This was my first year growing chillies in New Zealand so I wasn’t really too sure what I was doing so I germinating the seeds in a number of different ways and grew as many plants as I could in the hope I would get something to work.
The best method I found for germinating the seeds was to place them in a wet paper towel fold it up and place it in a labelled samwich bag and placed it in my airing cupboard. I checked on these morning and night for a week or two to ensure they didn’t dry out, I did this until they started to sprout then I placed then into seed growing trays with some soil mix. The Bhut Jolokias seemed to take the longest to germinate while the F1 hots took about a week.
Once they had reached about 5 cm in height I transplanted into small pots and placed under grow lights in my shed as it still was not warm enough for them to go outside, here they remained for about 6 weeks. If it was a nice day I moved them outside into the sun then moved them back at night. Once I did move them outside (about November) they were well established and started to flower and fruit by early in the new year.
