50 Years in the Shadows: Why I’m Finally Stepping into the Light…The Ghost

Who is the Ghost!

I am the Ghost. I am that guerrilla grower!

Yes, I have decided to ‘fess up’ and reveal that I am actually the person I was writing about in this article. Looking back, I realize I was still operating in the shadows, and now there is no need. That was long ago, and we are in a much different time and place….here is that article that I wrote over 2 years ago…while still in the shadows…

A guest post by the Ghost…written by Jerry

I am going to start publishing posts by a good friend of mine, we will all know him simply as the Ghost (I will let him explain why he is called that.)

He is/was a very successful gorilla grower, and has a vast knowledge of both cannabis, and gorilla growing.

He mentioned to me one day that he has considered writing his memoirs about his life as a gorilla cannabis grower. I thought, hmmm, why not start by writing me some posts for my blog, sharing some of your memories, and advice?

I could give him a place to begin those memoirs.

This was a few months ago, and I had thought he was likely not interested. Then a few days ago he got back to me, and said he was in….ready for me to write some articles for him.

He will actually record them in his own words, and I will write them for him.

So without farther ado, I am pleased to introduce you to the Ghost….

Why He is called the Ghost.

He began growing cannabis gorilla style back in the early 90’s, during the height of our governments war on drugs.

He grew cannabis ‘out and about’ for nearly 15 years. He has grown many thousands of plants, and was very successful for many of those years.

The ‘eye in the sky’ was very prevalent in those days. The ‘eye in the sky’ is the police flying and looking for cannabis grows.

They started out with small airplanes, that flew very high so they could cover a wide area, looking mainly for only large commercial grows. They would miss pretty much all smaller grows.

But, as time went on they only became more and more proficient at spotting cannabis plants from the air. And they began using helicopters, flying much lower, and missing little. In the early 2000’s they were so good at it they really missed no plants if they flew that area, not even a single plant by itself. (there are a few ways to still get away with it, more on that in another article)

He has literally been in one of his gorilla grow spots on a few occasions and has had a helicopter appear out of no where, and hover directly overhead. He said he would literally pull the cannabis plants over himself to hide, they would be only 50-100 feet above the grow!

He said he was always thankful they did not repel down and catch him red handed. On all of those occasions they finally would fly off after taking a good long look. He would then leave the site….many times never to return.

Now, back to how he got that name. The last year he grew gorilla, they found every spot he had planted, and they took all but one.

He was working at a real job by then (the eye in the sky was simply too good at what they did), but he was convinced they had missed that one last spot entirely. He said he could tell some person had been in there, but thought is was a thief, as thieves were a common problem in those days ( and a scary one…more on this in another article.)

But, he was wrong, it was the police who had visited his grow.

He nervously went out there after work, late in the fall, just to see if those plants were still there. And surprisingly, they were!

He then decided to harvest them.

Whenever harvesting plants through out his gorilla growing days, he would harvest the buds, stash them somewhere close to where he was parked, then drive out to a main road. If he saw no one, and felt comfortable about it he would drive back grab the buds and head out again.

Unfortunately, on this particular time, he just tossed them in the trunk of his car and proceeded to drive away.

A big mistake!

Suddenly a deputy sheriff jumps out of the brush, and stopped him.

Busted!

The officer ultimately let him go without arresting him, but he told me they had a long talk before he let him walk.

The sheriff told him he had been actively looking for him for years, they had trail cam images of him, and he had shown his picture to many people seeing if anyone would could ever recognize him, and no one ever could.

He then told him down at the precinct they had given him a name over the years, and that name was the Ghost!

To them he was this mysterious person, they had looked for for years, with no success. He was like a ghost….

So there you go, that is how he became known as the Ghost.

Thanks for reading, I plan on sharing many more of his articles, covering growing advice, some scary stories, some humor, gorilla growing, ect.

Thanks for reading, all of the articles I write for the ghost will have his name in the title, so you can just search the blog for the search term (ghost) and you can bring them all up.

The Discipline of Silence for Guerrilla Growing: Why I Lived by “Loose Lips Sink Ships”

As many of you know, my cannabis growing journey started in 1968 when I grew my first two strains the Santa Marta Colombia Gold and a Panama Red. Even though that harvest was substandard, as I was growing equatorial Sativas in the mountains of southern Oregon, and they were unable to finish…I was hooked!

I had a new love, and that love has lasted the entire 50+ years since. As many of you would agree growing this plant can become a passion, something you will do for the rest of your entire life….and so my life with cannabis began.

I grew guerrilla for many of those years, and had a 10 year stint of growing seriously. I grew many, many, thousands of plants in those years, and became quite good at it. The woods and wild places have always been my second home.

My love of nature meant I left every grow spot better than it was. If you go to any of them now, you will see only lush natural vegetation that has gotten a boost for my organic fertilizers I used. That is all.

These were scary times for a guerrilla grower, and I had one main mantra…Loose Lips Sink Ships! I had very good friends who had no idea I grew cannabis. Some had no idea I even used cannabis. I never talked about it. I lived by that mantra.

Legalization has been a joy! It has allowed me to come out of the shadows and share my love for cannabis with you all.

From Guerrilla Grows to a Licensed Seed Bank

I have come full circle, from those early days, when bag seed was the only seed you could find; to a fully licensed legal cannabis seed bank selling some top strains. Sometimes things just work out!

Back in the very early days no one knew much of anything about growing cannabis. No one in the USA really grew it at all. The cannabis on the street was all from brick weed (usually sold in kilos) from south of the border. The only other cannabis available was hashish from Europe and beyond if you could find it.

No one grew indoors either, so in my early grows I was just trying to figure out how to grow flowers from equatorial Sativas in a very short season. I built my first greenhouse and it was on! Cannabis became a yearly crop, a life long passion.

Survival of the Fittest: Seeds Bred for Harsh Environments

I have taken all those years of growing/breeding this plant and now concentrate on supplying high-quality, affordable cannabis seeds…seeds I would have loved to have had in those early days. Seeds that will hold up to the rigors of growing in harsh environments…even up on my off grid property…like this free seed grow.

I am all about supplying the freshest, most mature seeds I can get my hands on. I guarantee germination, so if you have issues with seeds not sprouting always get back to me I can help. I test germinate my seed stock about once a year, and more often if someone experiences issues with germination. I want to be your favorite one stop cannabis seed shop….and I want to supply the best, freshest, most viable cannabis seeds you will find online.

I can see many of you appreciate the service I offer because of my high conversion rate, and the fact that I turn so many of you into repeat customers. I have some customers who have ordered my seeds over 20 times in the 5 years I have been in business…I am all about customer service! Questions? Contact me, I answer all emails. I will be there for you before, during, and after the sale. I want you to be successful!

Opening the Vault: What to Expect from The Ghost

So now that you know I am the Ghost, what can you expect in the future?

I will be sharing even more ‘how to’ articles on guerrilla growing, and growing cannabis plants in harsh conditions. I am here to help you with your grow from start to finish, and love chatting with customers.

I will also be writing the memoirs of my life as the Ghost. I have a ton of stories, and some may be a bit too raw/intense to share online. For those you will need to get my book. It will be a ‘tell all.’

Stepping into the Light and Keeping it Real

I will be moving up to my 80 acre off grid property in a few months, and I have some awesome gardens planned. This last year growing the free seed garden (the photo type plant variety) I realized there is seasonal time up there for many of the seeds I carry to finish well.

And, this summer I plan to build a Geo-thermally heated and cooled walipini greenhouse for strains that need a longer season. And, at some point I plan on enough solar battery power to even run some led’s for an inside grow room, or at least to be able to supplement the light in the greenhouse. Lots of exciting plans and I will share them all with my email list…so be sure to sign up for that.

This years garden is in the works, and I will be preparing for it soon.

Here is the plan…I am going to sprout some of my best photo type strains (not a free seed order, these will be named strains) in February.

Why?

Because if I start the plants then, they will be about 2 months old when I put them out up there in the middle of April (after the last frost…hopefully). I talk more at length about this technique in my 10 pound plant article.

The plan is to see just how big I can get the plants to grow. Will they be 10 lb monsters, or will the shorter season lessen the harvest? It will be a fun experiment for sure.

The Dry-Land Hugelkultur Technique

I am also going to use a Hugelkultur technique I am developing for arid, or semi-arid environments. I am calling it The Dry-land Hugelkultur Technique….The original Hugelkultur technique leaves a mound that you plant on/in, but I am changing this up…rather then a mound that will dry out quicker in the hot dry summers, I will create a depression; this will hold water much longer, and still have all the benefits of the Hugelkultur mound.

I love experimenting, and have always been an ‘outside the box’ thinker, I’m looking forward to this grow, so stay tuned for that.

Have you grown out and about (guerrilla)? If so share some stories in a comment, I would love to hear them.

Other articles in this series…

Choosing a Site for a Gorilla Grow…Security

Choosing a Site for a Gorilla Grow…The Soil

Choosing a Site for a Gorilla Grow…Availability of Water

Gorilla Growing…Bugs, Pests, and Other Animals