Getting Started

After receiving your seeds, the project is very simple, germinate them with the way you want. You can use soil or rockwool for example. I prefer rockwool and oasis because of their purity and ideal moisture preserving capabilities.

Photo: http://fatalii.net

Photo: http://fatalii.net

It doesn't matter if the plant you selected grows 4 meters tall in a large container... This plant actually reached 4 meters and yet it's a perfect base for a bonsai-chile!

Photo: http://fatalii.net

The magic as simple as it it is, happens here:
Just cut the plant down and repot it into a small bonsai pot (or into a temporary small pot at first).
Keep using scissors and small bonsai pot to keep your plant looking like a small tree!

In less than a year, you might already have collected a nice crop of chile peppers and have a great -looking chile bonsai with a thick, woody stem and branches!

After harvesting your nice crop of your favorite chiles, it's time to start the actual project!

Photo: http://fatalii.net

The best way to succeed with bonsai chiles, grow a chile plant in a large pot at first. (Preferably outdoors), balcony and indoors will do too. More info for the traditional chile pepper growing, check the growing section of the www.fatalii.net, direct link here.

Growing Guide

You can also grow chiles hydroponically first, to hasten things even more, and then plant them into the bonsai pots.More info about hydroponic chiles here. 

You can also grow your bonchis directly on small pots, but then the resuts of the stems won't be as stunning as by growing the plants large at first. 

One of the great things about bonchi-growing is that even if your yield for the season might not be what you expected, you can get plenty of joy from your favorite plants by turning them into bonchis!
You can also turn them back to "normal plants" whenever you want to just by planting them into larger containers once again.

Here's one plant which was replanted to a bigger pot on a start of a season: Aji Bravo (C. frutescens) after turning it back to "normal chile pepper plant" again.

Photo: http://fatalii.net

Pots

You can use virtually any small pots you like, but most traditional bonsai-pots look very, VERY good!

Photo: http://fatalii.net

Soil

Basically, you can use that you would use to grow chiles, but I prefer mild peat-based soil. As the root space is very limited with bonsai plants, you can use even higher fertilized soil with bonsai-chiles as the yield isn't the goal in this case. Akadama is good stuff for maintaining moisture in the soil when growing bonsais. It's actually pieces of hard clay. Some brands of cat litter work as a great, much cheaper substitute for akadama. Bonsai growers often replace the soil completely with akadama, or mix it with the soil. I just put some akadama on the bottom of the bonsai chiles and use soil on top of it.

Akadama, used to maintain the moisture in the soil. Great for bonsai growing as the soil might dry out very quickly!

Photo: http://fatalii.net

Tools

Here are some great tools for bonchis. Just use your imagination and use whatever tools help you to achieve the results you want.

Photo: http://fatalii.net

Several types of bonsai scissors for cuttings leaves, stems and roots + stem cutters for thicker stems. 
A small "broom" brush (toothbrush can be very handy also for cleaning the roots etc).

For proper bonsai tools at fair price, check out this Finnish bonsai store that delivers all around Europe.

The stages shown below are the most critical part of the whole process so read carefully.

TIP: To make sure your bonsai won't die after the next steps, provide some extra light near the bottom stem for a few weeks before cutting the plant down to encourage the plant to grow some foliage there.
After choosing your favorites to turn into chile bonsais, cut it/them down, preferably the one with the thickest stem(s)! 

TIP 2: After cutting a bunch of chile peppers down (it's always good to cut down several as some will die in this process!), first, plant them into some cheap, regular small pots and repot them into bonsai pots when you are sure they have survived the process. This will save a a lot of time and effort.

Remember, after cutting the plants down, their ability to grow thick stems slows down significantly.