Good 'Ol Nostalgia

• 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.
• 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!

craggin said:

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.
• 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 &

Click to expand...

hotrodharley said:

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.

Click to expand...