Jorge Cervantes Interview
by Chris Simunek

When did you start to grow?

In 1977, I'd moved up to California from Mexico and started growing up in the hills behind Santa Barbara. I had a couple of nice crops up there and a couple of greenhouses in town. But got ripped-off twice and the fun stopped! Learned a lot about growing, but the varieties were all Mexican and Columbian, big sativas. You could get good strains but it was really difficult back then . . . in 79, I got better varieties. But they were all sativas from Hawaii, Thailand, Colombia or Mexico. Later when I got in with some growers from Northern California, they had Afghani, they called it ‘A-1’, and ‘Skunk #1’ also showed up. But you still had to grow from seed. It made things more complex, and good seeds were still hard to find.

What was the grow scene like in 1977?

A lot of people didn't know what the plant looked like. They didn't know what the leaf looked like. They didn't know growth characteristics . . . so there were a few people who were growing fields of buds. They would get a bag of Mexican or Columbian seeds and plant them, so all the pot wasn’t acclimated. But growing didn't really explode until the Seed Bank (now Sensi Seeds) from Holland started to advertise in HIGH TIMES. From that point, it took 10 years for growing to become rampant in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Were there a lot of profiteers in those growing days, or was it mostly enthusiasm?

There was a big grow movement but it wasn’t dominated by money. Once money started coming in, things changed. I remember the first year I was into growing. Let's see, when I got into growing, top quality sinsemilla was selling for $1200 a pound. Most growers were getting around $800, Columbian was going for $600 and Mexican dirt weed, you know the bricks that had dried lizards, was moving for $400 a pound.

Why did people start growing when they could just import it?

Because they could. Fresh, well cared for dope is always better than imported and, there is something about growing your own. The information was there. At first Bill Drake’s book, The Marijuana Cultivator's Handbook, came out. That was the first grow book, at least the first decent one. I remember it was a green book. It was excellent for the time. And he's still around. Thanks Bill!

Then came the first Marijuana Grower’s Guide in 1976, I think. That was the first really detailed good book. When the second edition, the fat one, came out, that was outstanding.

Who did that?

Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal. Later Ed pulled out and Mel did it alone. Mel wins my undying respect. He keeps updating the Grower’s Guide. It's an excellent book.

So when did you start?

After I graduated university in Mexico, I moved north and started growing in 1977. It was all outdoors then, for several years. I moved indoors and grew indoors for a few years until I quit in 1983. I quit because that's when I wrote the bible, Indoor Marijuana Horticulture. I started writing and visiting other grow rooms and studying other growers, but it definitely wasn't a good idea for me to keep growing after that.

What inspired you to write?

Well, when the Grower's Guide came out I thought it was great. I figured I'd do the same and get free dope everywhere I traveled. I thought if I wrote about the growers I'd get to sample the fruits of their labors. Of course I'd missed the chance to write the Growers' Guide, but when the indoor scene started I thought it was a great idea to write an indoor book. So I learned about indoor growing, traveled everywhere, and got a lot of free smoke. It worked out for me that way and growers still like the way I share and present information.

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