Question: Hi Roberta! Just came off a live chat which was very interesting. Do you have any tips on growing chillies? I planted the seeds quite shallow around 3 weeks ago, but i don't think any have germinated and the soil isn't absorbing the water. Can you suggest anything?

Roberta Migale answered on 18 May 2020: last edited 18 May 2020 12:08 pm

Hi cbond! Let me tell you my “protocol” 😀
1) plant seeds in a seed germinator or a very small pot filled with moist compost (you’ve done well planting them quite shallow!). At the bottom of each pot put some little pebbles or broken pieces of polystyrene, to provide drainage. Then put the compost and press it down a little. The put the seed and cover with a thin layer of compost, then press down a bit to make it settle.
2) cover the pot with cling film and store on a windowsill. before germination temperature is more important then sun so don;t worry if they don’t get much light as long as the temperature is above 18 degrees. You can tell if it’s right if you have droplets of water condensation on the cling film (side of the soil) in the morning!
3) germination should take now about 10 days, if you don;t have anything after 3 weeks i suggest you start again following these tips. After you see the seedling coming up you can take off the cling film and leave in a sunny spot of a windowsill.
4)tip to water them: use a spray bottle, you don;t want to disturb the seed by flushing it with lots of water all times. Better a little bit of water whenever you see the soil is dry (which should not be more often than every other day when you are still covering the pot with cling film!

That’s all my knowledge on plant developmental biology XD I hope it works! Don’t give up, chillies are such pretty plant to look at!