With RHS Malvern coming up in late spring 2026, it’s officially time for us to start propagating our show plants for this year’s event.
Living in the UK means winter chilli growing definitely isn’t for the faint-hearted. Low temperatures and limited daylight make it pretty challenging, so we’ve had to pull out all the stops. To give the plants the best possible start, we’re using a grow tent, grow lights, and a couple of portable radiators. Much to the (good-natured) frustration of our shop manager, the grow tent has taken over a section of the shop! As you can see from the photo, it’s a fairly substantial setup, giving us plenty of space to grow a good number of plants and later select the very best ones to take up to RHS Malvern.
Over the past few days, we’ve finally got the tent properly “dialled in.” The biggest challenge has been managing the heat produced by the grow lights. To keep things comfortable, we run the lights overnight when ambient temperatures are cooler, which has resulted in a very agreeable and steady 26°C inside the tent.
Another key factor is good air exchange. Keeping fresh air flowing through the tent helps in several important ways: it reduces the risk of pathogens settling, helps control humidity (to a point), and ensures the plants have a constant supply of fresh air to thrive on. These are exactly the sorts of conditions home growers should aim to replicate, with good airflow being just as important as hitting the right temperatures.
The tent itself has multiple vents, and we’ve installed a speed-controlled extractor fan to pull the old air out. At full power, we can completely change the air in the tent twice every minute!
We also learned a huge amount last year from growing out of season and, yes, making a few mistakes along the way. This year, we’re putting those lessons to good use—and feeling much more confident about what lies ahead. 🌱🌶️
