Bierz's 2015 Chicago Rooftop Grow

I haven't had a garden for a few years and decided to start growing some peppers on my roof in Chicago.  I originally planned to have 4 plants, and Dru (SmokenFire) offered to give me a few plants, as we're in the same city.  I met with Dru and not only did he have four healthy plants for me, but also several bottles of his delicious hot sauce, some seeds, powders and even a CD.  Great guy.
 
I decided to go a bit bigger on the garden and went to a local nursery and picked up some more plants.  To add to that, I found a seller on Craigslist who had ghost pepper, trinidad moruga scorpion and ed's carolina reaper seedlings for sale.  I got to his house and he showed me a 3 year old ghost pepper plant that he kept in a greenhouse.  Yes, I'll take that too.  I grew ghost peppers 2 years ago and by the time frost hit I only had one ripe pod.  I'm hoping this head start will change all that. 
 
I now have 14 plants going.  All are in 7 gallon smart pots aside from  the 3 yr old ghost, which I decided not to re-pot. 
 
June 9, 2015

Top row, starting in the smart pot: Yalova Charleston, Gheong Yang Gochu, Big Jim, Ghost (3yr old), Habanero, Count Dracula, Ghost (weathered badly)
Second row, starting in the smart pot: Sulu Adana, ghost, lemon drop, trinidad moruga scorpion 2x, ed's california reaper 2x
 
 
June 16, 2015

Same layout as before
 

Cool little spider on one of my ghost plants
 

Early pod on the plant the nursery called a Count Dracula.  Any idea on what this may be?  Purple and ripens to red, so they say.
 
 
July 2, 2015

 
 
July 2, 2015

This and the next two pictures are pods from the 3 year old ghost pepper plant I bought.  Do they look like ghost pods?
 

 

 

This is a pod from the nursery bought ghost pepper plant and looks like the classic bhut jolokia, and I don't think the other really does.  Input is very welcome.
 

This is a pod from one of the plants Dru gave me,  Offhand I can't recall which.
 
More updates as the garden progresses.  Thanks for reading, and any advice/information is always welcome!

 

[D3monic]

The dracula could be a lot of things. Looks a lot like Royal black or  a few other types. 

 

[SmokenFire]

The dracula could be a lot of things. Looks a lot like Royal black or  a few other types. 

 
Yup I thought the same thing - maybe Czech black though.  Really happy to see them coming along so well Bierz.  

 

[bierz]

July 2, 2015

 

[santis00]

looking good!

 

[sporehead]

Bravo! These are some gorgeous pictures. Plants look very happy too.

 

[Prazzie]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing. I look forward to seeing more, this is making me itch to get back to my garden. Fourteen plants, I can only admire your restraint!

 

[bierz]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing. I look forward to seeing more, this is making me itch to get back to my garden. Fourteen plants, I can only admire your restraint!

 
Ha, thanks!  I share this roof with a few other residents of my building, but no one else really uses it, and one neighbor was nice enough to water the garden while I was gone for a week.  Another has a young daughter who loves the "little jungle".  Even still, this was as big as I was comfortable going.  I may even have to space these out as they grow, but luckily these smart pots are very easy to move if needed.

My goal is to over-winter the large plant and maybe a few others that grow well for me.

 

[bierz]

July 17th Update.  Things are looking lush and all the rain Chicago has been getting seems to be a great thing for these plants.  All are podding up, aside from the one ghost plant that had dropped all of its leaves a while back (far right, top row), but it's recovering nicely.  One of the reaper plants (second from right bottom row) must really love its conditions, as it's doing great.  I still can't decide what I think the largest, 3 year old plant is.  Hoping for advice again on this one.  Are trinidad moruga scorpions known to be slow growers? The two plants 3rd and 4th from the right on the lower row are those, and to the right are the reapers, which are the same age but are growing far more rapidly.
 

 
 
Reaper Pod

 
 
Some pods on the 3 year plant I bought as a ghost pepper.  The guy was also growing reapers and trinidad moruga scorpion plants and part of me thinks he had this one mislabeled...  I'm hoping this darker pod ripens up soon so I can give it a try

 
 
Local nursery basic habanero plant.  Very small plant but lots of pods.

 
 
A plant from Dru that I do have labeled, but off hand I can't recall the name.  Growing very nicely, though.  It's difficult to photograph the others from him since the foliage is so aggressive that the peppers hide inside all that growth

 
 
A ghost pepper from a plant purchased at a local nursery.  This is what I think ghost pods should look like

 
 
This is the one sold to me as "count dracula".  Very cool plant with beautiful purple flowers and pods.  Behind this you can see the Chicago skyline

 
Thanks for looking, and all comments are appreciated.

 

[sirex]

Very cool. Awesome looking plants !!!

That last pic where you can see the skyscrapers in the back looks dope af!!!

 

[grantmichaels]

nice looking plants/pods, great pictures ...

cheers!

 

[chocolatescotchbonnet]

 
 

i agree with grant, sweet photo!

 

[bierz]

A few Carolina Reaper pods from tonight, July 23.  The first is the largest and has a great texture, and the second is a bit smaller but has a nice tail.  Seem like legit reapers to you guys?
 

 
 

 

[bierz]

First harvest! 4 peppers from my 3 year old plant.  Ghost peppers?  Chicago skyline in the background

 
 
This reaper is getting its tail

 
 
Reaper plant and the skyline

 

[Genetikx]

Great photography, very well done. It's hard growing in tight spaces but you're doing a very nice job.

 

[bierz]

Great photography, very well done. It's hard growing in tight spaces but you're doing a very nice job.

 
Thanks Genetikx.  Are you in the city as well?  What are you growing?

 

[Genetikx]

I'm a half hour north of the city. I have around 32 varieties and a total of about 70 plants. Most in the hab/super hot/ultra hot category but also some aleppo, aji pine, hinkelhatz, red thai, and serrano. Thinking next year I focus on choco hab, mustard hab, moa, bubblegum, boc and bahamian goat types. These ultra hots will light you up.

Anyways at the risk of hijacking your glog, here's a piece of my grow. There's 16 plants in the raised bed. Started in December so it's getting tight in there already with a little more than two months left for us.

 

[bierz]

I'm a half hour north of the city. I have around 32 varieties and a total of about 70 plants. Most in the hab/super hot/ultra hot category but also some aleppo, aji pine, hinkelhatz, red thai, and serrano. Thinking next year I focus on choco hab, mustard hab, moa, bubblegum, boc and bahamian goat types. These ultra hots will light you up.

Anyways at the risk of hijacking your glog, here's a piece of my grow. There's 16 plants in the raised bed. Started in December so it's getting tight in there already with a little more than two months left for us.
 

That looks great, and makes me jealous of your raised bed, though I really like these smart pots.  I have 14 plants, so it's pretty crazy for me to imagine the yields you'll have with 5x the amount, and others with huge gardens.

 

[Genetikx]

That's about all I have in the yard but the bed is surrounded by 20 five gallon buckets that the wife doesn't care for. Good thing it's all tucked behind a few pine trees so she can't see them. The other half of the grow is at the community garden and I'm considering those throw aways at this point but they still produce.

Anyhow this your grow, keep us posted

 

[bierz]

The  garden is doing really well.  Here's a shot from tonight, July 30, 2015.  I ate just part of one of the ripe pods from the above post and wow -- the burn was entirely on the tongue but it was wild!  I've long been a fan of Dyna Grow Foliage Pro, and I've been using about 1 tbsp per 5 gallons of water for each water.  I occasionally flush with an additional 5 gallons of pure water.  I'm curious about using epsom salts and I may dose that soon.   Thoughts?
 

 
 
This is a ghost pepper plant, and the first pod is ripening.  A very productive plant:

 
 
This is a Sulu Adana from Dru (SmokenFire).  Very productive and I'm waiting for these to turn red: 

 
 
This is a habanero plant from a local nursery.  Very productive but no ripe pods yet:

 
 
Here's the most recent harvest.  On the left is a Sulu Adana pepper that is somewhat ripe, but did get some rot on it, to its right is a ripened Big Jim, and to the right of that is a green but much larger Big Jim.  The small guys are the "ghosts" from earlier.