What is purple weed

Today we will discuss why marijuana comes in a plethora of different shades and how you can bring out the purple in your next crop.

Offering brightly colored purple weed is justification to sell at a higher price, but why? Is purple cannabis more psychoactive? Are the cannabinoid potency levels higher in purple strains?

However, it is relatively unusual. Purple weed is more expensive and featured in rap songs stemming from the illegal market when the consumer was at the mercy of whatever product their supplier had available. Coming across purple cannabis was a rare treat for many, and as a result, the phenomenon was glorified in popular culture.

Today, purple buds are more readily available due to a legal market. While access has increased, the rarity does remain, and most consumers still appreciate exotic-looking cannabis. We can enjoy the highly instagramable appearance of purple weed because of two significant circumstances: genetics and the environment the plants are subject to during their lifecycle. Growers who want to focus on growing purple cannabis can use both factors to their advantage through selecting seeds of historically purple strains and ensuring they give the predisposed genetic qualities the conditions to thrive.

Many strains produce purple flower. These strains are predominately indica dominant because these types of cannabis are more likely to provide dark colors.

Breeders use purple genetics to create hybrids, mixing desirable traits from specific strains. Purple appearance has historically been one of the more desirable qualities in the industry, leading to a plethora of options for growers looking to offer purple cannabis.

Choosing a strain that has proven to deliver purple nugs is necessary if you are looking to grow purple cannabis. While they may be beautiful to look at, they are resilient and adapt well to any conditions, allowing them to easily take over your yard.

Wild violets have thick underground stems called rhizomes that allow them to easily spread through the soil, creating a challenge in preventing their growth.

The best prevention of Wild Violets is dense, well-maintained grass that prevents spread through rhizomes. Otherwise, they can continue to grow and deplete resources. While many gardeners choose to use Forget-Me-Nots as border plantings, these weeds can easily get out of control. Forget-Me-Nots grows well in moist but drained soil with either shade or sunlight, allowing them to bloom aggressively and take over your garden.

You can identify Forget-Me-Nots by their round, bluish-purple petals and their yellow center. While they can look beautiful in a garden, they can be extremely invasive and cause harm to other plants if not controlled. Luckily, you can easily pull out Forget-Me-Nots by hand to help prevent them from taking over your garden. You can also cultivate the soil in a shaded area to control the spread if you like how they look but want to keep them in check and avoid aggressive spread.

Many of these weeds can have benefits for you and your garden. These include:. With these potential advantages, you have to balance the risks that come from many of these purple-flowered weeds. Possible consequences can include:. F ew things in the world of weed have as large a mythic and iconic standing as purple bud.

Despite its popularity, this seemingly simple topic can be a bit convoluted. What is purple weed? Why is it purple? How does it get that way? And ultimately, does weed color matter at all? Purple cannabis gets its hue from the presence of pigments called anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are water-soluble pigments present in many plants. Purple cannabis has a naturally higher amount of anthocyanins, and weed turns from green to purple as these anthocyanins are expressed during the growing cycle.

Anthocyanins will present in a range of pink to red at high acidity, a range of purples even approaching black from medium to neutral acidity, and finally a greenish-yellow to no color at all when alkaline.

Anthocyanins are also part of a larger class of molecules known as flavonoids, which aside from how the name sounds, have very little to do with flavor and are actually astringent tasting, so not very appetizing. So what is happening here? Why is a blue-named class of molecules that presents as red or purple a subset of a class of yellow-named molecules.

It begins to make sense when we consider that a complex interaction of anthocyanins and other flavonoids is what causes leaves to change color among such a brilliant spectrum in the fall. When cannabis presents as purple, we are seeing a similar phenomenon as fall leaves, where the shift in conditions influences the pigment molecules to present different colors. Like other plants, for cannabis, changes in coloration serve a purpose.

Under natural conditions, cannabis sativa grows during the spring and summer, then flowers seasonally in the fall and winter months. It makes these changes based on a shift in photoperiod , the amount of time that plants are exposed to light per day. It does this by producing chlorophyll, also known as the stuff that makes plants green.

Chlorophyll is what helps plants convert light to energy, therefore, the more chlorophyll there is, the more energy the plant can draw from the sun to sustain itself.

When the growth stage is done, the plant then prepares to reproduce. It will begin to decrease the chlorophyll production needed to grow, and instead devote energy to flowering and seeding, in an effort to create the next generation of pot plants.

The more flowers or seeds it can make, the better chances it has of genetic survival, so it will try and devote as much energy as possible to this stage.

As a result of chlorophyll production decreasing, the cells containing chlorophyll then begin to break down, revealing the anthocyanins present. If a cannabis plant has a high amount of purple anthocyanins, it can then appear to turn from green to purple at this stage. Without a predisposition to purpling, a strain cannot be induced to turn purple.

A plant that produces no purple anthocyanins cannot be made to turn purple. Without that anthocyanin base for pigmentation, no change in appearance will take place. Furthermore, whatever color those pigments are without the green chlorophyll in the way is the color that the cannabis will turn to. This is why there is also pink and red cannabis as well. While genetics will determine the amount of anthocyanins and their general color, the ranges that those colors present in will be impacted to some degree by the environment they are grown in.

We can understand this better by looking at the difference between phenotype and genotype. The genotype of a plant is based on its hard-coded genetics. If we think of a typical store-bought tomato, it would be bright red, with a generally round shape, and a bright green top.

Well, we will. Mendocino Purps starts off purely green, earning the purple color in the last weeks of flowering. It offers well-rounded yet mild effects which is great for the average user.

Generally Obama Kush has a slight purple hue beneath the thick dusting of resin. Be careful when wading through the Blackwater strain. Blackwater has a deep purple color and a grape-like aroma. A flavorful strain with notes of sweet berry and grape, the genetics of which are somewhat unknown. The name says it all, expect a powerful sour grape flavor from this strain. Purple Skunk is actually a sativa dominant hybrid that combines Skunk 1 genetics with a classically purple strain to give it its color.

Skunk 1 is a very powerful strain, so expect Purple Skunk to be a hard-hitting strain with plenty of kick. Originating in British Columbia, Canada, this B. Girl Scout Cookies crossed with Durban Poison and grown organically in Canada, it tastes as amazing as it looks!

A less pungent version of its parent Blue Cheese, with a combination of Purple 1 and Lowryder. Purple Cheese has a sweet, fruity taste with a mild cheese aroma; much more palatable than the Blue Cheese strain.