Jeffrey Hickey Writes Blogs

Plant transportation. 

May 5–The supplemental outdoor lights were hung and installed. I checked to see if each was working, left them turned on, hung them on the fence and plugged them into the timers, which I had already set and checked as working. 

They will be on from 5:00 am to 9:00 am for 77 straight mornings. Their last morning will be July 22. After that, we turn them off, to help induce flowering. Once again, one of our goals is to have the harvest complete before October 15.

Of course, no matter the planning, the unexpected often happens.

Such was the case with the timer lights in the beds. They were set properly, but they did not work properly. It happens sometimes. ́That first night, they went on at approximately 1:00 am. Ooooops, sorry neighbors.

The good news is I don’t think anyone noticed. At least no one has come to me complaining. I guess providing free weed for neighbors allows for understanding.

New timers were purchased and installed. Lights are going on and off exactly as planned now. Automation is a grand thing, when it works.

May 6–Six cannabis plants and thirteen vegetable plants were either put in beds or in the ground.

Been playing tag with the sun. It wants to become summer, but overcast is making the sun more of a tease. That will change soon, according to the forecast, so the remainder of plants are going in as soon as they are ready.

This is Banana Papaya in bed 22, an impressive looking new cultivar for our beds.

Here’s the same plant, 12 days later. She obviously likes her bed.

May 11–All cannabis and hemp plants are outside now. Final selections have occurred and transplants happened. The female Rośe plants waited until day 40 before showing me hairs. 

Two extra Love Lucy and one extra Rośe are being given away to a friend. 

Of the regular seeds started this year, it appears we got three females out of ten Rośe seeds, and we got four females out of six Love Lucy seeds. Seven females out of 16 seeds is about right.

A shout out to Monster Gardens, for their light recco, and for their continued support of what I do. I recently needed a couple of specific products that weren’t on their shelves, and they got them for me asap. When I visited the shop for the first time, Justin listened to what I needed and then showed me exactly what would work within my price range. I appreciate that he wanted to understand what I needed before he attempted to sell me anything. That may sound obvious, but I’ve run into too many sales people with their own agenda. For North Bay growers, I recommend this shop. Great customer service.

For those of you wondering the status of the dry grow, it hasn’t begun yet. Plants are still receiving water. I won’t cut them off from water until I think their tap roots have found the mycelium beneath our beds. I suspect that will happen in early June. I’ll let you know.

The final lineup is: Bed 11–Banana Papaya, Bed 13–White CBG, Bed 14–Love Lucy, Bed 16–Love Lucy, Bed 17–OG Kush, Bed 18–Cherry Punch, Bed 19–Rośe, Bed 20–White CBG, Bed 21–Rośe, Bed 22–Banana Papaya. In the sack by the lavender, we have Special Queens One, and I put the final plant, the emergency plant, a White CBG in a smallish cloth sack in the aviary. 

May 13–Started seeds six weeks ago today. In the past, this would be planting day. Now, it’s a give away day. There were three other viable female plants remaining. 

I had two Love Lucy, and one Rośe. They were carefully packed into Bee’s car and slowly transported to their new home, a family Bee is friends with. This family could use some good CBD medicine for their own issues, and the Rośe will hopefully be a very pleasant surprise. None of the plants we sent away today had been successfully sexed yet. No sacs, nor hairs. Two of them had crossed stipules, however, and while that’s not a certain sign of being female, no grower that I know has ever had a male plant with crossed stipules. All three of the plants looked like they were about to show hairs. I gave them away with confidence, and felt very good to have done so.

May 14–Broke out an old tool this morning: Neem oil. I have primarily used Neem as a foam buster in my compost teas, but we currently have a more typical use in mind. Our chief nemesis last year was the flea beetle, and the infestation was so large, two of our plants were overwhelmed and had to be harvested three weeks early. Turns out that Neem kills flea beetles. So I’m not just spraying the plants, I’m also soaking the topsoil. I want to catch them as soon as they emerge from the loam. Also, a couple of important Neem points: Spray both sides of leaves with Neem. It’s not a translaminar spray where one side only will do. And of course, remember to never spray Neem on anything in direct sunlight, because it will burn the leaves. Try to apply Neem 45-60 minutes before sunlight touches the plants.

Also did a Dr. Bronners spray and had the deep satisfaction of finding a colony of aphids forming at the base of both of our artichoke plants. Literally thousands of aphids were exterminated in a couple of seconds. As a living creature, it was hard core. As a grower, it was bliss. The artichoke plants looked so clean afterward. We’re going to eat our own artichokes this year.

The cottage is still full of small growing plants. Everything being grown from seed. Tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, celery, basil, and honey nut squash (our favorite). More food is still to start, as we attempt to create layers of starts, to bring out as other things are eaten, to last into the fall. We still have rainbow kale and chard. We’re planning on growing a big crop of garlic next winter.

We’ve also begun the process of hardening off our vegetable starts. I never noticed a need to harden off the cannabis starts, but it certainly makes a huge difference for vegetables. If hardened properly, the transition from inside to outside is smooth. 

The honey nut squash in the 3-gallon pot is getting 4 hours of sun today, as we transition the indoor plants from the LED lights to the sun.

We have already begun picking portions of our meals coming from the garden. Chives and oregano are being cut and used regularly. It won’t be long before Karen and I have days where we walk outside and pick our dinner. 

For those just now starting a garden in the hopes of growing your own food, here are a couple of suggestions: Buy what you actually want to eat. There have been years that I’ve grown things because I thought it would be cool or interesting to grow, and then we hardly eat them. Another thing, ONLY BUY ONE ZUCCHINI PLANT. I put this in caps because every time I go to a garden store, I see people grabbing multiple zucchini plants. This is obviously someone who has never grown zucchini before, because you never need more than one plant. Zucchini are great because they produce abundant vegetables, but they are best (and tastiest) if you pick and eat them when they are small. If you let them get huge, you’ll be less likely to eat them, and trust me, you’ll get tired of zucchini bread. I love it, but not every week.

Make sure you know the difference between summer and winter crops. I remember wondering why I could never grow great garlic, until I realized that garlic is a winter crop (though not a nitrogen fixer). If I want to grow anything from the bed that produces garlic, it will need a nitrogen boost.

Do your planting in stages. Keep things starting while other plants become ripe. If timed properly, there will be fresh food into November.

Learn how to preserve. Not just fruits and jams, but vegetables as well. If you have extra cucumbers, learn to make pickles. 

If you’re able to start your own vegetables and harden them off for planting, it’s much healthier than buying starts from a store. But, if you buy starters from a store, do not plant them outside until the temperatures are warm enough for them to grow. Many times, I have gone to a garden store in April, grabbed some starts and just immediately put them in the ground, to sink or swim. It was sunny and I figured, why not? I didn’t even wait for predatory insects to arrive. Consequently, my April starts uniformly struggled. They often survived, but at what cost to the final product?

This year, even the starts that we purchased, we’re putting them into the cottage until time for planting. No vegetables were planted in April this year. They began going into beds in early May and we’ll finish in early June. 

This year, I purchased a small Stupice heirloom tomato. Instead of planting her, she went to the cottage for a month. When she emerged, she looked like a new plant. She was much healthier after getting a month of consistent light, water and introduction to nutrients. When plants get a half cup of tea in the cottage, they appear full of vigor. We are looking forward to fresh veggies, and I’m looking forward to a return of tomato abundance. I also put each start in a 3-gallon pot, so their roots would have a little room.

May 17–But before we get to do all of that, we have an anniversary to celebrate. Our actual wedding date is May 17, but 41 years ago, we had a ceremony with friends on May 25. So, we kinda celebrate both dates. I think that having reached 41 years of marriage and 44 years of living together, we’ve earned the privilege to extend our anniversary.

Yesterday, a few close friends visited to help us celebrate and it was lovely. The man who actually performed the wedding ceremony in front of our friends was there, and having him with us made it very special.

Our legal marriage date is May 17. We used to celebrate on May 25, because that’s when we had a little, private rooftop ceremony with friends. But we became legally married eight days earlier.

Karen and I were both working temporary jobs at Home Savings in downtown San Francisco. We were making a collective $9.25 an hour. In a sign of things to come, Karen was out earning me.

It was a Friday, and we knew that we had to go to City Hall in SF to get our marriage license. So, on our lunch hour, we drove to City Hall, parked and ran inside. We got our license and the woman behind the desk asked us if we wanted to get married that day. 

We were dressed identically in Black sweat shirts and blue jeans. We shrugged and said, “Sure.”

We had to enlist the aid of a stranger to be our witness. I don’t even remember her name. But I will never forget every second of standing on a balcony, under the huge rotunda of City Hall, with people rushing in and out like an ant farm.

We stood there and quietly wept while we said those famous words and stated our vows for eternity. Other than the birth of our twins, and the passing of my mother and brother, it was the most powerful and emotional moment of my life.

We were married.

We left City Hall and started strolling towards our car. We were in a giddy, almost dreamlike frame of mind. Personally, I wanted the wedding night to begin immediately. Instead, I saw a meter person in the distance, pull up to where our car was parked and start writing us a ticket. I sprinted ahead and when I got within earshot, I yelled, “You can’t do that, we just got married.”

I showed him the license, and he promptly took our ticket, tore it up, and said, “Have a great marriage.”

It has been.

Of course, these photos (thanks, Mr. D) are from that special day, and I would have you notice the look of pure evil and mischief on my lovely young bride’s face as we were about to cut the cake. She knew exactly what she was going to do. She got me good. She still gets me good.

Survive and vote.

Hey Friends: If you’d like to support jeffreyhickeyblogs.com, please feel free to donate to PayPal @jeffreydhickey.

Or contact me directly with your idea (good seeds are always welcome–and if I grow them, I will get the flowers tested and share with you the results.

Disclaimer: The majority of the links in jeffreyhickeyblogs.com posts are affiliate program links. This means that (most of the time) when you purchase a product linked from my site, I receive a commission, which helps support the blog.