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The business of growing chilli peppers and sweet peppers is often made out to be much more difficult than it actually is. In fact, chilli peppers and sweet peppers are far easier to grow than tomatoes as there's much less fiddling about involved! If you’re planning to grow your plants in a tunnel or greenhouse, sow your seeds from late February to March, which will give you nice plants ready to set out in April–May. If you’re planning to grow your plants outside, delay sowing until late March–April which will give you plants for setting out from late May to mid-June.

The hardest part of growing chilli peppers and sweet peppers lies in germinating the seed but it shouldn't be too difficult, providing you use the freshest possible seed compost and keep a careful eye on temperature, watering and light. To achieve successful germination you really need a good steady heat so we recommend buying a decent heated propagator, ideally one with thermostatic controls. A propagation light can also be helpful.

Sow the seed thinly onto gently firmed trays or pots of compost – about ten seeds to a 3½"(9 cm) pot or a couple of hundred to a standard seed tray (you can divide up the tray to sow a number of varieties if you wish). Cover the seed with a layer of vermiculite or sieved fresh seed compost, roughly as thick as the seeds themselves. Be careful when sowing hotter pepper varieties as the seeds themselves carry some heat and may leave a residue on your hands. We suggest wearing gloves when you handle them.

Protect newly-sown seeds from mice, which are notorious for sniffing out chilli pepper and sweet pepper seeds.

Water the trays or pots thoroughly and stand them in a propagator in good light; a constant temperature of 82-86°F (28-30°C) is ideal. Keep the compost just moist but never soggy. At a temperature of 70-80°F (21-26°C) the seeds should germinate within five to ten days, but can sometimes take anything up to three weeks; a cooler temperature will slow down germination and some varieties will not germinate, and below 50°F (10°C) the seeds will probably not germinate at all.

Once the seeds have germinated, keep a very close eye on them as the seedlings can turn leggy very quickly. Provide as much light as you possibly can and grow the seedlings on at a reduced temperature of around 75°F (24°C). If you are growing them on a windowsill or using a similar uni-directional light source you will need to turn the growing container several times a day in order to ensure that the seedlings do not grow towards the light.

Watering is also important. It is better to keep the compost just moist at all times, avoiding drought and waterlogging – too much water will produce weak, spindly plants. Once the seedlings have produced their first true leaves (that is, the first set of leaves after the seedling leaves) they are ready to be pricked out (transplanted) into modules or small pots. As with all seedlings, hold them by their leaves rather than their stems when pricking out. With chilli seedlings the important thing is not to plant them too deeply. Unlike tomatoes, chilli and sweet pepper seedlings do not stem-root; if they are planted too deeply they are very likely to rot. To avoid this, plant them so that the compost is at the same level on the stem as in the original seed tray.)