Chillies can be germinated much as any other seed. In order to give the seeds a bit of a helping hand to germinate you can place the seeds in between two sheets of damp kitchen roll and put into a either a sealed freezer bag or plastic container.
Place the bag somewhere warm such as in an airing cupboard. This method will help keep the heat and the moisture around the seeds, speeding up the germination process. An important thing to do at this stage is to label the seeds so y...ou know what is what when it is time to plant them!
After 2-5 days days you will probably notice some of the seeds will have swelled up and may be even be starting to sprout. Now is the time to plant the seeds. Ideally you need a propagator but in reality they can be planted in any kind of container.Place the bag somewhere warm such as in an airing cupboard. This method will help keep the heat and the moisture around the seeds, speeding up the germination process. An important thing to do at this stage is to label the seeds so y...ou know what is what when it is time to plant them!
Chilli plants love heat. They are closely related to capsicums/bell peppers and also related to tomatoes, but chillies prefer their growing conditions a lot hotter. Chilli seeds need 20°C to germinate, and it should be 30°C or more for the fruit to ripen. Night temperatures should not drop below 15°C. Chillies also don't mind humidity as much as sweet peppers or tomatoes do.
You only want one chilli plant per pot when you plant them out.You can plant several chilli seeds per pot. Once your seedlings have a few leaves, snip off the weaker ones and only keep the strongest plants. Otherwise you will disturb their roots too much and they hate having their roots disturbed.
If you grow chillies in seedling trays or little punnets, plant them out once they have four to six true leaves (about 5 cm tall). If you don't, their roots will start feeling restricted and it will set them back. Chillies don't mind growing in bigger pots, so the timing for planting them out is not critical if you use pots. If you live in a cooler climate, use pots. Let them to grow to 10 to 15 cm. Make sure it's warm enough before you put them outside!
Water the chillies before transplanting, so the soil doesn't fall apart when they're removed from the pot. Be very careful when removing the seedlings from their pots. Drop them in a hole in the garden, fill it back in, firm down the soil, water, done.