Our gardening expert on the rewards to be reaped by early sowers
Let’s face it, January is a dark and dastardly month: sowing most things is pointless. But the exception is chillies. Sure, the seed packages say sow in March, but you want to be potting them on by then. The longer you give chillies to grow, the more fruit they’ll reward you with.
Chillies originate from central and south America, with the Andes the principal area. From this we can understand a few of chillies’ true loves: warm sunny days (no higher than 29C), cooler nights (no lower than 10C), and dry conditions.