Original publication: November 1986.

SPECIAL HARVEST ’86

ED ROSENTHAL

The plants have ripened in the late autumn sun.

This top is in the second stage of flowering: the rapid growth. Like an anenome’s tentacles searching for food, the pistils push into the air trying to meet stray pollen.

Starting with the first stage of pubescence, a few brave hairs grew at the nodes.

Ten days later the pistils had grown enough to outline the future bud. Still white and fresh, with a tinge of red or purple, the flowers stood in a vain search for pollen. Another two weeks and the bud filled out, gained weight and squeezed out more hairs. The whole cola looked frenzied, each hair searching desperately for pollen, or else its fate would be to dry up, unfulfilled. Already some of the pistils had taken on deep purple or crimson hues as they dried and the ovary behind filled out in a false pregnancy.

In a magical synthesis, the buds ripened with short days, lit by a clear reddish sun, and cool nights. The pistils withered, losing any chance of contacting a floating pollen grain. They seemed to be drawn into the developing false seed pods.

The glands began to fill out. Hardly noticeable a week before, the glands sparkled just a bit when caught in the sun. A week later, they have grown into mushroom-shaped organs littering the leaves, the stem, but especially the flowers of the plant. They seem like crystals jostling for space in too small a space. They glisten. They have a halo when the sun is behind them at the end of the day. In the noon sun, they are luminescent. They glow. They radiate electricity. Just looking at them, you get a shiver of energy going up your spine.

You look at the plants. They are still putting out a few new flowers. But the colas are ripe and another generation of marijuana has grown to complete its lifecycle.

Almost done. Only a few pistils are still viable. The rest have withered after a vain search for the pollen needed to create a seed.

It is hard to believe that a few months ago these plants were just a few seeds in a bottle.

Finally, when the sun turned course to shorten each day, and when each night increased in length, the plants began to flower. Once flowering began, it progressed geometrically until the plant came to this glorious state.

The plants are still here in spite of the valiant efforts of the police, informers and other government agents. Despite the sleazoids, rip-offs and thieves. These miserable scum prey on the honest but unprotected efforts of dedicated farmers. They steal an honest man’s labor. But they were not dedicated enough, because here it is, folks: the real stuff, still glowing as it gets picked in the early evening darkness.

A mature bud vibrating with energy. When cannabis reaches this stage of maturity the buds glow.

You cut the plants down, break the largest branches and pack the bud. Checking carefully, you leave the growing area, quickly stuff the boxes into the trunk and off you go to a safe house.

Now that the bud is in your hand, all of the backbreaking labor this summer is worth it. All those hikes, the drymouth when you thought you would die for a drink of water, the helicopters, the sleepless nights by your plants—and for this, they put a mere monetary price on a sacrament. Grown with love and lust, grace and greed, hopes and heartbreaks, the pot is but a few steps away from smoking.

The branches are cut to manageable lengths, one to two feet, then are strung up in a cool room with lots of circulation. Now the trimming process begins. The idea here is to bring out the natural beauty of each bud, not by stripping it bare, but by manicuring the flowers. The glands are all over the buds and a naked bud is likely to have the glands knocked off in transport and storage, so that it is best to leave the small leaves surrounding the flowers.

This indica-sativa hybrid was grown in 1983. The plant and bud were much more compact and matured much earlier than strains grown in previous gardens. The plants were more widely spaced so that marauders could not detect them so easily.

Once the fan leaves and large secondary leaves are removed, excess leaves should be removed, leaving only the small bud leaves, which are also covered with glands. The bud should be covered but not hidden. If the bud is all alone on a stick it should be removed but there is no reason to separate large buds.

Plants which are trimmed before they dry lose much less resin than dried plants. You can literally see cascades of glands drift down through the air when a dried marijuana plant is handled.

After trimming, the buds should be placed back into the curing room. After ten days the temperature of the room should be raised into the high 80’s and air circulation continued so that the buds dry.