Raising pot is a lot more work than most people probably realize. Today I spent almost two hours hanging up four branches to dry. This is my first crop grown outside in the ground from seed. One branch of some of these ten foot tall ladies has as much product on it as a whole plant grown in a pot. One by one you cut off the fan leaves as they get smaller and smaller and when you think you're done you look and say omigod! how did I miss that side branch! And there's still more. Meanwhile your fingers get so sticky that you can't get them apart without help from the other hand. The ground is covered with this strange Fall. Some leaves are yellow, but most are still green. What to do with them? Compost, I'm afraid. I don't have a sophisticated enough operation to do anything else.
That's four branches of one plant. I have three big ladies. In addition though I have at least ten other plants, some in the ground, some in pots. For the last several weeks I've been harvesting them a little bit at a time, but now it's time to get the whole crop in. All except one sativa that still has a couple of weeks to go. Meanwhile I have my regular grueling job. I haven't had time to do anything more than smile at my plants and make sure they get enough water for the past two weeks. Finally I'm caught up enough to get them in, just in time!
What a blessed grow this has been. Other than three plants lost to gophers everything has done beautifully, especially the Medicine Man, which I planted in March and has come through untouched by anything except sun and water! No spider mites. No mold. No caterpillars. No powdery mildew. And not least, no thieves! I can't believe it! What good luck!
Hope I can get most if not all hung up to dry over the weekend in the old tree house in my backyard that hasn't been used for anything for years. My neighbor heard me hammering shades over the windows. Have you got a building permit?" I think her granddaughter put her up to it. What is their crazy neighbor up to? "I'm just covering the windows with cardboard!" "Why?" "So it will be dark inside!" I actually don't know what I would have said if she has asked the logical next question, why do you want it to be dark inside? But she didn't!
Just as blessed as how healthy the plants have been is the zero attention from my neighbors they have drawn. Way in the back corner of my backyard where it would seem to be too shady to grow pot at a place where the very back of three yards connect and nobody ever goes, behind a fence overgrown with blackberries and roses and underneath an apple tree they seem to have gone completely unnoticed, even though the tallest male was twelve feet tall. Ha ha ha ha!
I'm a pretty skeptical old guy, but even I have to stop and give thanks for what may be the loveliest grow I will ever have. Um -- and I haven't even smoked any of it yet!