples

PS - if you keep them in doors, they'll live through winter easily, but you'll probably have to do the work of the insects with a suitable "tool".

Leif

Compost is perfectly fine for germinating chillis. It has worked for me over the last 15+ years.

Strider590

Leif wrote: »

Compost is perfectly fine for germinating chillis. It has worked for me over the last 15+ years.

Meh..... My experience as been different, I wasted more than 40 seeds (of 80) trying to use compost, then switched to the above method and got close to 80% germination. Horses for courses, whatever works I guess :cool:

Leif

Strider590 wrote: »

Meh..... My experience as been different, I wasted more than 40 seeds (of 80) trying to use compost, then switched to the above method and got close to 80% germination. Horses for courses, whatever works I guess :cool:

Then you were doing something very wrong. It could be that the temperature was too high, or the humidity too high. If you got mould, then I suspect the humidity was too high. I germinated Orange Habanero this year in compost, with no mould.

Generally I get close to 100% germination, especially from my own seeds which are fresh.

Use your method if it works, but compost works well.

forgotmyname

I did wonder about the damp tissue method of germiating seeds. Not just for kids and cress it seems.

Chilli's do seem to do quite well like this.

You need to find where that plant originated from and see if you can match the temperature.

Kathy535

I planted some from wahaca last year, v easy. I filled small pots with compost (from a gro-bag I had lying around), pushed in the sticks, watered and left on a warm sunny windowsill. Kept the soil damp but not waterlogged and got a decent crop (3 out of the 4 i planted germinated, and i am rubbish with plants). I left them on the windowsill over winter and the green chillis carried on ripening (although many didn't get any bigger) and I took the last 3 off at the end of March. One of the plants is now growing new leaves so I'm keeping them going in case they do the same this year.