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Don't overthink it, it's not rocket science.
Chillies like fluffy (not dense / compacted) soil, and roughly the same nutrients as tomatoes do.
I always did very well with tomato soil, sometimes added extra perlite (like Perligran, the white little pellets), also tomato / bell pepper type fertilizer is great.Let the soil dry out to the point where the leaves look a bit "sad", this will let air get to the roots, don't water everyday, don't let them sit in water or else the roots will rot..
It's great to start early as mentioned above, indoors, with artificial light (daylight bulbs / tubes are just fine), lots of light close to the plants will give you nice and compact (non-leggy) little plants that are a perfect start for putting them outdoors when it's warm enough (over 10°C most nights).
Having a little fan nearby while they're indoors (turn on for half an hour a day) will help them become strong!
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@edmundro
Has anyone got a good source for reading up on growing chillis/decent YouTube channel?
Seen a bunch of conflicting information and a lot of it seems to be based around people growing in the sunnier US states.
Some people seem to just whack a pot on the patio and get great results and others seem to struggle regardless.
My plants this year appeared healthy but never seemed to get off the ground and only a couple really produced pods. I probably germinated a bit earlier than recommended.
I’m lucky enough to have a 1.8m x 4m bed at the allotment with a chest-height hoop house already earmarked for chillis and peppers next year so can hopefully create the ideal environment with companion plants, maybe olla pots for watering etc. Bed is east west facing, gets a bit of shade in the middle of the day but mostly pretty sunny.
I don’t have grow lights and powered irrigation isn’t an option as we have troughs, not taps at the plot.
Have added good soil and cardboard this week to the bed and it’ll get manure in winter.
I don’t know why but my lack of success this year has really irked me and want to improve things next year, probably because everything else did really well.
So yeah, if you were designing your ideal chilli bed, what would you do and what info is relevant?