Interview with Hawkbo

Hi there, Growers!

We've reached out to @Hawkbo to ask him a couple of questions about his personal life and GD experience.  Here is what he told us...

Q: Hi @Hawkbo, how is it going today? What are you up to? How do you feel about sharing your story with the GD community?

A: Hey guys, excellent thanks for having me. I'll be doin a lot of garden work today, little guitar, Netflix and plan to make some canna oil tonight. It's awesome, I'm fairly new to GD so I didn't stumble across the journal/ interview section until about a week or so ago and shout out to @biggreens420 for putting me up as a candidate and for giving us a little background about himself. 

Q: Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? Kids?

A: I'm from an area of Boston Massachusetts about 5 minutes from Gillette stadium where everyone elses least favorite NFL team plays. I think I'm 27 now, born 4.20.90 I believe I was put on this planet to grow, smoke and advocate for mary j. No kids I'm aware of although it's a possibility but I do have a pitbull named Creed who keeps me busy outside the garden, a rescue dog that got caught up in hurricane Irene in Carolina, he has some serious anxiety issues and never really leaves my side. I actually graduated from college with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. I played football in both high school and college. I blew out my knees 4 times in college unfortunately and had doctors dishin me pain pills left and right which led me down a dark, destructive path. Nothing aside from friends and family really played a bigger role in bringing me back to life than cannabis, it's a gift from god and has been unjustly taken away from people essentially because of one man's greed 100 years ago and finally we are able to consume and cultivate it without being frowned upon by those uneducated about it's abilities or locked in a cell with real monsters. Our generation is very lucky, I just hope we can put to rest the stigma associated with it around the world so everyone can legally enjoy it.

Q: When did you smoke your first joint? How was it?

A: I smoked my first joint when I was 12 years old. My cousin a few years older than me scooped up a bag of some schwag dirt weed at one of my pee wee football games. I haven't stopped smokin since that day.

Q: When and why did you start growing? What was your first strain to harvest? 

A: I started growing in May 2017 so 9 months ago. I had gotten laid off from my job as a private investigator due to lack of incoming work and was broke. My buddy who was sellin bud at the time would just give me free nugs til i pulled my shit together and suggested I start growing my own. I was hesitant as I did brief research about the costs associated with starting up an operation but a guy I used to work with had some plants that he didn't have space for. The buddy (shoutout to the whitedog) who was helping me out with bud invested in me and bought 3 photoperiod plants off the kid. He gave us some cfls and I threw them in my closet. They died a couple weeks later. I felt like I let myself and him down and I wanted redemption. Rewind back a couple months I had been smoking shatter and doing dabs like a madman. My throat got really messed up I assume from the lack of quality and use of solvents. I did some research and found out just how dirty and disgusting some of the cannabis products coming from not only the street but dispensaries could be. I wanted to be able to smoke good, clean product that was top shelf free from pesticides, chemicals, nutrient salts, solvents, bugs , bug shit..u get the idea. I found a promo from @Seedsman online for a 7 pack of Dutch Passion Auto Mazar. I grew out 5 of them and made it to harvest with some monster plants that yielded me around 2 lbs. Unfortunately it had no smell and barely got you high. I had done a lot of research and enough of the basics to not kill them, but nothing taught me more than actually growing the plants and all the issues/mistakes I ran into along the way. I became addicted to researching spending 3-4 hours a day at least. I figured out after that harvest that it's the little things, the highest attention to detail that make a good plant into a great plant. It took me 1 more grow using @seedsman genetics to really get dialed in and start being able to bring out the aromas and taste and produce smooth smoking product. I got confident in my ability to do this after my first fastbuds crop, my friends were shocked at the lsd and gsc they had never seen anything quite like it. I'm in the U.S but MA is not California or Colorado, we didn't have too much opportunity for variety until a few months ago when they legalized recreational use for adults and even with legalization there is still gray areas making it risky. Fastbuds genetics and my 4th and 5th run is when things took off which was more recently. High thc% autoflowers helped get me on my feet and on people's radar so im very grateful to Fastbuds for that.

Q: Do you grow for personal use only?

A: At the beginning that was my intention, but no I spread the wealth. I am actively seeking ways I can distribute my own product legally whether it's working/growing for a large dispensary or applying for my own LLC as a small craft cannabis producer and distributor. In a perfect world, for me personally, the state would allow home growers to sell directly to dispensaries and ban large dispensaries from being able to cultivate as well as distribute. If dispensaries can grow and sell their own shit I think quality will be sacrificed and greed will take over and well have weed walmarts. If that happens eventually consumers who are cannabis connoisseurs will be looking to the small niche craft growers in the black market for their nugs. That's just my humble opinion.

Q: How is GD treating you? Any advice how we could improve the site?

A: Awesome, one of a kind truthfully. It's beneficial to growers, breeders, nutrient/lighting companies and more as it helps get their products on a platform anyone in the world can access for free. Your puttin me on the spot with the improvements but I do respectfully have one or 2. One would be the ability to upload multiple photos at once to your diary instead of one at a time. The 2nd might be a little far out but you asked... It would be to include an introduction to the growers set-up/grow room, essentially a section right under your social links/growing details section but before the list of diaries to document photos of each growers set up (photo of the grow room in full, your dry room, where and how you cure, equipment used..etc.) that can be updated along the way so newbies can see the various ways a grow room can be set up from different perspectives and also how their grow room evolves as the grower makes upgrades and changes down the road. That was something i had trouble researching on the Internet but was able to piece together on GD it just isn't centralized.

Q: Have you made any friends here? Met up with anyone to smoke a j? Should we organise a meet up party?

A: Yeah I'm not the most social butterfly but even so I have conversed with multiple growers on here regularly whether just to shoot the shit or I ask them something or vice versa. I encourage anyone and everyone on here to do that but also to double and triple check sources regarding any new info they receive. I personally havnt had anyone steer me wrong on this website and there is great valuable info on some websites but there are plenty of forums full of misguided info out there so you can't believe everything you read and check sources for sure. I Havnt met up for a smoke with anyone although that would be classic, most of the people I've spoken to are thousands of miles away and all over the globe which is awesome. Would love to hear if anyone is from around Massachusetts. I'm all in on you guys organizing a party so yes you should do that, I'll be there ready to boogie.

Q: How do you take your weed? Care to share a favourite edible recipe?

A: Lately I been smokin joints, 2 to 3 a day but had quite the stint with blunts in my schoolboy days and dabs in the more recent past. I make canna oil, I use mostly sugar trim and small buds if I have some to spare. I try to make my oil as potent as possible so I dump around 100 grams of trim into a crockpot, add just enough oil (veg or olive) for the trim to be able to cook and simmer in and cook it for around 3-4 hrs on low stirring occasionally. Before I throw it in the crockpot I decarboxilate it in the over on 240°f for about 40 mins to activate the cannabinoids. I don't typically use it to cook tho, I'm a big chocolate milk guy so I'll make a glass of Choco and dump 8-10 ml oil in and stir it up.

Q: Anything else you’d like to say to the community and to the Team?

A: I think that this is the best place to learn how to grow from getting a grasp on the basics to discovering the more advanced methods some use. I hope everyone continues to keep up the good work and we share our knowledge with the members who are already here and yet to come. Keep making people feel good about their work and leave the negative shit to the forums on other sites. Always try to be better and put your best foot forward, this site is full of opportunities and they will come if you provide quality content. There are no dumb questions in my opinion, someone in the community will step up and take their time to try and help.

Q: Who will we interview next?

A: There are at least 10 I'd like to hear from that haven't already been interviewed including but not limited to @b4rns , @teflondonfarms , @scotlanddrgreen420 , @tazard , @drzoidberg , @kingjaysgardens I could keep goin... but one in particular that I haven't even spoken with yet but hope to at some point after recently seeing his work and that's @jupiter401 dude has his shit dialed in. Thanks for having me guys and happy growing to all.

Thanks for sharing your story, @Hawkbo! We are happy to have you here with us. Definitely noted about the 'grow setup' feature! @Jupiter401, are you in for an interview, man?

Keep on growing, Family!

Peace,

GD Team