hello my friends! I don't know it all but I was there from the beginning. I even contributed to "the new server fund" when overgrow.com started to grow with new membership and things were getting slow. I was not an owner, nor even a well-known member and not much of a "good" grower...but
I was registered as Jones on overgrow.com. That place was my virtual home since ~shabang went online. I was fortunate to meet some great people on that site.
~shabang was a good moderator and had a good thing going--there is a lot of backstory to overgrow.com that I'll find and post at a later date. I also have two original overgrow.com T-shirts ~shabang created with his motto printed "Stop Smoking Schwag". That shirt has helped me get hooked up at many festivals.
anyway, I was fortunate enough to get some original Grimm Bros. C99 from overgrow, and even some F1 C88s, when the brothers made their announcement that they were retiring from the community we all freaked... I got Early Girl seeds from HempDepot out of Canada who I think was selling seed strains like Mikado, Sweet Island Skunk and others and I think still does have seeds on the market. i don't know...I think he had some Willy's Wonder strains and also some DJ Shorts strains which for a while was the very much sought after. White Widow was the star then and Northern Lights was like a constant must have strain and AK47 and Jack Herer were huge and even the original Mantanuska Thunderfuck (ATF) from Alaska was floating around. I also got some original
Big Bud seeds, some Super Skunk and some original Romulan--I still have a sealed coinpack with 1 seed of Bubblegum stored in my collection.
BOG and I emailed privately for awhile before he went solo-I still have some of his bubblegum and bogglegum seeds-He was hilarious, working out of an old barn in the mountains-he used to tell stories about bears and shit and post photos of his setup which was a barn--he grew HUGE Colas. I remember him posting photos of his work and even when he discovered the bubblegum taste in one phenotype and if I'm not mistaken, that was the beginning of that strain's fame for the most part anyway. He would take photos of each HUGE Cola and plant while standing in his living room with full on open robe and ALWAYS with a vacuum cleaner next to him, bc a member saw the vac in one of his first posts and it stuck as one of his odd things he did. He was and still is a good dude.
I also was fortunate enough to hook up with Bubbleman and get one of the very early sets of BubbleBags for hash extraction-which i still have also--he was even kind enough to send me his 'personal' tiniest micron bag--which he later phased out of production. He used to post beautiful images of Bald Eagles in the snow off the pacific northwest coast and even his MaineCoon (sp?) cat--not to mention tons of the gooyest water/ice hash known to us back in 1998 or maybe 99. I'm pretty much sure he "invented" bubble hash as we know it in the states. He would post close up shots of the hash in his pipe bubbling mid hit...not many of us had seen such quality ice hash, ever. He really outgrew overgrow.com once his products started to hit the market-but I think he's still online--
I also got F1's from ReeferMan and another dude-might have been him or REZ--can't remember--one dude went nuts with his seeds and started clouding up the market with some bad or unpredictable F1's, especially some C99 F1's he pushed real hard. I think he's around and if CBay is still up you'll probably find him there... and I also traded with many other members--F1's mostly. I got some great smooth Hindu Kush seeds from Heaven's Stairway and a ton of Skunk and Skunk#1 from GypsyNirvana who started Nirvana seed line,.. also he resold Serious Seeds out of Amsterdam which still has some legendary strains and I got some great afghani and skunk seeds there-also i got some Flo from Serious seeds, which was not a very good strain--Gypsy is still online at NirvanaShop and from what I read--some ex members are still hating on him bc somehow he is or is alleged to be part of the downfall of overgrow.com--idk, something like he got too big for overgrow or he and ~shabang or RC of Heaven's Stairway or Marc Emery were all sniping over turf or some stupid shit while the Canadian mounties were zeroing in on RC-and he ran... Anyway Gypsy was always good to me--he started selling KIEF boxes online after a member showed us how to build them and then got into breeding his own seeds and made a house brand seed line which is still on the market. He started taking on a huge presence on overgrow.com which grew to irritate some.
I remember, trying to scrape up enough money to buy some seeds from RC at Heaven's Stairway--I finally got some and I even got seeds from Emery--he was a wildcard and unpredictable--but to his credit he fought hard for the cause--and i think eventually a lot of other people went down, including overgrow.com due to his bravado/ego/dedication/and his ability to sing like a bird from what I understand.
Also I met shantibaba at the cannabis cup in Amsterdam, hung out at Greenhouse where I bought some great Haze seeds. Incredibly the original Mr. Nice showed up on overgrow.com, very quietly, and everyone was in awe. He was and is one of the most interesting marijuana pioneers ever.
Also if you have ever heard of a strain called Duckfoot--check it out--an overgrow member in England was cultivating a plant that had a leaf that looked just like the three web toes on a duckfoot--he tried to isolate that phenotype/gene and breed it with some skunk--i'm not sure how that turned out, but he was hoping to make it a stealth cannabis plant which would have a different leaf than the one we now know. Also I remember one member who experimentally grew some plants in the top of some trees in some hanging baskets high up in the tops, so no one could spot them from the ground--he kept a photo journal and it worked--that was great. Also Dr. Greenthumb was on overgrow.com, and he was vocal but kinda full of zest and a little ignorance, but i think he's online moving his seed strain and doing ok.
Also, i remember turning the owner of Discount-Hydro onto overgrow.com after doing business with him. His shop is now huge and he's a really nice guy--email him, I'm sure he's got some things to share about overgrow.com
That's a big message about overgrow.com--everyone was nice to each other--very little sniping or trying to best each other existed. Of course we had some trolls as they used to say but most everyone was honestly trying to get some good stable stock to work with in stealthy efficient way. Tips and info and mostly the truth was ever present.
I learned most of what i know about horticulture/nursery management/entymology/propagation/irrigation/nutrient and nutrient deficiencies etc from overgrow.com...especially soil and hydroponics from overgrow.com. It further inspired me, believe it or not to get a masters degree in environmental studies packed with horticulture and native plant hours. In fact, my professors were totally cool when i showed them my version of an aerocloner as well as a home made flood and drain table made kinda like an (NFT) from rain gutters, pvc and ball float-which were all projects done on overgrow.com...and. I wish i could remember the guy's name but anyway, the first documented aeroponic cloner was built by an overgrow.com member who posted photos of how to build them--also I forget the dude who was into deep water culture (DWC)-which is basically a net pot plant in an aerated 5 gallon bucket with a hole cut in the bucket top--well he made a huge contribution to the world of closet growing and DIY hydroponic and water cultivation.
Speaking of which, Subdude basically launched his career on overgrow.com. I remember everyone of his photo posts--his step by step construction for DIY was and is brilliant. Honestly, Subdude-now of TGA seeds-built cabinets that evolved into architectural stealth genius. At the time most members were just perfecting
Sea of Green (SOG) and even Screen of Green (SCROG) cabinet growing and Subdude built the most impressive efficient cabinets the community had ever seen...and his product was so so so beautiful--frosty frosty perfection--i think mostly bubblegum. He's still working at TGA seeds and is online, in fact I recently got some of his (Subdude's) Cheese Quake strain and its so nice, my lab tested it at 19% THC. He knows overgrow backwards and forwards.
I have fond memories of hanging out on overgrow.com. I'm glad others find joy in reading and learning about the site and the members who frequented there and really appreciate the ex members that are here and keeping the community strong. We need to write a book.
jones