The best way to start chilli seeds

The way I germinate chilli seeds is not a conventional method that others would do. I've tried putting seeds in wet paper towel and then in plastic sandwich bags, soaking the seeds in a weak tea solution and then planting, and just popping them straight into soil.

But nothing quite beats the method I am now using to germinate my seeds. I have to credit Neil from The Hippy Seed Company for the idea, and it's really made it quite easy and consistent to germinate the seeds.

What we have in the above is a plastic container with 30 lots of coco jiffy pellets, floating on top of water that is heated to 30C with a small fishtank heating rod, and a few air stones at the bottom to just circulate some oxygen around.

While I've been able to germinate with the other methods, this has easily been the most consistent because with a lid on the plastic container I am easily able to keep the humidity at high levels and stop the jiffy pellets from drying out.

As I travel quite a bit, it means I can sort of forget about the chamber other than cleaning the water out once a week and making sure I disinfect it from all the algae that starts to form within the water. Once I see roots penetrating the fabric webbing of the peat pellet, I put the pellet in a small pot with some soil and move to under a LED light somewhere.

These 14 plants are house in a small tent in the garage. There's a fan that blows the air around, yet it still has a very high humidity because there are clay balls at the bottom of the orange tray filled with water, and as it evaporates it contributes to the high humidity - which chillies love!