How to grow Chilli: sowing to planting out (crash course part 2)

Sowing

Growing chilies - the first right step. A seed is a plant in a kind of "hibernation" (in technical jargon called "dormancy"). This enables it to survive cold and (relatively) hot temperatures and drought without suffering serious damage.

Interrupt the "hibernation" by watering

The seed only awakens from this dormant state when heat and moisture stimulate it to swell and germinate. Then the seed follows its biologically predetermined program. It produces roots and leaves, grows and initiates photosynthesis, in which light energy is converted into chemical energy and organic substances required by the plant are synthesized.balcony for chilli plants. You should also make sure that someone takes care of your chilli cultivation if you are on vacation.

To end this "sleep" of the seeds, you can put them in a container with warm water for a few hours..

The seeds of sluggishly germinating exotic varieties grow faster if they are placed in salt water for 1 to 2 days (no longer!). Add 1 teaspoon of table salt to 1 l of water and use different containers for different varieties so that there is no confusion. After the salt water treatment rinse the seeds with warm water.

Seed sowing Depths and distances

Fill your seed pots with soil almost to the brim or pour the required number of Jiffy Peat tabs with lukewarm water. Place the pots in the mini-greenhouse.

Advantage: The Jiffy peat tablets - at least the original - are small power packs with everything a seed needs: White peat as the basis for healthy growth, dolomite lime to regulate the pH value and a balanced nutrient mix that accelerates germination and root development. According to our own comparative tests, we prefer them to the coconut tablets that are now more frequently offered...

If you pour some warm water over the swelling tablet, it quickly swells to its actual volume. The "pots" get their shape from a fine net, through which the roots can later grow unhindered. If you later plant out the complete pot with the root ball that has grown in it, the net is then biologically broken down in the garden bed or container..

Here is an example with the Jiffy peat pellets.

An alternative are culture trays and the oven-sterilized culture soil described in part 1 (see picture below).

In technical jargon, the trays are called "multi-pot plates". The friendly gardener around the corner gets them or has them in operation anyway.

The advantage: multi-pot plates are beautifully compact, which means you can get even more plants into the expensive propagation box. And since the material is thin, you can cut them to size if necessary. However, both also apply to the "Jiffy Strips" - connected square press pots that are filled with substrate (swelling tablets) or growing soil. The plants are later replanted including the degradable pot.

If you use soil, place the seeds one by one at a distance of about 1.5 to 2 cm from the ground. A thin layer of soil (approx. 3-5 mm) above this provides dark germination conditions. No light is needed for germination; this is only the case as soon as the seedlings emerge from the earth.

If you work with peat pots, drill 2 to 3 mm deep holes at a distance of about 1.5 to 2 cm with a match into the surface of the moist, freshly swollen pots. Put a seed in each hole and carefully press the peat material shut.

We press two, maximum three seeds into a Jiffy pot, at a proper distance. Depending on how well the seedlings have come, the strongest one is selected later when pricking out, possibly several. We put only one seed in each of the smaller units of the pot plates, as otherwise the seedlings will come too close and the roots will intertwine, which will make it more difficult to separate them later.

Before you put on the top of the greenhouse, carefully pour a little lukewarm water over the growing soil containers. Jiffy pots still have enough moisture from swelling. Open the ventilation of the upper part a little bit, so that some air circulates and fresh oxygen comes in. If there are no openings, clamp a match or toothpick between the upper and lower part..

Tip: Not only the seeds of the various chili varieties are all very similar, but also the young plants growing from them. Therefore, label all containers immediately after sowing! If there is a tight space in the seed tray, numbers are more useful than long variety names.

Germination period and temperature

How fast germination actually takes place depends strongly on the temperature. For example, chilli seeds that germinate at 30°C in the 8 days indicated on the seed package easily need a few weeks at 10°C. At even lower temperatures, germination may not occur at all.

Even after the germs start to sprout, you should continue to avoid "cold feet" for the mini-greenhouse. Cold windowsills in particular strongly extract heat from the seed vessels. Such cold bridges can be prevented by placing polystyrene sheets or a strip of polystyrene wallpaper under the greenhouse from the outset.

Even better are special heating mats such as those offered especially for mini-greenhouses. They ensure a constant temperature during the entire germination period and require relatively little electricity.

Attention: Granny's heating pad is not suitable for this, it would be dangerous and it consumes too much electricity

You can see on the links ein thermometer and heating mat, the must-have for your chillies.

There are also greenhouses with a heating mat firmly embedded in the floor. However, this solution is usually not very cheap and if either the heating or the greenhouse is broken, the whole unit will be thrown away. We have set the temperature to a constant 27°C, monitored with an earth thermometer in one of the Jiffy pots.

Note to the above device: The heatable house is from the British company Parasene. A reader, who bought this product from Beckmann as we did (order designation there: "PAM"), drew our attention to the fact that her device has no safety signs whatsoever. Neither did ours, as we found out when we looked it up. You should pay more attention to this when buying - safe is safe.

You can see on the right a propagator with matching heating mat. The mat gives off a constant heat, so the internal temperature in the greenhouse should be checked regularly. The temperature can be controlled either with the sliders of the greenhouse or by briefly removing the cover. Alternatively, a timer can be used.

If you already have seed houses or boxes and prefer to grow in soil instead of pots, you can also use heating cables (see below), which are laid directly in the soil. They are available in different lengths. The temperature control is the same as for the heating mats.

Manufacturer Romberg recommends not to use heating mats and heating cables in cold cellars or outdoor greenhouses, because a too large temperature difference cannot be compensated. As a rule, the windowsill area in the living area is the first choice anyway, as light will soon be needed.

Very important for heating cables and heating mats:

Never cut or kink cables or mats. Do not use porous cables or damaged plugs! And: Keep heating cables and mats away from children - no toys!

If you want to be on the safe side when there is electricity and a humid environment, you should think about a "personal protection adapter" (see picture above). This is plugged into the mains socket before the device to be operated and prevents potentially life-threatening electrical accidents. If threatening residual currents occur on the connected device, e.g. due to damaged cables or moisture, the power supply is interrupted at lightning speed. Available in many garden and DIY stores as well as in electrical retailers. Even better are, of course, sockets in the house which are already protected by an RCD (if necessary, consult the electrical installer).

As soon as the germs come out, they need (sun) light to grow. Puny spinning long grown seedlings are a sign for too little light. As long as the seedlings are not grown in a sunny south-facing window, you can help by using special fluorescent plant lamps, which hang above the plants at a distance of about 15 to 20 cm and burn for 12 to 14 hours a day (use a timer if necessary)..