When to Start Chillies?

Every year, it seems that I start sowing chillies earlier each year. As a beginner, I'd sow them as per instructions, in February, even in March, but that was on the windowsill, and I rarely had a good harvest except off Cayenne types.

Then I made New Year my rule of thumb, with the help of a heated propagator and some low-powered LED lights and then the windowsill. By then I'd got the chilli-growing bug, and the next year, was itching to start by Christmas Eve.

A couple of years on, I now sow every month, from November 1st until February 1st... after that I start to concentrate on tomatoes and herbs.

Last year, the Nov 1st batch weren't great. But it was useful to have that failed venture to compare to the other crops. My best chillies I've spoken about on this blog came from the Dec 1st sowing. I had successes too with later sowings, mostly with Joe's Long and Padron, but it was too late for the super-hots or those slow at germination.

You won't hear much about my Nov 1st 2018 sowing on this blog. I started off with 31 pods in an Aerogarden Harvest Seed Starter, one of 31 different varieties, all properly labelled in felt-tip on A4 paper. The first to germinate was a Kashmiri Chilli from Sea Spring Seeds, and then a Rocoto, I think the Chocolate one. After that I had a water-spill accident, and my carefully drawn sowing chart vanished in a second... an absolute nightmare but an interesting exercise in chromotography. All but these two chillies will be unknowns to me until they leaf or fruit. However, a month on many of these chillies are growing well, and I'm already thinking of pinching the growing stems.

Today (December 3rd, but close enough to the 1st not to throw off results) I've written in biro! And for added measure I'll take a photo and post here in Spicely Done.

I haven't bought any new seeds for 2019, yet... although the buying itch has started. I'm only using up seeds that I bought the last two years.

Here is the complete Dec 2018 Chilli List:

1x Habanada, Baker Creek
1x Habanero, unknown source but bought in multi-variety pack from garden centre
2x Alberto's Locoto, Real Seeds
3x Purple Knobbly Thing (possibly Pink Tiger, from Rich 'Shakey' Ingham)
3x 'Butt Plug' (possibly something crossed with Lemon Drop, from Rich 'Shakey' Ingham)
1x Serrano, Victoriana
1x Peito da Moça, Victoriana
1x Dedo da Mocha, Real Seeds
1x Bulgarian Carrot, Victoriana
1x Birds Eye, unknown source but bought in multi-variety pack from garden centre, same as the Habanero above
2x Lemon Drop, Real Seeds
1x Pyramid, Real Seeds
1x Amy, Sweet Hungarian Wax, Real Seeds
2x Kashmiri, Sea Spring Seeds
1x Ring of Fire, Suttons
2x Satan's Kiss, Victoriana
1x Patio Sizzle, Wilko
1x Ohnivec, Real Seeds
1x Carolina Reaper, Victoriana
1x Peter Pepper, Victoriana
1x Jalapeño Fooled You, Victoriana
1x Ring of Fire, Victoriana


(Two seeds grown in every pod, except for the Carolina Reaper and the Peter Pepper, where I was down to my last seed)