Jeffrey Hickey Writes Blogs

Ok, the longest days of the year have just passed. Everything you’re growing is now on the receding side of the summer sun. However, the perfect conditions that exist on both sides of Solstice linger for several more weeks. Days become shorter slowly. Depending on where you live, it starts with three seconds less one day, and six the following day. It proceeds, gradually picking up steam. But for about three to four weeks after the solstice, we still get close to perfect veg growing conditions.

This is the sun at my peak veg growing time. You can see how close it is to the treeline, where it will soon retreat. After it begins slipping behind the trees, the sun will trick my plants into thinking they’re still getting 12 hours by peeking through openings in the canopy. That trick doesn’t last long, however. Somewhere either at the end of July or early in August, my plants will start to flower. Plus, I’m planning on stopping the supplemental outdoor lighting after July 26. Turning off the morning lights should cause my plants to immediately move towards flowering. We prefer earlier harvests over later harvests. The longer a grow goes, the greater the chances for pathogenic problems, as the weather changes toward late fall and winter.

At this moment, you might think it’s the ideal time to add a dose of fertilizer, give them a little boost while I still can, vegetatively speaking. But in my grow, my plants get hit hard the first couple of weeks with teas, and then I back off. I don’t like over stimulating my plants; especially feminized plants, which are sensitive and won’t hesitate to flower if stressed too much. I like finding the spot that makes them grow to their potential. I only water one time a week and honestly, it’s not very much, unless I think they need a flush. I find that plants with less water tend to grow more than plants with an abundance of water. They like a little stress, and they like to search.

Here are the plants from one month ago, the first day of planting, followed by a picture from this morning.

There are no signs of problems in any of my current plants, so I’ll keep making my most basic tea until the end of July, when it’s time to switch to a flowering formula.

So for the next month, my teas will consist of these ingredients:

Molasses

Humic Acid

Horsetail (a plant full of silica)

Sea-90 (for micro and macro nutrients not commonly found)

A dab of Neem for the foaming

Sea-90 is the one additional ingredient that I call my final ingredient. And by the way, if you are interested in purchasing Sea-90, you can click on this link, https://www.sea-90.com/?rfsn=7896627.01e7114 and use the code HOMEGROWINGLAB for a 10% discount.

Horsetail is full of silica, and it goes into every tea, so that I never have root conflicts. Btw, if you have stinging nettles growing nearby, you probably have horsetail growing close to it, because horsetail is nature’s antidote to stinging nettles. The silica in horsetail will supply some relief if applied directly to where the nettle stings you. 

Molasses is common and is a soil builder.

But why Humic Acid? Why does everyone mention Humic Acid in teas? How many of you know why Humic Acid is in compost teas?

First, Humic Acid is a soil builder. It works in conjunction with molasses to build the microbiology of your soil. But it does so much more. 

Second, not unlike mycorrhizae, Humic Acid allows your plant to uptake more nutrients from a tea pour. 

Third, it blocks bad stuff in your soil (like heavy metals) from interacting with the roots, until you can flush the bad things from your growing medium. 

Fourth, (and this is my favorite), it allows for slower water dehydration, so your water will last longer. This is especially helpful if you live in a state affected by drought, and California is such a state. Humic Acid allows about 30% slower water dehydration than if you don’t use Humic Acid.

I have another Royal Kush in the cottage that is more developed than the Royal Kush sprout in bed 18. Do I switch one out for another?

First, the Royal Kush in bed 18 is picking up steam and appears to be starting to really grow. Planting her in bed 18 is an experiment. I think I need to see the experiment through to the end. I want to see how she develops when her roots are not being restricted in any way by the growing medium. She can grow exactly as nature intended.

Note the inner nodal growth that is beginning. Also, note the space between new growth. By starting this seed in the bed, she has no mitigating factors on her ability to grow. One other interesting fact: I’m only watering her once a week now, just like all the other plants. She gets water on Saturday. During the week, her tap root is reaching for and finding what she needs. 

The plant in the cottage, having been in a 3-gallon pot for weeks, is growing fine, but her growth is compressed. She has a lot of inner growth that has begun. She’ll need a couple of weeks of lengthening out before she starts growing normally. If we’re going to grow more feminized seeds directly into the growing mediums, I need to see this through and watch what happens. If this works out and we decide to plant more feminized seeds directly into the beds, it could be a huge savings in potting soil.

So, after keeping the sprout in bed 18, the remaining Royal Kush will be planted directly in the ground next to where we have Fruitcake growing, amidst the lavender and ground oregano. We will utilize our last gopher cage. So far, Fruitcake has not been touched by animal or insect, so we’re going to roll the dice and see if we can grow another outside the garden fence. This could be a game changer for future grows.

In the past, whenever I had extra plants, they would go to local growers I know who work all day and don’t have the time to start young plants. We usually work out some kind of barter, where the person will return and help me with some project. Bartering is one of the best strategies between neighbors and friends regarding cannabis. Take money out of it and provide services within your skill set. This simple distinction completely changes the energy of the interaction. I have no extra plants this year. I’ll try to add a few seeds to next year’s grow to help out my friends with starts, but as always, it’s no guarantee.

Both of the plants in the aviary are flowering and it’s simply not worth trying to make them grow. They don’t get enough sun, and it’s really that simple. The plants outside the bed fence are getting enough light. So I moved the third light from the aviary, into the beds, close to Hawaiian Dream in bed 17, because she’s the farthest from the other lamps. All of the bed plants and the plant outside the beds, are getting enough light now:

These lights will continue to come on every morning for 32 more days. That’s what remains of the purely vegetative stage of this grow. Once these lights are removed for the season, all of the plants will enter into the flowering window immediately. It may take a couple of weeks, but the flowering process will begin with the first flowering formula tea on July 27.

And speaking of flowering, at the end of this week, the cottage will be turned off. Over the following weeks, but before early August, I will need to clean out the cottage top to bottom, the walls, everything. I will need to make her as sterile as possible for harvest. I have two plants in the aviary already flowering, so we’ll have our first harvest plants in early, and then mid-August.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep blogging. It’s clockwork out there now. Everything that must be done has its time and place.

I’m in my routine. It’s summer, and that means fruit. Here’s my work station at the moment:

Cherries are always at the ready in summer. I’m a huge, stone fruit guy.

The grow is now two months old, with as much as four months to go, though I think I’ll be finished before October 20. The plants are adjusted to their growing mediums. They are hitting their strides, in terms of peak growth. 

I will take nothing for granted. We’re off to a very good start, nothing more. Now comes the repetitious work, the foliar sprays, the inspections, the emptying and then refilling of the beer cups. It’s the time for making certain that I’m there for my plants.

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