My Chilli plants

Are they in the old top soil? Have you a photo of them?

yes old topsoil i can take a pic if you want but rest assured its one year old

A lot of people put a huge amount of effort into growing chillies, using grow lights and things like bat guano and carbon dioxide dispersal systems and goodness knows what else. Other people grow them in poor conditions and still get a crop. So really, you can put as much or as little effort in as you want.

Last year I had a few plants in small pots in not-very-good compost on a windowsill, gave them some tomato feed from time to time, and I got some chillies off them and was fairly happy. I also got the chilli-growing bug and now it's an obsession. So this year I've grown my seedlings under lights, bought some fancy compost (Biobizz Light mix) for them, and some Chilli Focus plant food. They do seem to be doing better than last year and I'm hopeful of some much heavier crops off them.

Chillies will be happiest in a light, free-draining compost (e.g. multi-purpose mixed with perlite, or coir, but I find it too tricky to get the feeding and watering right with coir - but it suits some people.) They will be happiest with plenty of sunlight, e.g. in a greenhouse or on a south facing window. Some varieties will be OK outdoors but others need to be kept warmer. The closer you can get to their preferred warm, sunny conditions in free-draining soil, the happier they will be, and (theoretically at least) the better they will crop. But they don't like overfeeding and overwatering so, in that sense, they can thrive on neglect.

If your old topsoil is relatively free-draining i.e. not a heavy clay type, then quite possible the plants will be happy in it. Like I said, it really depends how much effort you want to put in, and what sort of yield will satisfy you. If your plants look happy, leave them be. If they look sick then consider changing the potting compost.

Mitzi I think I will change in a week or 2 , but at the moment Ill wait ,

LAst year the summer was too bad to have successful chillis but by september I nearly made it