stalled chillis

Which variety are they? How big are the pots and how long have they been sitting there. If they only have 1 true leaf water requirements are going to be really low - how moist are you keeping them?

General seed compost. Watering them every couple of days - gets to about 35 degrees here.  They are Habanero and Lemon Drop.  Any ideas gratefully received - ta!

To be honest, if they have only got this far at the beginning of July, there is only a slim chance that you will get chillis from them before the weather becomes too cold.

I had a problem with chillies this year, first batch of red chillies have grown great, but second batch of green chillies got to first few real leaves and then stalled, I tried repotting in fresh compost, but no improvement and so I binned them in the end. No idea why as I'm sure they were treated the same. Probably for the best though, as six plants is more than enough for me.

Seed compost or general purpose compost?

I thought that seed compost was only meant for germinating the seed and didn't have much nutrient in it. Once they're germinated you're supposed to move them into multi-purpose compost which has more nutrients in it so that the plant will grow.

However, as AnneB said, it sounds like you're unlikely to get much of a crop, mine are all 18 inches tall with flowers and set fruit (I sowed them in January).

I had a similar issue with peppers (King of the North) this year -- germinated within days, looking very good, potted them on, grew one more set of leaves and then just sat there. ... and sat there.... and sat there. Chillies were thriving.

In desperation I bought some plants from the supermarket (California Wonder) which were lush and healthy looking, hardened both lots off and planted them out under a 1m tall cloche.

The supermarket ones continued to grow, but amazingly those King of the north have caught them up and have flower buds on them now even at about 30cm tall.

Conclusion --- it was the compost. And indeed when I thought back they had had the last of a bag I had abandoned last year as useless stuff (should have put it in the dalek but it rained every day) and the other had been potted on in a different brand.

So... try potting them on or even planting them outside where you live, catllar. Nothing to lose really.

Im convinced there's some bad compost this year. Not just poor compost like normal,  where ½ the bag is plastic / glass and logs but with residual herbicide or something which is actively killing the plants.

Is there any chance of a photo catllar ? Both peppers aren't particularly quick growers but they shouldn't just be sitting there.