Most vegetable seeds take about 7-10 days to germinate and push through the soil.  This is rather handy because, in that short space of time, you know whether you’ve succeeded or whether the mini-drought they went through (er-hum) has scuppered your chances.  However chilies can take up to 21 days to germinate – Yikes!  On top of this, chilies require a long growing season and so benefit from an early sowing…so an additional 21 days if you do need to re-sow isn’t welcome.

So, my tip of the day, especially when dealing with chillies is…try to ensure they don’t suffer a drought, even a mini one.

PS We had one chilli pop up in only a week.  That’s so fast that I’ll keep a suspicious eye on it.  I’m wondering if somehow a capsicum seed has managed to stow-away in the chilli packets.