How To Grow Chilli Plants Faster
Growing chillies for cooking is a need for everybody. Even if you don’t like hot and spicy food, a little bit of chilli can stimulate the taste buds and your food will taste so much better. Plus, chilli plants will brighten up your garden.
If you want to know how to grow chilli plants faster, don’t worry, there are a lot of ways to do it. All you need is to start your vegetable seeds early and keep them warm. Keep reading to learn How to Grow Chilli Plants Faster.
Top grow chilli plants
Begin by choosing faster-growing chilli plants with shorter growing season. Here are some of the top grow chilli plants varieties for faster growth:
- Jalapeño Seeds
- Fushimi Pepper Seeds
- Orange Spice Jalapeño Seeds
- Lemon Spicy Jalapeño Seeds
- Cili Padi
- Cabai Kulai
How to grow chillies from seeds
You can grow chilli plants from seeds very easily, all you need is at least 20 C to germinate.
As Malaysia is a tropical country, you can start them all year round, but it’s a good idea to let the plants grow strong before the wet season hits them.
You can start growing chilli plants in seedling trays or small pots. Remember, they are very vulnerable when they are small, and they take time to grow.
It’s recommended to start directly in the ground because they don’t like being transplanted. But if you don’t have enough seeds, it’s better to start them in pots. Remember you can buy vegetable seeds online.
A good idea is to plant several chilli seeds per pot, so once your seedlings have a few leaves, you can take out the weaker ones and keep only the strongest plants.
When planting them, go for one chilli plant per pot. Otherwise you will disturb their roots too much and they don’t like having their roots disturbed.
When you grow chilli plants in seedling trays, you have to plant them out once they have four to six true leaves, this is when they are about 5 cm tall. Just make sure it’s warm enough before you put them outside.
Other vegetable gardening tips and hacks for beginners is to water the chilli plants before transplanting, this way the soil doesn’t fall apart when they are removed from the pot. Be very careful when removing the seedling from their pots.
Once you removed them, all you have to do is drop them in a hole in the garden, fill it back in, firm down the soil, water and you are done.
Growing chilli plants
Chilli plants grow in a variety of soils. Of course, they grow better in rich organic soils, but they don’t need any special treatment. Just keep in mind that if your soil is poor, you will have to fertilize your plants.
Something to remember when fertilizing chilli plants: they like potassium and not too much nitrogen.
In addition, keep your chilli plants watered and mulched. Mulch will improve your soil over time, and it will protect the plant from drying out.
Even though chilli plants need plenty of water, don’t overwater, the soil should be free draining.
Harvesting chilli plants
Chilli plants are quick to fruit and flower, and it depends on the variety and the temperature.
Once they reach full size, you can harvest the first chillies green. You can always wait until they turn red, or whatever colour they are supposed to turn to.
A good tip to harvest fresh chillies is to cut them off while they are still shiny and plump.
Always pull them off upwards, exactly opposite to the direction in which they bend down. This way you don’t break off the whole branch or just snip them off.
The chilli will last in a sealed bag in the fridge for up to a week.
You can dry the chilli in the sun or just hang it up to dry in an airy spot. You can also make cayenne pepper and chilli powder if you pound it to flakes or put in the blender.
In a Nutshell
Chilli plants are one of the easiest vegetables to grow from seeds, as they are usually disease and pest free, plus they look great all season long.
The colors are super bright and beautiful, rest assured that they will make your garden look amazing!
