80's, 90's growers?

[krustytheclown]

My first grows in the 80s and 90s were not mine, but my mom's. I got the pleasure of helping her in her garden, which was commercial. She used old halides, and floros out the wazoo. She grew in a soil mix that she said took her 14 years to perfect, kept it in an old binder and she oft referred to failed or off mixes to see what she could learn herself. Always trying to grow better herb. Her soil and nutrient mixtures though were always homeade because of her research.


Seeds she had, though not sure where she got the ones to start, probably from friends, but she had a binder full of older beans, all labeled, many of them her own crosses and a few back bred into her own strains. So regardless of where she got them to start at the end she was producing her own.


When I was 16 I stole the aforementioned binder of knowledge and seeds from her closet like a dumbass, took her seeds out of vac seal like a dumbass, tried to grow them using her knowledge and failing like a dumbass, and got caught by her like a dumbass.....sad part is the moment she found out she was mad, but then she told me had I asked she would have helped since the old binder was collecting dust in her old "hippie days" box. Sometime after getting caught, the binder; having never been returned to its proper box; got lost. In the end twas I who cost my mother that knowledge, the rest of the box...she still has, but not her binder.


How I wish I had those beans. My mom was once a Sativa goddess of Mountain California, her and her friends had some amazing skunk crosses that I have yet to see a match for. And I ruined all those old genetics by being a teenager.



Now though it is me who helps her, she has lost the magic touch simply by losing touch to the modern world. The internet is not something she is fond of and checking her email is about all she does. So now it is me who helps her with nutrient schedules, links and excerpts from my own digging, information on new equipment or new techniques.


Tables turn as time passes and eventually the torch is passed; but looking back I must say it was amazing what my mom was producing in quantity with nothing but homeade soil mixes and homeade nutes using lights we would consider weak or non ideal....



Sorry for the ramble just got to reminiscing.



Alexis
*smiles*

GOOD STORY!

Thanks for sharing.

Good lesson in general: If you ask for help, you will be surprised by the generosity of others.

It also reminds me a bit of the Mickey Mouse cartoon, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"

Again, that is a great sotry about human nature in general. Aesop would be proud.

 

[Aeroguerilla]

For any of you growers from that time who are from NE please where is the road kill skunk? im going insane lol

 

[feral]

Give me the seeds from that one bag of Columbian Gold I had back in the day. To this day I've never had anything that comes even close to the quality that this herb smoked. It was just unbelievable. The type that would have your eyes rolling up into your head, oblivious to everything around you, then all of a sudden noticing everything around you, etc.

 

[stoney917]

everytime i see this thread pop up i think of my 1rst plant i was 14 a freshman in hs it was grown under floros with aluminum foil instead of mylar was in my closet in a pot of dirt got 2oz... well im not gonna say my age but i havent had soil in my room in prob 12 years or so...damn how times change, imagine the next 20 years... keep growin happy thanksgivin everyone.

 

[VIKINGtrich]

very little has changed except the serious over saturation of nutrient companies and all the grow junk available.
430w HPS was most popular with people I knew.
everyone had a phototron collecting dust somewhere, just like all the noobs have an aeorgarden now.
small growers didn't have all the nice tents that are out now, thats and improvement.
there were good grow books then just as now, just alot less resistance to "book learnin'"
now if it's not on the internet posted by a 12 year old it's not true.
perlite/vermiculite weren't bad words we knew rockwool was bad but it worked.
every idiot new grower wanted to see just how many T8 floro's they could fit in a small room. lines the walls with lights, man!
I started after the Seed Bank was around so, my 1st non bag seed grow was Northern Lights. We used mail order catalogs to get seeds.

WOW man, that's the best description of something that i have ever read in my life....Well done, and perfect description...haha ..thats crazy...and I remember the Phototron....lol...I remember the ads used to be crazy too....I'm happy to say i didn't have one, but i know someone that did....

 

[one Q]

bump.

 

[Rudedewd]

I'm not sure about other area's of the country but here in New England homegrown had a bad name because before indicas made their apperance in the 70's everyone was trying to grow the great old sativas outdoor. Most of the lumbo's, mexis etc wouldn't even been close to being started nevermind finished when they were picked in September. Some of those strains wouldn't finish til December so people would be picking huge plants that were all leaf and no bud. Once those Ghani strains starting showing their face things changed dramatically for the outdoor and indoor growers. I do wish I had some beans from some of those old greats though, some of those sativas had a soaring high that would last for hours. We do have some very potent strains available today but good pot is good pot, some of the herb from the day would stand up to anything today and in terms of duration of the high I think the sativas have the edge.

Double albums were a favorite for cleaning herb but frisbees were everywhere. Everyone had one in their cars, even people who never threw one in their lives. You could tell potsmokers by the lil burn holes in their shirts, most of my shirts had tons. You'd try to clean the herb but you'd always miss a seed or two. Sometimes the lil buggers would pop in the joint sending up a shower of hot ashes.

 

[Bluenote]

These questions are more for the indoor growers who grew somewhat commercialy in those times.

I was wondering what was like growing in those times?

I'm sure with the internet its a whole new ballgame.


what kind of lights did you use, how did you learn, how did you get seeds ect ect.


I don't know maybe things were the same, I'm just curious to how the business in general were done in those time.

Yeah I could say one heck of a lot as regards those days. However since ya gotta run around leaving wimpy comments on folks "rep" chart without having the guts to say anything in the thread and actually indulge in debate.

Yup that marks you as the sort of yellow little coward who I wouldn't give any sort of info whatsoever. Get my drift on that one or do you want me to expl;ain it more thoroughly for you.

 

[VerdantGreen]

i did my first grow in the early nineties. the only thing i really knew about growing weed was that you went 12/12 to make it flower - and how to sort out the males from the females i learned along the way.
cupboard was 8 ft long, 18" wide and 2' high with the door at one end. thats when i dreamed up the modular scrog method out of necessity, although i only found out it was called scrog a few years ago when i started reading on the internet about growing.
t8's and bagseed all the way. my mates were all well impressed when my girlfriend crawled into the cupboard with a paintbrush and gave it a coat of matt white. she's my wife now.

VG

 

[Grizz]

started in 1970, i was 16 , smoked leaves , took me almost 8 yrs to finally get one flowered, i used mex brick weed seeds, had coffee cans full of them, in 1981 i built a 48ft x 32 ft metal shed with 10 ft ceiling, bought 13 1000 watt metal halide bare bone kits out of high times and got busy, vegged them about 5 months and flipped the 1st of may, by end of flower the temps in that shed were hitting 120 degrees and the plants were 10 ft high and the spider mites and white flys were thicker than flys on shit, lol what a failure, kept right on going and my second crop was great except i left a male in a corner and you guessed it, a crop full of SEEDS, lol again, by my third crop i figured it out with the help of high times. sold most of anything good for 100 a oz, 1600 a lb. got my first indica cut out of southern cal and crossed it with some gold mex and hit the jack pot with some purple skunk. lol a life time ago. nice thread and brings back some good and bad old memories