IIRC a lack of water over a short period can promote stronger root growth in chillies so the week off may have benefited you against windy weather. Those are looking gorgeous!

Nice irrigation system btw! I need to build/install mine this weekend, but with Sunday being 30° and Monday being 40° it’s going to end up into late next week isn’t it?

I’m on the space side of the debate btw, so please let me know if this approach works better for you this season. Reason for my stance is that it gives them more room to grow and establish a root system that is more sturdily overwintered.

Also this season I found out that if you have 2+ seeds germinate in one jiffy pellet and you just yank the younger sprouting one with force ignoring any root care and place it in a second jiffy pellet that they don’t care about their roots that early and, go on to thrive with no delay / lag in growth. Makes me wish I’d had never culled all but one multiple germinations in one cell.