Good 'Ol Nostalgia

craggin

Active Member
IMG.jpg

As a relative newbie on this site, thought it would be cool to share a bit of nostalgia. This was only my 2nd grow back in 1981. Some fun facts:
  • ALL your equipment was DIY. This was a hydro system I built from an Igloo, a square mop bucket, an aquarium sump pump, and a bunch of hand-crushed lava rocks from the landscape store, and plastic tubing/connectors from the hardware store.
  • There were very, very few choices for lighting. These were ( 8 ) 4' (I think 40W) fluorescent grow lights from the garden center.
  • Cannabis-specific nutes were non-existent. I used agricultural grade hydroponic tomato fertilizer (as it was called back then), and had to lie to the commercial supplier as to my credentials and commercial grower's license. :cool:
  • Clones weren't available, so the only way to start a grow was from bagweed seeds. Hell, that was the only weed to begin with! This girl was from a variety we called Kona Gold. No one used the term strain yet.
  • There was no internet to learn or exchange ideas from. Heck there were very few books available, and those in print were hard to find. I still have my trusty old & tattered edition of Marijuana Grow's Guide ~ Deluxe Edition ~ (c) 1978 mel frank & ed rosenthal -- hee hee
  • While this grow of a single plant was in the realm of super-cropping and I definitely applied LST, techniques like lollipopping, mainlining, etc were either unheard of or not invented/perfected yet.
  • I recall a High Times magazine edition that featured some wise 'ol looking Jamaican dudes standing in front of something we'd not yet seen, and heard very little of - Indica! No joke. All we had access to was Sativa. I both marveled and drooled over such short, yet extremely bushy marijuana plants.
  • No air scrubber, so I was pretty paranoid when unwanted or unannounced house guests arrived.
  • Cell phones didn't exist, and neither did digital cameras. We sure as hell weren't going to take awesome photos with a 35mm, have 'em developed at the local photo lab, only to have the cops come knocking. Hence the lowfi pic from the trusty 'ol Polaroid!
I grew clandestine, small-scale indoors for a few years before finishing my degree, getting married, having kids, and then having to put it all away (living under severe prohibition in TX with young children was a risk I just couldn't face). I missed the hell out it just about every minute, and thank the universe we've come this far in the War Against Some Drugs that I can now enjoy this pastime again without the risk.

Cheers & :peace:
 

cindysid

Well-Known Member
LOL...back in those days I only grew outdoor, in brushpiles on cut over land owned by the paper company. We had no idea what we were doing and your buds look good to me compared to some of the crap that we harvested. Got you plenty high, but certainly not much to look at! Thanks for posting this Brings back memories!
 

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
View attachment 5065181

As a relative newbie on this site, thought it would be cool to share a bit of nostalgia. This was only my 2nd grow back in 1981. Some fun facts:
  • ALL your equipment was DIY. This was a hydro system I built from an Igloo, a square mop bucket, an aquarium sump pump, and a bunch of hand-crushed lava rocks from the landscape store, and plastic tubing/connectors from the hardware store.
  • There were very, very few choices for lighting. These were ( 8 ) 4' (I think 40W) fluorescent grow lights from the garden center.
  • Cannabis-specific nutes were non-existent. I used agricultural grade hydroponic tomato fertilizer (as it was called back then), and had to lie to the commercial supplier as to my credentials and commercial grower's license. :cool:
  • Clones weren't available, so the only way to start a grow was from bagweed seeds. Hell, that was the only weed to begin with! This girl was from a variety we called Kona Gold. No one used the term strain yet.
  • There was no internet to learn or exchange ideas from. Heck there were very few books available, and those in print were hard to find. I still have my trusty old & tattered edition of Marijuana Grow's Guide ~ Deluxe Edition ~ (c) 1978 mel frank & ed rosenthal -- hee hee
  • While this grow of a single plant was in the realm of super-cropping and I definitely applied LST, techniques like lollipopping, mainlining, etc were either unheard of or not invented/perfected yet.
  • I recall a High Times magazine edition that featured some wise 'ol looking Jamaican dudes standing in front of something we'd not yet seen, and heard very little of - Indica! No joke. All we had access to was Sativa. I both marveled and drooled over such short, yet extremely bushy marijuana plants.
  • No air scrubber, so I was pretty paranoid when unwanted or unannounced house guests arrived.
  • Cell phones didn't exist, and neither did digital cameras. We sure as hell weren't going to take awesome photos with a 35mm, have 'em developed at the local photo lab, only to have the cops come knocking. Hence the lowfi pic from the trusty 'ol Polaroid!
I grew clandestine, small-scale indoors for a few years before finishing my degree, getting married, having kids, and then having to put it all away (living under severe prohibition in TX with young children was a risk I just couldn't face). I missed the hell out it just about every minute, and thank the universe we've come this far in the War Against Some Drugs that I can now enjoy this pastime again without the risk.

Cheers & :peace:
Man. We could have been associates. But I was in Colorado by then. Grow light was an actual 400 watt HPS street light including the reflector. Magnetic ballast the size of a suitcase. The hum on the old wooden floor could get a rhythm going. Lava just like you. Didn't rinse it and quickly discovered you absolutely should.
 

craggin

Active Member
Man. We could have been associates. But I was in Colorado by then. Grow light was an actual 400 watt HPS street light including the reflector. Magnetic ballast the size of a suitcase. The hum on the old wooden floor could get a rhythm going. Lava just like you. Didn't rinse it and quickly discovered you absolutely should.
Haha! Yep, I tried the same HPS too. Total height of it - minus the ceiling heat clearance requirement, minus the height of my Igloo, minus the safe distance to canopy top, meant I only had about 2ft max plant height. Went back to fluorescent until I had to quit for the kiddos. Good times!
 
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