Chilli is a fast-growing plant that (some in the wild can reach over 9 feet!) The growing conditions of chilli will determine how fast it will grow, so as long as you maintain healthy planting and growing conditions, your chilli is set to grow at maximum speed within the shortest time frame.
Grow your own Chilli – Habanero, Thai & Naga
The basic tip to grow chilli faster is to plant early and keep your plants warm as chilli is not a hardy plant. However, we have compiled some top effective tips to guarantee the healthy and fast growth of your chilli plants. Follow us as we elaborate on this.
1. Start Your Chilli Seeds Early
Instead of waiting for spring to come to begin the planting season, start as early as possible indoors. Plant the chilli seeds in a shallow seedling tray at a depth of one finger deep. Place it in a warm room beside a sunny window or supplement the light conditions with a grow light.
Consistent heat with temperatures between 26 to 32 degrees brings about the fastest germination of seeds. If the weather conditions are too cold to achieve this temperature level, you can place a heat mat underneath the seedling tray.
2. Grow Early Season Peppers
The duration of the growing seasons and the speed of growth of the chilli plant differ between species. Some have shorter growing seasons than others and vice versa. If you want faster growth to choose the species that grow faster and have the shortest growing seasons.
From research, the spicier the chilli, the slower it grows. These are some of the fastest-growing chilli plants that you can consider: sweet chocolate bell peppers, hatch chille, Fushimi pepper, orange and lemon spice jalapeno, etc.
3. Warmth
As mentioned earlier, the most important factor to aid the fast growth of chilli plants is to keep the plant warm, especially when they are still seedlings. During cool weather such as spring, you can cover seedlings and heat the seedlings to temperatures around 15 degrees Celsius or transfer them to greenhouses or hoop houses (assuming they are warm enough)
4. Start With A Fully Grown Plant Every Year
Chillis are long-living plants and can live for 5 years and up to 10 years but they are also not hardy plants and will easily succumb to cold and frost once temperatures drop below 10 to 15 degrees Celsius. The trick is to overwinter your plants to make sure they don’t get damaged by winter and frost. This way, you start every growing season with a fully grown chilli tree.
