Pandora's Box, AKA the chilli seed box, was finally opened on Thursday evening and the 2023 chilli growing season has now begun! I had planned on sowing the chilli seeds on Wednesday evening, but by the time I'd finished doing a few other small jobs it was getting too late. My chilli growing season can start anywhere between the beginning of January and the middle of February, but it normally starts towards the end of January. This is better for me because I don't want the plants growing too quickly. I spent Monday and Tuesday evenings looking through my seed collection and contemplating on which varieties to grow and where each plant is going to live for the duration of the growing season.
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Chilli Seed Box and Plastic Plant Labels - 26th January 2023
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On Wednesday evening I made up a bucketful of compost mixture and sterilised a sufficient amount of it for sowing the seeds. I also washed out the heated propagator because it was very dusty, sterilised the propagation trays and lids in a mild bleach solution, calibrated the EC and pH meters, wrote out a list of the
chilli varieties I'm growing and sorted out the front porch in preparation for the big event. By the time I'd finished doing these few small jobs it was getting too late to sow the chilli seeds, so I had to leave the seed sowing until the following evening.
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Compost Mixture - 25th January 2023
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Sterilised Compost - 25th January 2023
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Sterilised Propagation Trays - 25th January 2023
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Calibrated EC Meter - 25th January 2023
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Calibrated pH Meter - 25th January 2023
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On Thursday evening, after washing the dishes and making up a bucketful of the water that I use for growing chilli plants, I finally got around to sowing all of the chilli seeds! I always sow a few more seeds than I need so that I can prick-out the healthiest-looking specimens from the batch and so that I can test the germination rates on my own saved seeds.
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Water - 26th January 2023
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Chilli Seeds Sown - 26th January 2023
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This season, I've sown a total of 25 varieties, six of which are new ones and the rest of which are old tribe members that have been mentioned on this website in the past. I'm also planning to keep two plants of some varieties. As always, I won't be posting any photos of the new varieties until much later in the season, when I know for sure that they're true to type. Although I'm growing a total of 25 varieties (up to now at least), it's likely that only 24 of them will get mentioned on the blog because one variety is being grown indoors as an experiment. It may also be the case that I scrap one variety and keep two plants of another variety instead. I haven't yet published a list of the varieties I'm growing this year, but when I do you'll be able to view it on the
current growing season page, if you're interested.
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Chilli Seeds in the Heated Propagator - 27th January 2023
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As you can see, the chilli seeds are now nice and snug inside the heated propagator surrounded by scrunched up newspaper to help trap in a little more heat. Hopefully, we should start seeing signs of life around next Thursday, but it could be sooner. In the past, I've had some
Capsicum chinense varieties germinate in as little as four days, so I always start checking them after four days. It's been quite sunny here today in North Wales, which is always a welcomed sight in my world. Spring officially begins in just seven weeks, and so it won't be long now until the darkness is banished by the light. I hope you all have a fantastic chilli growing season and that all of your harvests are spicy and plentiful. Let the madness begin! All hail the Chilli Gods! 😈
