Growing chillies from seed – potting on. This article explains the next step once your chilli seeds have germinated.

When chilli seeds germinate, the first pair of leaves to emerge are the cotyledons or seed leaves. These contain a limited supply of food for the plant, and will eventually whither and drop off. The next pair of leaves are the true leaves. If you sowed your seeds in soil-less plugs like I suggested, when the first pair of true leaves have unfurled, then it is time to pot the seedlings on, because the soil-less plugs contain no nutrients.

Choose the strongest seedlings. You will need a quantity of small plastic pots, and some all purpose compost.

Place a little compost in the bottom of a pot, and place the plug on top.

Pour compost round the plug, pressing down gently to remove any air. until the compost is level with the plug.

Label the seedling, and return to a propagator. Place the full propagator in a light place away from direct sunlight for the first day, then return to a sunny windowsill.

• Keep the pots well watered.
• 4 weeks after re potting,  feed weekly with tomato plant food.
• Check the root growth regularly by examining the underside of the pot. When a significant root growth appears, it ids time to re-pot again.
• Once all danger of frosts has gone (probably May in Northern Europe), move the pots outside, preferably against a south-facing wall.

[comment comment_file =”/comments.php”]