Jeffrey Hickey Writes Blogs

The sun is beginning to move into place for our grow. I look back on previous years, when I planted as early as late April, and was rewarded by having eight plants attempt to flower in early May. I see the sun peeking through the trees, and I must resist temptation. June 1 is when plants go in the ground in my garden. 

So what is in my grow this year and why did I choose these plants to grow at this time? When you have a home dispensary, you need to know what you’ve got a lot of, and what you are lacking. 

In my dispensary, I have two years of growth planned. Next year’s grow is already in house. I have all the seeds I need and won’t be making any purchases for at least a year. I like that feeling.

But if you’re doing this for the first time, for your family, my advice would be three plants to start. Three plants is a lot if you’re an inexperienced grower. But if you’re building a dispensary for your home and family, you’ll get used to growing more than that.  The first year I grew nothing but clones, and that made finding certain cultivars that I was looking for a lot easier. If you are growing for a sick person, your emphasis is obviously going to be on plants to help that person with their malady.

But If everyone is healthy and you’re just looking to start building a home dispensary, I would suggest trying to grow the following: 1) A sativa dominant hybrid for fun. 2) A sleepy time dominant hybrid for nights. 3) A primarily CBD plant for pain.

With those three, you’d have all the bases covered, and you will begin to find out what type of cannabis you prefer. 

Here’s Love, Lucy, from last year. She is proving to be a stellar CBD pain plant.

In terms of specific cultivars, if you are not experienced with recreational cannabis, regarding the sativa dominant hybrid, you might try something closer to a 50/50 or 60/40, with a slight sativa dominance. I’ve known too many who grow the strongest sativa possible and they find it’s too much like unleashing a clown car in their head, or they feel too much paranoia or anxiety. If you want a strain suggestion, I’d say try a White Widow first. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy White Widow, including my wife, who is not much of a THC person.

For sleeptime, I have tried many, and this year, I’m returning to Hindu Kush, and trying Purple Hindu Kush, and Night Nurse for the first time.  Hindu Kush is an origin strain. Ingesting that plant is almost spiritual for me. People have been using Hindu Kush for sleep and pain for over 10,000 years. The mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan produce some of the greatest sleep medicine on the planet. I grew Hindu Kush from clones the first year. This is my first time growing her from seed.

For CBD, you really cannot go wrong with ACDC, which comes from Cannatonic and pure Ruderalis. BUT, make certain the seeds you buy have documented test results that you see with your own eyes. I have had WAY TOO MANY CBD plants that had no CBD. Other cultivars I’d consider would be Harle-Tsu, Love, Lucy, and Ringo’s Gift. All of these are high CBD to low THC strains. You’re not going to get high from these plants.

Another thing to consider when picking strains to grow, is to find strains that are typically grown in your part of the world, or in another part of the world that has your kind of weather. It makes sense that plants created in your environment would be best suited for you to grow. Resist the temptation to immediately grow exotic strains that may or may not be suited for where you live, and your general level of expertise. I’m giggling a bit as I write this, because I know some of you are going to go ahead and grow whatever you want, regardless of other factors. Go for it. You’ll learn from whatever you grow.

For your first year, I would suggest growing clones. Clones are documented to be what they claim to be. You’ll probably find a greater variety of things to grow from clones, and that will afford you the opportunity of trying many different cultivars. Plus, you won’t have to sex clones, or start them. You’ll probably only have to transplant from whatever the clone comes in, to the final growing medium, so that eliminates a couple of key stresses from the first year. And it might be all you ever need to grow are clones. 

But if you grow outdoors, and you find something you really like, you owe it to yourself to grow it from seed. The plants are more pathogen resistant, have less inherent disease, and will generally produce a healthier product. Plus, with seeds you get different phenotypes for variety. I only grow with seeds now.

AK-47 on harvest day. Will grow her again next year.

This year, I have very specific growing needs. I’m growing for my family, as always, but I’m also growing for a couple of friends who are sick and cannot grow on their own. 

I’m growing more than one Royal Kush. This strain is for me and one of our children, our favorite for dosing and being creative. I’m a writer and one of our children is an artist, creating backgrounds and universes for video games. We both have the ability to hyperfocus and do a lot of work, though in completely different disciplines. They have video games to work on, and I have both a novel to finish and more blogs to write. We have both found Royal Kush to be a go-to for hyperfocus.

I’m growing the West Marin Mystery again, because we love it and it consistently grows at or above 3% terpenes, which makes for a giant entourage effect. I’m also growing it, because this strain works incredibly well (in pill form) for a stroke victim we know. This cultivar provides this seriously damaged man the energy and focus to do sketches. It also helps stabilize his mood. 

Btw, another reason I’m growing so much Royal Kush is also as a backup for our stroke victim. Because Royal Kush is half of the lineage for the West Marin Mystery, so her test scores are very similar. If we ever ran out of the strain that works best, the Royal Kush is a highly likely backup. We’ll be growing more than one Royal Kush, because they are not hugely prolific plants, compared to others we grow. We can usually count on a little over a pound from each plant. 

To bolster our sleepytime stash, I’m growing Hindu Kush, Purple Hindu Kush and Night Nurse (which has a great name). Every year, I try to add two or three new sources for sleep meds. Hindu Kush and Purple Hindu Kush are both 100% sleep time plants. Night Nurse is more of a 70/30 sleep plant, with some euphoric touches on the front end. Probably perfect for a movie and then crash. I’m also growing Night Nurse, because half of her lineage is Magic Jordan, reputed to have the highest amount of CBG in any cannabis plant. I can’t find Magic Jordan, so I’ll take seeds from one of her kids. Speaking of CBG, I’m growing the White CBG again, probably 2 or three plants, because we need to stockpile some of this. We’re finding CBG to be an excellent anti-inflammatory, anit-spasmodic, mood enhancer. 

For CBD, I’m growing ACDC and Hawaiian Dream. ACDC is from a source I’ve not used before, so even though they had test results, I’m always concerned about trying a new CBD source, because I wonder if it legitimately has medicine. If the test proves to be good, I’ll let you know.

Hawaiian Dream is something I’ve been looking at for two years and this year is the right time. I had to wait, because this plant reputedly grows 10-12 feet tall. I needed to have a place for her to grow without restrictions. She is going to be the first plant I grow directly in the ground, not in a raised bed. But what makes her most interesting to me is she is the first 100% Sativa, CBD plant. She is not a hybrid. She’s all sativa. She supposedly tests consistently at 4% to 8% THC, with 12%-16% CBD. I need to know this cultivar.

I’m also thinking of placing another plant in the aviary, a Rainbow Kush, which is one of the most medical plants I’ve ever grown. We’ve grown several Rainbow Kush over the years, and among many other things, this plant has been used for the following:

Our very good friend, Mrs. F, had Covid in the early days of that illness. It was so early, she didn’t know it was Covid, until she got the antibody test over a year later, and it said that she’d already had Covid. For those three weeks Mrs F was sick, she took a tincture of Rainbow Kush, 24/7 whenever she felt she should, more than once a day. She said it was the sickest she’s ever been. She claims the Rainbow Kush kept her sane, focused and relatively comfortable. She recovered with no complications, and swears to this day that Rainbow Kush is what got her through Covid.

I use a different Rainbow Kush when I have specific pain on my left side. It’s the only thing to make the pain stop (probably the Beta Caryophyllene). Karen and I use another Rainbow Kush for sleep. We grew one that had the terpene, Valencene, which helps with the efficacy of chemo medicine, so two people we know have taken her just for the Valencene and it helped. We haven’t grown her in three years, so it’s time. Her versatility has been a vital part of our dispensary.

I want to come back to the notion of getting seeds from a grower close to you, which is both an honor and privilege. When we were first getting started, a couple of local home growers helped me get going with generous amounts of seeds. Getting seeds someone made is where you might find something special that you never anticipated. Further, if you can form an informal collective with growers close to you, you can all grow with others in mind, and if any of you run short of what you need, you can get help from another grower. 

This kind of relationship has been especially helpful when one of the growers in our collective grows a CBD plant with no medicine. We help that grower, until they can grow again.

We also provided free FECO for someone going through the cancer cannabis protocol. They got both Rainbow Kush and Ringo’s Gift. They are currently in remission.

For reference, read my blog titled “Surprise,” to find out about our favorite surprise plant, the one we called Blacklight.

Btw, when someone has given me seeds or a start to grow, I always repay them in kind, if they want something of mine, but at the very least, I provide them with a legitimate test score from what I’ve just grown of theirs. More knowledge is always better.

Further advice on planning is this:  If you find seeds you want to grow, don’t hesitate to purchase, because seeds disappear quickly. Seeds keep well in a fridge for about five years, though I’ve germinated and grown plants from seeds that were over ten years old.

But plan ahead. For example, I already know what I’m growing next year, and it’s almost completely different from this year’s grow. The seeds for next year’s grow are already in hand. Some of these are bonus seeds I got from shops when I made a purchase. Hold on to those samples and use them. They are a great way to add variety to your dispensary. Among those in queue for next year: Purple Punch, Apple Crumble, Blue Dream, Pineapple Express, Rose, Royale with Chemo, OG Kush, AK-47, Love Lucy, Honey-Tsu, and possibly one or two repeats from this year’s grow. I’m looking at Purple Hindu Kush and Night Nurse, specifically.

This year’s grow is taking shape. Only two males so far. Planting day is June 1. My guess is the tall plant in the upper left corner is going to be a guy.

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