The best purple cannabis strains always seem to disappear quickly whenever you grow them: friends pop around more often, and suddenly your stash is gone.
So what makes a purple (or blue) strain that color, what’s the best way to grow purple weed – and what makes it unique?
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The 9 Best Purple Cannabis Strains
1. Granddaddy Purple
At one point, this was THE smoke to have. Grandaddy Purple is a cross between Purple Erkle and Big Bud, so it benefits from high production as well as the fruity smoke and intense indica effect.
This is not available in seed form, only as a cutting.
2. Purple Haze – The Best Purple Cannabis Strain
From Sensi Seeds.
Praised by many, of course, Purple Haze had to make this list with its soaring Haze high.
3. The Purps
From BC Bud Depot
Even though is not the biggest yielder, The Purps is a connoisseur’s strain, grown for its deliciously grapelike flavor and intense high.
4. Querkle
From the former TGA Subcool (now The Dank Subcool).
An indica dominant hybrid featured with an amazing flavor that outruns the slow Urkle mom.
5. Original Flo
From Dutch Passion.
Thai/Afghani/Mexican genetics with a 50:50 Indica/Sativa ratio
6. Lavender
From Soma Seeds.
One of the all-time-best mellow, violet-colored, indica-dominant strains available to the public. Produces a relaxing and soothing high.
7. Purple No. 1
From Dutch Passion.
A giggly sweet high with deep purple tones
8. Dark Devil Auto
From Sweet Seeds.
A visually stunning autoflowering purple strain.
9. Grape OG
From Cali Connection.
A sweet and sour sativa/indica mix with incredibly potent high.
Read Also: Purple Pancakes Strain Review
What Makes a Purple Cannabis Strain Purple?
All higher plants – those that use a vascular system to distribute nutrients and water up from the roots to the leaves and flowers/fruits – contain a varying level of a flavonoid called “Anthocyanins.”
What are Anthocyanins?
Don’t confuse the term “flavonoid” to mean anything to do with flavor: it actually comes from the Latin word for “yellow”. Flavonoids work as chemical messengers, symbiotic nitrogen fixers, and more.
Anthocyanin is a distinctive flavonoid that acts as a coloring agent in the epidermic layer of plant tissue, turning it red, purple, or blue depending on the pH. It acts as a sunscreen preventing high-light stress and is also the reason some trees have leaves that turn red in autumn.
Allegedly, anthocyanins are thought to be present in all cannabis strains. Still, most are either not exposed to the right environmental conditions to produce them, or they do so in such low quantities that it doesn’t make a visual difference.
How to Grow Purple Marijuana Strains
Towards the end of flowering, plants receive the signal to stop producing chlorophyll so that all energy goes toward bud production.
Simultaneously, anthocyanin levels increase, and as the plant’s leaves fade from lack of chlorophyll, they take on a reddish/purple/blue tinge produced by the higher levels of the flavonoid. The anthocyanin travels throughout the vascular cells, even into the trichomes, staining them with that beautiful color.
Traditionally you needed to have a cold last few weeks of flowering to trigger any latent “blue gene” and bring out the distinctive coloring. The popularity of these blue/purple cannabis strains has encouraged breeders to breed in anthocyanins dominance selectively, and it’s now possible to achieve that attractive bud in normal conditions.
How to Boost Color in Purple Cannabis Strains?
To maximize the quantity of anthocyanin and really grow some deep-blue bud, you need to drop nighttime temperatures to simulate cool mountain evenings in autumn (most blue/purple strains will have some Kush in them).
To sum up:
- Use a long flush period – up to 3 weeks – to encourage the plant to break down all chlorophyll and give the anthocyanin time to permeate the plant and bud
- Increase anthocyanin levels with low nighttime temps
- A slow curing process in the fridge may ensure that the purple color “fixes,” but DO be careful of bud rot and mold using this method.
- There are specific additives that are supposed to encourage the purpling effect.
Benefits of Purple Weed
So, what makes purple weed special?
Honestly, as far as science is concerned: nothing.
HOWEVER, there have been several experiments recently discussing how the presentation of the food affects our interpretation of its taste and quality.
And this certainly goes beyond new-age gibberish. For example, when you’re down with a cold and a stuffy nose, food doesn’t taste the same, all because you can’t smell it. Or you eat a yellow yogurt, and you taste banana (and only God knows what’s really in those). This is because all five senses are connected and affect each other.
So that’s probably what happens with these purple/blue buds. They look so gorgeous we lead ourselves to believe they have some mystical effects. Also, we’ve heard so rave reviews about a few (mainly clone-only) legend strains such as Blue Dream or Grandaddy, that we convince ourselves any other purple or blue bud has to be special.
On the other hand, science has been researching the role anthocyanin plays in our overall health, with anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and more benefits. This suggests that the high levels of anthocyanin in purple/blue weed might have secondary medicinal effects.
So far, it leans more to the speculation side, but maybe the high levels of anthocyanin combined with cannabinoids can enhance the overall effects of the plant.
Get Your Purp On
What’s your experience with purple buds? Are you a Grandaddy Purple fan or does the purp leave something to be desired for you?
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