I would like some info from some old heads on how things were done in the late 80s and early 90s.

I'm currently writing a book and I want to know alot about the 80s and 90s. Where you bought equipment. Where you bought seeds. How you reached people on the internet. Maybe even an address for a forum off the top of your head.

It's a story about a guy who goes back to his kid body and is going to build a weed empire. I've already grown weed in the book.

The next step is getting a high times and ordering a catalog from Super Sativa Club, The Seedbank and sketchy high times ads.

In the book I'm going to just buy regular streetlights from an electric supply. Then make custom reflectors out of flat white painted wood. The hillbilly cousin of Agrotech Magnum.

I'll get a copy of one of Rodale's Organic Gardening books. They have how to make your own potting mix.

I need info on the earliest forums. As the main character is going to share 35 years of research on it.

I'm still on 1989. I'm writing it by the year. I just celebrated Halloween. It's 1989. Any strain or catalog suggestions, or even magazines. I know Positronics was big then. But where would you get DJ Short Blueberry in 1990? Those kinds of insights would be great.

I'm going to do organics in peat based super soil and fertilize with guano tea. Fortified with some good quality ingredients.

What was the place to order organic fertilizers at that time?

I personally have been growing since 2004. I was 18.

People gonna get grow bibles, feminized seeds, clones, shatter and rosin in the late 80s and early 90s.

Even in the 00s you got some sketchy and basically retarded advice. Cloning especially. You use no fertilizer and it roots faster. Don't worry about the yellow leaves and necrotic leaves. It's the best way.

1/2 strength bloom fertilizer when you soak your rockwool cubes or peat plugs. Never a yellow plant and I get 100% rooting.

The Internet didn't get into most homes until the mid 90's . Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal first published The Marijuana Growers Bible in 1975 I believe , that was were many turned to for info . Things were much more personal from the 70's until at least the end of the 90's , there was distrust of internet and ordering seeds from Europe could get you busted .

My little 4 man growers mafia emulated much of what we saw on shows like I Spy , The Man from U.N.C.L.E , Mission Impossible ...
It may sound corny but we grew our asses off and got through a few tight situations over the decades .

Unga Bunga said:

The Internet didn't get into most homes until the mid 90's . Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal first published The Marijuana Growers Bible in 1975 I believe , that was were many turned to for info . Things were much more personal from the 70's until at least the end of the 90's , there was distrust of internet and ordering seeds from Europe could get you busted .

My little 4 man growers mafia emulated much of what we saw on shows like I Spy , The Man from U.N.C.L.E , Mission Impossible ...
It may sound corny but we grew our asses off and got through a few tight situations over the decades .

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I'm going to breed with 6 Strains. A 100% Sativa. Durban Poison A 100% Indica like Afghan or Hash Plant. Cross Durban and Afghan, 50/50 Hybrid. Cross with either parent from the 50/50 and get a 75/25. Then cross the 75/25 with the other 75/25 and have a different 50/50. Haven't decided on names yet.

I'll sell seeds of those strains as well as clones.

I'm having fun writing this book. It's about to get real dark real fast, lol

The equipment we started using was liberated from poles on a nearby campus. My sincere apologies to all inconvenienced.

plottingon said:

The equipment we started using was liberated from poles on a nearby campus. My sincere apologies to all inconvenienced.

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That's not stealing, that's repurposing. You used their lights to grow weed to sell to their students. No sane jury would convict you.

Lol yep, my first grow light was an hps fixture that you'd mount on the side of a building. I remember going into the store with a hat, sunglasses, and paid in cash. Buying equipment and/or seeds was really paranoia inducing at the time.

I vaguely recall some of the websites, like the old OG site. Loved reading stuff on there, but NEVER posted anything for fear of the FBI kicking your door in.

MtRainDog said:

Lol yep, my first grow light was an hps fixture that you'd mount on the side of a building. I remember going into the store with a hat, sunglasses, and paid in cash. Buying equipment and/or seeds was really paranoia inducing at the time.

I vaguely recall some of the websites, like the old OG site. Loved reading stuff on there, but NEVER posted anything for fear of the FBI kicking your door in.

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The weed I bought back in prehistoric times was loaded with seeds, the Columbian gold was at least 1/4 seeds. What I wouldn't give for 1/4 of those I threw away at the time.

raratt said:

The weed I bought back in prehistoric times was loaded with seeds, the Columbian gold was at least 1/4 seeds. What I wouldn't give for 1/4 of those I threw away at the time.

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No shit ! We were getting bales of Chocolate Thai in the early 80's that blew you away . Only a few seeds here and there but man do I wish I had some now .

raratt said:

The weed I bought back in prehistoric times was loaded with seeds, the Columbian gold was at least 1/4 seeds. What I wouldn't give for 1/4 of those I threw away at the time.

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Hell, yeah. I remember using open double record album covers on which to break up the weed, and have the seeds roll down the crease for easy disposal. Such a nasty taste/smell when you smoked a seed, so bitter.

tyler.durden said:

Hell, yeah. I remember using open double record album covers on which to break up the weed, and have the seeds roll down the crease for easy disposal. Such a nasty taste/smell when you smoked a seed, so bitter.

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Worst thing was getting that last hit off a roach and inhaling the flaming hull. I had a round burn mark in my throat more than once.

im from the uk, and back then, ll there was ,was a lace called "sunlight systems" in a industrial estate in bristol.
they had sodium and metal halide ballasts ,seoperate ballasts for each, light movers, reflectors. seeds , no choice of seed company, just plaine plastic bags with 10 seeds in them, rockwool and plastic trays. that was about it. oh yes, and light movers

raratt said:

The weed I bought back in prehistoric times was loaded with seeds, the Columbian gold was at least 1/4 seeds. What I wouldn't give for 1/4 of those I threw away at the time.

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good old brick weed, you would keep the seeds these days, as the weed from the seed is better then the brick weed you baught

Really cool timeline in cannabis history to work with. A lot of interesting things were happening then.

There was a ton of amazing genetics that were only traded between friends, neighbors, and growing partners in the growing hot spots of North America. That's what I would go back in time for.

Much of the greatest genetics from that time period didn't come from seed banks, seed banks were risky. In places like the emerald triangle, Kentucky, Florida, PNW, the seeds that produced the weed that put those regions on the map were often obtained from shipments of weed. Those seeds were then grown out and distributed to other growers if they proved to be good quality, and could finish in time in those regions that people were growing back then.

Buying from seed banks was very risky at the time so many big time growers got their genetics from pounds or bales of weed shipped from other countries. A lot of these genetics made their way back to seed banks from North America to be worked further and sold to the public, like Northern Lights. However a lot of genetics were known only regionally and were highly regarded there but never made their way to European seed banks, not for lack of quality, but more as a result of limitations due to the illegality of growing and selling weed. The old growers were usually fairly reclusive and very tight lipped.

In the early days of growing in the Emerald triangle people mostly grew sativas from seeds that came from weed sold from Mexico, Colombia, etc. At a certain point shipments started coming from Afghanistan and other countries in that geographical region. That's when things really started cookin' because these varieties grew better in the North American climate than the sativas that they were growing in Mexico, Colombia, etc. Growers in North America sometimes bred the old long maturing Sativas that they were growing with the newer(to them) Indicas.

Some of these strains are still held by old heads in the backwoods, but mostly growers stopped growing them. In some cases it was because the strains from seed banks that were hitting mainstream circle produced better and/or were more consistent. But, also in many cases growers stopped growing the strains that they had held onto previously because of demand from consumers for more modern strains that had names that the consumers had heard about.

If I had a time machine I would definitely grab some of the legendary strains were made famous by seed banks at the time, but personally I would be more excited to grab some of the amazing strains that didn't come from seed banks.

Much of the old school genetics that were bred and grown in the deep woods and hollers of the North American growing regions can't be found today and was just as good as strains that were being produced by commercial seed banks. Or, at the very least it was just as unique and interesting as what was being sold from seed banks but more difficult to obtain. Much, if not most of the old genetics passed around in the old growing regions is all but extinct now, whereas you can still find the genetics from the old school famous seed bank strains, albeit in watered down or over hybridized forms today.

So for that reason alone if I were to turn back time I would focus on preserving those strains because those genetics have become lost to time(and raids) to a much greater degree than the seed banks strains.

Most of those strains that the old heads bred and passed around have met a genetic dead end due to demand in the mid to late 90's for strains with names that consumers recognize, an early form of hype culture. People didn't want to buy some old grandpa's strain that had no official name, they wanted to be smoking the stuff that other people were talking about.

The commercial seed bank strains were amazing as well, don't get me wrong, but their genetics live on in one form or another. The stuff the old heads held onto and traded amongst friends was equally amazing but most of it was lost due to consumer demand for famous strains that they read about in Hightimes. And as a result a lot of those amazing genetics don't exist in any form anymore, that's the stuff that I would go back in time to work with.

Good luck with your book!

raratt said:

Worst thing was getting that last hit off a roach and inhaling the flaming hull. I had a round burn mark in my throat more than once.

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I did that once and learned my lesson

Simple you bought a Joint for a Dollar. Take and break the Bud up break it up some more on a tray with a card have the tray at a slant so the seed rolls down. Grind it roll.

Back then it was very Illegal so you have to know the right people.

First I smoked I stole a Quarter Bag. Guy found me. We either smoked it or he killed me.

Well I was going to smoke it anyway so I'm ready.

Remember smoking Hash didn't have a Pipe so used a Soda Can.

There was a place in town supposed to get people off drugs. They had the good stuff there.

I had a connection back in the day for Mexican brick weed that came in a can!

They were large unlabeled cans. Pretty clever way to avoid customs, the cans would be shipped hidden amongst shipments of identical cans that were filled with canned foods. You had to use a can opener and the weed was super compacted inside the cans. You had to use a knife and pry the compacted weed out of the cans, and the weed would come out molded in the shape of the inside of the can even the little ridges of the inside of the can. Sometimes it was actually pretty good, surprisingly stoney, very Sativa high.

Of course it had seeds as was the norm at the time and sometimes you would find all sorts of other things that weren't pot at all compressed into the weed. Twine, rocks, bits of tarp, I found fingernails in a can one time.

The kilo's I helped break down back in the day were wrapped in pinkish paper like butcher paper. There were plant stalks bigger than my thumb in some of them. We tried making tea with a bunch of them in a coffee maker (we had no idea about decarbing back then). It tasted like bong water.