Chilli Frustration

[HotStuff]

I'm trying to grow chillies from seed this year. Last year was my first year growing stuff and the chillies I had were ready bought plants from the GC. I've had reasonable success with germination. I've got an electric propagator and I've been sowing seeds in modules, when they pop their heads up I've been moving them on to a sunny windowsill. This is when they seem to stall, several have still only got their seed leaves, a few others have got their first pair of real leaves. I've tried using a heating mat in case they weren't warm enough, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong or am I just being too impatient?

One other thing to mention, they do look a bit pale to me, I presume I shouldn't be feeding them with anything other than water yet?

[elsie-scot]

cant answer your question fully as this is first year I am trying to grow chillies - they are coming slowly, but main thing I have learnt is dont water towards end of day ie after 4pm, as they hate sitting in cold water overnight

[Capsid]

Chillis are quite slow to get going. Your patience will be rewarded.

[Naga]

When they are young you might be better off using just water when the surface compost is dry to touch, even then you only need to water so the surface compost is just moist, not soaking wet and try to avoid getting water on the leaves if in a sunny position. If your plants were a lot more mature I might be tempted to say that they are under nourished and feed with some liquid nitrogen feed but as they are this young I reckon it's not enough water and possibly too much direct sunlight.

Try move some from the window in to a place out of direct sun and water as above, then keep a few on a window and water as above and see what happens.

Good luck and chilli growing is an addiction! You'll see!

[markwcel]

this is quite a good site to read

beginner guide to growing chile peppers

[GreatBlah]

If they only have their seed leaves then you don't need to go about feeding them yet.

Also I presume you planted your seeds in March. Both this year and last year I planted some in March and some in April. The ones in April grew/are germinating and growing quicker due to more daylight.

[starloc]

as i use cheap compost to grow them in i tend to feed every watering, at half strength before they grow and after they are growing i use standard strength feed, i used to use tomato feed and i have used citrus plant feed as i always have it, the plants grew ok, i have since changed to one i got on ebay called `chilli focus` now the plants grow very much better, they flower more and give more chillies

Last week i remembered one that is about an inch high, its been in the pot with a citrus plant, the seed fell in about 6 months ago, it grew rapily to an inch high and hasnt gone any bigger, its been that size since about october, i repotted upto the first lot of leaves in bq compost and fed with chillifocus and its now grown more than an inch in the last week

[Two_Sheds]

A seed has a lot of food in it for the developing seedling - it doesn't need extra feeding. Also, most composts have some feed in too - enough for about 8 weeks usually.

[Victoria26]

They look like they lie dormant for a while on the top of the soil. Whats happening is that your chilies are growing and establishing a good root system under the soil.
Patience will reward you shortly when they spring into life and grow leaves like crazy.
Your doing nothing wrong. Relax and sow some more!

[HotStuff]

Thank you all for your advice & reassurance. I guess it's just that my tomatoes are doing so well this year and my Dwarf French Beans are growing so fast you can almost see them moving. I know it's not fair to compare, but I can't help it

[menai_terrace]

I've been attempting to germinate a few varieties of chilli from The Chilli Seed Company - one of their little titbits of advice was not to leave the chilli plants on the windowsill overnight due to temperature changes.

Bit of a pain as a nightly ritual but maybe worth a go?

[terrier]

My two challenges are growing radish and growing chillis, neither of which seem to want to grow for me. I didn't get one decent radish last season even though I followed conventional growing practices. My chili plants grew to about 3" high and although they looked healthy, didn't grow any more, eventually they succombed to Peach Potato Aphid so had to be binned. This years plants are sitting at the two leaf seedling stage and so far have refused to grow any bigger, but there's time yet. Last year, my sweet pepper plants grew well but this year none have germinated so far.
Impatient of North Wales!