Yes - sand for seeds, grit/perlite/vermiculite for the rest. Best to get from garden centre. We use John Innes mix seedlings and No. 2 for everything else - the No.2 has grit (3m) - very free draining, soil-based so re-wets well, still heavy when dry (so plants down blow over).
Sorry to hear that. No substitute for a great growing area (and expensive), but maybe a home-made version of something like this: www.aerogarden.org.uk/shop/aerogarden/
Short History - started growing chillies in my greenhouse while holding down a home-working IT job (worked for DEC mostly, bit of Microsoft, Cabletron, Riverstone). Growing chillies that I read about in Mexican cook books. My early fav was Santa Fe Grande - still very fond of that one.
Found some polly tunnels locally that were in disrepair (2001), started doing farmers' markets (2002), started cooking-up in my home kitchen and making sauces to sell online, to shops and markets, found a field to build the SDCF home patch (2003), moved into our new building (2005), started employing folk (now have 10 staff going to 14 in the summer), completed new farmshop/cafe building 2011.
We have a great bunch of people at the farm and still enjoy the whole seed-to-sauce thing and the new challenges each growing year throws up.
you can add various things, pearlite, vermicilulite, horticultural sand, grit ( all available from various garden centers.) if you have bought any seed sowing compost you will find its very fine with sand sized particles in it. easy for emerging seeds to push through. Read More...
No I just make sure the compost is moist enough to keep the root ball intact. It's important to avoid too much water around the roots of your chillies. Read More...
Pot them on gradually, wait until they have outgrown the old pots. I wouldn't advise reporting too frequently as chillies hate having their roots disturbed. As a general rule of thumb wait until you see the roots poking throught the drainage holes in the old pot. Read More...
welcome to the forum. Sounds like things are going really well over in West Wales. Not sure if you need a lot of tips if your plants are fruiting all year - you must be doing something very right!
I find the 2 chillies per pot approach unusual, a lot of the guys here say they are short on space so I'm sure they'll be intereted in this.
Good luck with the polytunnel I'm planning on growing plants straight in the ground outside this year but if it's a disaster I'll be investing in one next year myself.
