Stevie wrote:
Thank you for your help David, it is appreciated.

I have moved them to larger 12" pots now and I am much more vigilant
when it comes to keeping them watered. The weather has cooled somewhat
in NW England so now we are getting little in the way of good strong
sunlight but they seem happy enough and are growing at a real pace
now. We are starting to get plenty of buds and some are starting to
flower. This brings me on to my next question.

POLLENATING:

I have read that once my plants flower I need to start pollenating
them with a soft artists brush. What is the need for this, will my
plants not produce fruit without this?

Stevie

There are a few plants that produce fruit without pollination but chillis
don't. Most edible fruiting plants benefit from insects to do the job (in
some cases it is essential) but some like corn are wind pollinated and some
will do it any way they can. As best as I can determine chillis will do
better with bees to pollinate them but you will get some fruit without.
Whether you want to go to the trouble of hand pollinating to make up for the
lack of bees is up to you. I grow outdoors and I have more bees than you
can wave a stick at so I cannot speak from experience about what happens to
chillis without bees.

David