Memoirs of an American Marijuana Grower (Part One)

By Subcool, Cannabis Culture - Tuesday, April 13 2010

CANNABIS CULTURE - A long time ago in a growroom far, far away there worked a humble farmer.

I grew my fruits and sold them to locals and everything was good. I added C02 and my harvest went through the roof. I was pulling down 60-70 zips every 60 days using a three-room set up.

Life was good and elbows went for 6K and everyone had red eyes. I had to meet some new folks, as I had weight just sitting around. I ended up feeding a rat and my life was changed forever.

I often say if the Powers That Be had left me alone selling weed to adults who prefer to unwind with cannabis instead of booze, there might never have been a Subcool.

I did my time for the crime and it taught me a great deal about the system and how things worked. I am not ashamed I got caught. I was a simple farmer and the pigs have unlimited resources and lots of high-tech gadgets, as well as all the rats they keep on their leashes. These are the long-lost pictures from that time period and I hope you enjoy the show and the story.

First up: pics of Bubbi's Apollo-13. This is the same clone I have now, but I lost this in the bust and a good friend returned it to me. This is one of my all-time favorite strains and I still grow it and work with it today.

I did most things the same back then with a few exceptions. I used a simple mix of potting soil and worm castings and fed my plants with an organic stew. I ran a 8x11 area with 2 1000’s on a mover that added 16” of travel to extend the normal 11x6 2 extra feet with no problems. You will see the rig I built later to accomplish this. The three rooms and additional cloning closet allowed me to harvest every 30-45 days but I worked many long days to pull it off each time. While one area was filled with budding plants in the last stages of maturity another was filled with plants halfway completing flowering. In a third area young plants matured under an 18/6 light schedule and were trained and topped to form bushes with multiple growing heads or Cola's. The organic stews I used were made up of Earth Juice, Pure Blend, Maxi Crop, and Fox Farms Big Bloom gave the bud an incredible flavor and it wasn't long before I was quite famous in the area...DOH!

Now lets look at some of the strains I was running in these packed rooms.

Batgirl

This is the famous Batgirl! Not a strain but a plant we named based on her batwing silhouette. The strain is Jacks Cleaner Blueberry and we will see more about her later in the story. I sent BOG the last 2 packs of this strain just before this all went down and he used them to create his famous Lifesaver. I still get asked about this plant some 12 years later.

California Orange

This is the famous California Orange from Eric77. I met him at my place down south and he made a big impression on me and taught me to grow the way you see here. I used to do 7 tables with organic hydro, 24 to a table, and worked my ass off. Eric showed up for a party at my house before I moved here and looked around and said "You're spending all your time making clones, right?" He showed me big plants and huge harvest with canopy management. This was a great help later when I became a legal grower with plant limits. I fill that same 10x5 area now with just 8 plants.