How to grow chillies and tomatoes for summer

If you want to grow a bumper crop of chillies, sweet peppers, tomatoes or aubergines for summer, then February is the month to sow the seeds. The longer the growing season for these tender plants, the more chance of success. And you don’t need any special equipment – just some seeds, compost and a container is enough to get you started.

The sowing itself couldn’t be easier. Start by filling a small container with good quality, sieved peat-free compost and lightly tap on a tabletop to settle it down below the edges. Use a small flower pot if you’ve got one – a yogurt pot with holes punched in the bottom is just as good.

Sowing and covering seeds of chillies and tomatoes

You’ll may only find 8-15 seeds inside a packet of chillies, sweet peppers, tomatoes or aubergines when compared with hardier things (like carrots, lettuce and beetroot which are sown outdoors from March onwards). Extract them carefully from the paper or foil pack and put them on a piece of white paper so you can count and guard them!

Put a few of the seeds into the palm of one hand and transfer them, one at a time to the surface of the compost aiming for 4-6 evenly spaced seeds per pot. Return the spare seeds back in the packet as back-up. Then rub a little more compost between the palms of your hands, moving them across the top of the pot to just (and only just) cover the seeds. Carefully water the pot to soak the compost and stand it to drain, before covering with a clear plastic food bag and popping the whole thing onto a light windowsill.

Ways to stop seedlings of chillies and tomatoes getting tall and leggy

The seeds will benefit from the warmth indoors to start with and green shoots should appear after 7-14 days. Having recently sown some tomato seeds of a brilliant variety called ‘Honeycomb’, I was amazed that they appeared in only 2 days! But when they do pop up it is important to take the bag off and ensure that the seedlings aren’t too close to a radiator or other source of heat. The aim is to be patient and to keep them growing slowly and steadily so you get robust healthy plants. A temperature of around 15C is fine, so beware if you keep the central heating thermostat above 18C as your seedlings could get very leggy. They’ll also be looking for as much light as possible, so keep them near that window, but out of direct sunlight at midday which can scorch them.

In a couple of weeks’ time they’ll need splitting up and potting up singly – a process called ‘pricking out’– when some of the stem, up to the first leaves, can be carefully buried in fresh compost to make the young plants sturdier. But in the meantime, sowing seeds now, will guarantee you have young plants to grow a bumper crop of chillies and tomatoes for summer.

5 tasty tomato varieties

‘Sakura’, ‘Honeycomb’, ‘Sungold’, ‘Apero’, ‘Crimson Crush’

5 chillies to tickle your tonsils

‘Apache’, ‘Peruvian Lemon Drop’, ‘Cayennetta’, ‘Hot Thai’, ‘Bulgarian Carrot’

Sweet peppers and aubergines

‘Red King’ (sweet pepper), ‘Gypsy’ (sweet pepper), ‘Thor’ (sweet pepper), ‘Czech Early’ (aubergine), ‘Galine’ (aubergine)

Seed suppliers

Chiltern Seeds, Dobies, Marshalls, Mr Fothergill’s, Nicky’s Nursery, Pennard Plants, Suttons, Thompson & Morgan