How To Grow Chillies From Seeds The Eco-Friendly Way

Do you want to know how to grow chillies from seeds whilst also keeping the planet in mind?
how to grow chillies from seeds

That’s great news! You’ve come to the right place, because we have all the tips on growing these spicy, yummy veggies whilst keeping things as green as possible:

 

Why Grow Chillies From Seeds?

When you learn how to grow chillies from seed you are creating your very own produce, which has a ton of benefits that go far beyond creating many a yummy dish with the fruits of your labour.

For you, learning how to grow chillies from seed is beneficial for your health in multiple ways.

As well as the physical demand of growing any plant giving you a healthy boost, the mental health benefits are quite far-reaching.

Gardening is thought to reduce stress, boost confidence, and it can even help people who are recovering from illness and accidents.

Let’s not also forget that chillies themselves are super-nutritious and contain many vitamins and minerals, including capsanthin, which some studies have suggested could be powerful enough to help fight cancer!

When it comes to the planet, learning how to grow chillies from seeds is actually pretty great before you even adjust how you grow them to be more eco-friendly.

There might be a third of our global population cutting down on meat to help the environment, but it is important to stay mindful that vegetables and fruits can be impactful too, when it comes to the planet.

For every chilli you buy at the store there is an environmental cost for the water, plastic, pesticide, land cultivation and human labour used to grow it, not to mention the air miles it took to get it to your local store.

By understanding how to grow chillies from seeds rather than buying chillies from the store, you reduce the environmental impact of your chilli consumption hugely.

Lastly, there are some practical benefits to getting to grips with how to grow chillies from seeds. Those who live in flats, small homes or apartments can grow chillies from seed in a small space.

As long as you have a bright, warm, sunny spot, you’re good to go. By starting to learn how to grow chillies from seed, you can also create many chilli plants cheaply, giving you a few to sell or give away in the local community.

 

How To Grow Chillies From Seeds

Once you have the basics of how to grow chillies from seed down, you can make the right adjustments to keep it as eco-friendly as possible. Here is an easy overview of how to grow your chillies from seeds:

  • Step One – Choose The Chilli

To learn how to grow chilli from seeds, you have to have some chilli seeds, but which type will you grow?

You can grow chillies from seeds creating plants that come in many different colours, shapes, sizes and heat levels on the Scoville Scale. The most fun thing to do is choose a mixture of types you like to eat, and types that look fun to grow.

This video has some really great tips on chilli types and the growing conditions they need.

  • Step Two – Prepare Your Trays

You will want to plant your seeds in seed trays indoors with some seeding soil. Leave enough room for watering, and place the trays in a warm, bright spot indoors.

  • Step Three – Sow Your Seeds

When chilli planting season has started (usually January or February) sprinkle your seeds on top of the soil and cover with a thin layer of soil before watering gently to moisten the soil.

  • Step Four – Propagate the seeds if you can or want to, or cover the trays in plastic wrap until they germinate.
  • Step Five – When the seeds have germinated remove any plastic covering.
  • Step Six – Continue to keep the compost moist without soaking it.

As you can see, it doesn’t take a lot to grow chillies from seeds successfully.

If you want some tips on the next stage of growing after chilli planting season has begun, this video has some handy tips on what to do with your newly germinated seedlings to create strong, healthy chilli plants.

Growing Chillies From Seed The Eco-Friendly Way

77% of people want to know how to live more sustainably, which is pretty awesome. If all of us do a little bit, the world will be a lot better off. Today, your eco-friendly efforts are focused on how to grow chillies from seeds.

There are some easy adjustments you can make to reduce your environmental impact, and grow your chillies from seeds as ethically and greenly as possible, here’s how:

Buy Organic Seeds

If you buy your chilli seeds, buy them organic. This means they were grown without harsh pesticides or other chemicals. They are also bred well to create strong, healthy plants that boost the ecosystem.

If you are going to take seeds from chilli peppers when you learn how to grow chillies from seeds, buy organic chilli peppers to harvest the seeds from.

Avoid Peat Compost

Compost, unless it has a peat-free label, contains up to 100% peat. Peat is not an eco-friendly ingredient because the bogs that it comes from contain all kinds of plants and animals unique to that environment.

Harvesting the peat for compost destroys that environment. Luckily, there is a lot of peat-free compost around to use instead when you start to grow chillies from seeds.

Reuse Your Plant Pots

Usually plant pots are made from plastic, especially seed trays and other smaller pots used for growing. Reusing those pots year on year and giving them away/ selling them when you’re done (or recycling them if possible) is much better for the environment than throwing them away, like 91% of all plastic that our society consumes.

You could also reduce more of your single use plastic like water bottles and yogurt pots by cutting them to size and using them as plant pots, rather than throwing them away.

To help you when you grow chillies from seeds, this handy video shows you how to make a completely self enclosed propagation pot using a water bottle.

Catch Rainwater

Rather than using tap water to water your chilli plants, you can save water by catching rain water in a water butt, bucket or tub. Not only will doing this save water, but it will probably boost your plants health as it is more pure than tap water.

Think Carefully About Pest Control

When you grow chillies from seed, they become vulnerable to pests and disease as soon as they germinate. There are lots of different sprays and products you can use to deal with those problems but many of them could be harmful to the environment.

Whilst they may be labelled as safe to use on plants grown for food, certain chemical pesticides and products contaminate the air, ground and water either immediately or eventually.

Some organic, natural pest products have also been called into question, so they can’t always be relied on. Neem oil, for example, is commonly used to kill pests on plants.

It is, however, considered by many studies as toxic to all insects, including bees and other pollinators, which is bad news for the environment.

The best thing to do to grow your chillies from seeds in a way that is eco-friendly is to do your best to avoid any pests and diseases by:

  • Keep soil moist, but not wet
  • Remove dead leaves and detritus from the plant and soil
  • Always disinfect plant pots and tools between uses
  • Rinse your plants down regularly to remove any pests by water pressure

If you have an issue with pests, you might want to look into biological pest control. Alternatively, do your research on sprays and options you have and use the least harmful product available to you.

 

Are You Ready For Chilli Planting Season?

Now you know how to grow chilli plants in a way that helps you and the planet, it’s time to use our tips and prepare for chilli planting season!

Soon enough you’ll master how to grow chillies from seeds for crop upon crop of tasty, spicy chillies this season.


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