Found my old marijuana growing book!

I unpacked a box of books out of storage today and found my "Marijuana Grower's Guide" from 1974. How things have changed! Hi tech was regular fluorescents then, no cfls, MH, or HPS. You ought to hear all the weird theories on growing! I think this was Mel Franks and Ed Rosenthal's first book. Thought you might enjoy a blast from the past. Notice the price tag...$3.50. That was expensive then!

Cool

Any good?

Indica isn't even mentioned in the book, only sativa, and it suggests that marijuana potency may peak during the first 2 weeks of flowering! People didn't worry about smoking buds back then. They smoked the whole plant! One theory presented suggests putting a tack in the base of the stem to increase resin, another says to pick the buds as soon as they form. Wow

Yea I've been telling people on here that buds wasn't all they smoked back then. They smoked the leaves to. People are basically like "wtf are you stupid?" My mom said her aunt in ohio had a plant, they pulled like a branch off, and gave it to her. She let it dry, and smoked it. She said she got so high off that. The plant was pretty big, and smelly she said too. Hell do you people think mexicans trim the leaves off the shit they bring in? Nah I'm sure they would leave in that stuff. I think that right there proves marijuana potency hasn't increased since then just the growing techniques. Which I guess technically that means it increased. Kind of funny about the harvest, and tack thing though.

look at the stretch and droopy leaves on the cover plants!

It also talks about grafting marijuana to hops, and listen to this: To increase potency it was suggested to put the still wet weed in a plastic bag along with the blue mold that forms on citrus fruit. Leave it in the bag until the weed is covered with mold. Another suggestion is to just take the wet weed and bury it in the ground for 3 weeks to 6 months or until covered with mold. Can you imagine? It's a wonder that people didn't die....maybe they did. It is a very entertaining read!

Please keep posting pointers from this book, it is making my night.

Omg wow lol id love to find a book that old I've always wondered! We went from the world being flat to round so seeing how ppl used to grow to now would be awesome.... Just think, what we do or know now will be obsolete in the future!

There is no mention of "curing" that I can find, unless you count the burying with mold. It is recommended to dry using an oven heated to 300 degrees, or hanging the whole plant above a radiator, or hanging in the sun. Males were harvested along with the females and smoked leaves and all. Lighting goal was 20w per foot of fluorescents combined with incandescents running between them. Seedlings were planted all in one pot and scooped out with a spoon at transplanting time. Wonder what old "Ask Ed" thinks about his first book now? I will update with tidbits as I read them! They claim to be able to produce an oz psf with this system....

I remember in the day a local hippie with a small green house, and we'd pull fan leaf groups off hang and dry, then flop into a wheatstraw paper and smoke. It was good shit for the time.

love the thread, inspired to dig up my old cultivator's manual,The Cultivator's Handbook of Marijuana copyright 1970, by Bill Drake
not too much outrageous stuff like the mold methods, did have the grafting section with hops

So the grafting with hops, did they advocate smoking it or brewing it? I've heard of this before a looong time ago.

I had a book by Ed in the late 70's, had a white cover, and the content sounds just like what the op was mentioning. Yeah we thought moldy weed would be kick ass. Still, most things in the book were spot on, at least for the times then. I almost memorized it then, I read it so much.

Damn this short term memory loss!

I remember telling a guy to bury his weed as I had read that mold stuff. Was back in 74. I think someone followed him and scared him off. I either had that book or read it somewhere, wish I could find a copy for the laughs. 'A Child's Garden of Grass' was one book I had, might have read that mold stuff in that one.

Lucky I never tried that shit. We did not know we were so ignorant back then, we assumed we were well informed. haha

lol times have changed for sure. nice find.

kinetic said:

So the grafting with hops, did they advocate smoking it or brewing it? I've heard of this before a looong time ago.

Click to expand...

there were no details on how to consume, which makes me believe the author never actually tried the method
he really did make it sound convincing,

I have another couple of old books somewhere. One thin one with an orange cover that has some really crazy ideas in it. We think that we are so far beyond the strange theories now, but there is still a lot of voodoo bs going around!LOL

I asked a relative that grew in the 70's, he said he remembers the book and that him and his friend wouldn't dare do the mold thing. They hung whole plant upside down, then trimmed, saving and smoking leaf was common. Said that he remembers leaf was common in bags and the good guys didn't give as much leaf in their bags. Imagine the convo. now if someone whipped out a bag half with dryed crushed leaf at a party! I wouldn't want to be that guy!

what we use to see in bags back in the day was pretty wild
you could see many things, bags could be mostly bud, a lot of times it was crushed material, wasn't bud wasn't leaf, but had seeds
the quality varied from trash to incredible

hahaha im loving this more and more!