Jeffrey Hickey Writes Blogs

It was exactly a six month grow. It started April 10, and the last three plants were harvested on October 10, five days prior to my goal of having everything harvested by October 15. The decision to take them down was mine. I took one look at them, another at the weather forecast, and made the call. Rain is coming, and cooler temps are prevailing. But on Sunday, October 12, weather actually returned to normal for an entire day. I’ve been waiting six months for a single day with a temperature of 70 degrees and humidity at 50%. It finally happened two days after the last plant came down. That was a good laugh for Bee and me.

The tap root graveyard. From not getting water for months, the large stems are so light.

It is trimming time now, and I’ve been joined two times by my friend, Mr. T., who has some extensive trimming experience and it showed. His help and company was most appreciated.

Slowly, while trimming unfolds, I’m getting to sample a few of the cultivars. This is the primary time of year that I sample and taste what I’ve just grown. As a cannabis grower, there are few moments as satisfying as trying a new cultivar. I’ve found trimming is an excellent time to discover how a plant makes me feel. Sample it and then trim it. While I won’t fully know how a plant impacts me until I’ve taken my preferred dose via pill, I will have a very good idea of which plants I’ll prefer going forward. It’s also my first test as to what kind of plant it actually is. What time of day is best to consume this cultivar? Is it more for energy and creativity, or sleep?

For example, I sampled some Royal Kush and immediately felt like trimming for hours, which I did. This cultivar clearly gives me energy. By contrast, I sampled Purple Punch and was napping within 45 minutes.

I took a great deal of pride in trimming the two plants not grown in the beds, the tiny AK47 from the aviary, and the Apple Crumble grown outside the beds, by the lavender. These were not big producing plants, nor were they intended to be. In the year ahead, they will sit on the poo-poo platter, for whatever guest is in need of a hit of something. One is more stimulating and one is more relaxing, so they’ll have a choice. I have tried the AK47 and it is exactly what I wanted her to be, full of energy. 

I’m trimming everything possible on the tiny AK47 into something combustible.

The end of harvest also brings some of the heaviest work of the entire season, and I’m not talking about cutting down plants and trimming. It’s the work that none of us wants to do, but if we’re smart, we get it done now. I’m talking about bed clean up and solarizing.

Cages last longer if they are properly broken apart and stored.

Luckily, Bee spent about an hour digging cages and root balls out of the ground. The gopher cages have been a wonderful extension for growing in our beds. We need to rebuild the growing mediums, but we’re getting a couple of extra growing years by using gopher cages, because the hardware cloth is long gone from the bottom of our beds. It needs to be replaced about every ten years to remain effective. To rebuild the beds is not a casual expense. It will cost in the range of $20,000, so we obviously want to get as much use out of what we have as possible. The gopher cages allow us that and have proven to be effective, if installed properly. 

It would cost less to do the rebuild ourselves, of course. But we have 22 beds and I’m definitely not a contractor. Eventually, we’ll pay to get the work done right.

Check out the root ball on CP 15, the dry farmed plant. No sign of disease or stress. It held on to soil better than any root ball we’ve ever seen. We had to use the hose to loosen the soil from the roots. I’ve never seen a plant look exactly like she does, but I’ve also never not watered a plant for over four months. Next year, it will be every plant. By the way, the healthiest plant in the beds this year was CP15. I cannot yet claim that not giving water for over four months is a contributing reason for her health. Right now, it’s just a coincidental fact. We’ll see how more than one plant grows next year when they are similarly starved. Certainly, the lack of water contributed to her lack of mold. That much I can comfortably claim.

Before we place the cage in a bed, we dig down to the bottom of the bed and sprinkle a generous portion of cayenne pepper. Gophers don’t like pepper. For that matter, they don’t like pepper plants, either. They will avoid the roots of pepper plants. So cayenne is a great deterrent and we’ve had no gopher problems in our beds the last two years. We’re just buying time, of course, as termites are eating the wood. But if we can get another year or two from our beds, the gopher cages are worth the investment.

That said, a couple of the plants we grew this year have probably wrecked a couple of gopher cages. Roots have stretched the cages beyond my capability to restore them. In a couple of cases, it will be easier to replace them. But I’ve gotten two years of vigorous growth in these cages. Replacing them is a lot cheaper than rebuilding the beds.

Everywhere I look at the moment, I can see two things: The end of one grow and the beginning of the next.

When I turn from the tap root graveyard, I see that my property is already turning green. Leaves are falling constantly, but brown lawns are changing. In coastal California winters, we turn green. It’s like Ireland green. This is the same green that will be there in the spring when I’m starting seeds. We’ve got a long, wet winter ahead, but I can already see next year’s growth beginning, and it fills my heart with the most wonderfully contradictory feelings. Seeing the new green rise up while I collect tap roots and scrape debris from growing mediums is the definition of bittersweet. I hate when each grow ends, but I can already see the start of what we’ll be doing in just a few months.

This is the continuum. It will be here as long as I’m around to notice, and long after I’m gone. For we are but tenders of time, and at my age, that time is both precious and waning. This is not self pity. This is reality, and I’ve got things to do.

It is raining as I’m writing. Cats and dogs. Summer is long gone and autumn is beginning to hint at winter. We had our first morning fire yesterday. Everything around me is transitioning to what comes next.

For me, what comes next is a period of novel writing. I need to finish my fourth novel. As soon as the last plant is trimmed and jarred, my routine will change. Winter will bring a new protocol of early morning hikes, middle of the day writing and evening relaxation. Over the years of writing, my process has evolved. I used to write whenever the muse struck and I’d write as long as I could. I’d write all day and all night.

This is an excellent way to burn out, by the way.

Now, I have designated part of each day for the new novel. Whether I write every day or not, a part of each day (seven days a week) is designated for writing. I have no idea how long it will take me to finish, re-write, work with an editor, re-write again, and then get it published. My experience tells me it will take a couple of years, at least. So be it. I’m a long game kinda person.

I understand that reading novels is not as popular as it was when I was young. I know relatively young adults now who have never read a novel, unless it was assigned for school. I was reading novels for pleasure by the age of seven. I don’t have a choice about writing. This is what I do. This is what I want to do. This is what makes me happiest. I’m a writer and I’ve got another long story that needs telling.

I will still write the occasional blog next year as I document my first ever total dry grow. But it won’t be weekly. I’ve got work to do. And honestly, I’ve already written most of what I need to write about cannabis. There are 142 educational blogs for everyone to discover. If any of you have questions, feel free to ask and I will respond asap.

The novel I’m writing is called, Where She Stands. It is about the life of the oldest living thing in our part of the world, a 400 plus year old buckeye tree. She is telling her life story in her own words. I began this novel in 2016, after Karen became ill. I was thinking I could write it while caretaking. Of course, that didn’t happen, because being a full time caretaker is literally full time. I stopped writing much of anything until April of 2019, when I was asked to write the Isolation Grow Blog.

To paraphrase Frank Hebert from Dune, “The sleeper has awakened.”

I’ve been back in the writing mode for over five years now. I wrote Isolation Grow, the Home Grow program and these last two years of blogs on WordPress. 

It is time for me to break from this and finish my fourth novel. 

If you enjoy the way I write, you would certainly enjoy the work of mine that’s been published. There are three adult novels and two works for children. I do all the audio books myself, and I write all my own music, too. You should check them out on Audible.com. 

I don’t often plug my own work. It’s something I’ve never been comfortable doing. But I do have books for sale, should anyone be interested in fun things to read. It would also be another way to show support for the work I’ve done on these blogs. I have two great works for children and three very adult novels. 

Wages Creek–For families with children 8 and younger. Get the audio book to go with the print, sit down with your children and listen together. You’ll all be giggling soon.

Bats and Bones–For middle school aged children and older. Spooky stuff.

The Coach’s Son–Coming of age novel around a young boy and his NFL family.

Morehead–Late 70’s/early 80’s story of a straight man living in a gay old city. Raunchy.

scary, man–IPPY award winning American novel about small towns and small minds.

I also do all my own audio books. I scored Wages Creek and Bats and Bones. I do all the voices and accents, except for one character in The Coach’s Son, and I had two actors help me with Morehead. One actor played the lead, an actress played all the women and I played everyone else.

I did nine years of Reader’s Theater for children, so I love reading aloud. I do lots of accents well and I record everything at home. My audio books are very much home grown. As with most things, I endeavor to do everything myself.

If you enjoy a sense of humor without boundaries, you’ll enjoy my fiction. I take the gloves off on appropriateness in my adult novels. 

The book I’m writing now, Where She Stands, is my shot at an epic. She is the oldest known living thing in our part of the world, according to the local historian. The story spans over 400 years, and of all the writing still in me to do, this is the project most important for me to finish. I’ve been thinking about this story for 27 years, ever since I was introduced to the magnificent tree that dominates our property. She is the Queen, and this is her domain. 

My next blog will be in early November, after I get my test results and I have some time to analyze what I just grew.

After that, I’ll blog if I have something to say, and I’ll probably drop one blog a month next year during the grow, while I’m writing the novel. We will be growing, though our emphasis is changing. My experience this year with CBG has helped me prioritize what I need to grow next. There will be a few cannabis plants, but next year, there’s going to be a lot of CBG and CBD. If you’ve read all my blogs this year, you know that I’ve used up our supply of CBG and I need to replace it. Because as always for a home grower, I’ve got to take care of my family. Next year, in addition to it being a dry grow, it’s also going to be a grow specifically to make the CBG part of our dispensary very strong again. My family depends on it.

My cannabis samples will be picked up in two weeks for testing at SC Labs. After I get the results, I’ll get to work on my final blog for the 2025 grow.

Harvest well, friends. The next grow is just around the corner.

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