The world that we live in brings all sorts of miracles and surprises. And as cheesy as it may sound, the same can actually be said for the cannabis world! Growers who regularly plant weed seeds may have come across those strains that actually display purple shades in their leaves and flowers. Often considered as the peak of a cannabis plant’s beauty, this phenomenon actually has some scientific explanations behind it.
There is a lot more behind these purple marijuana strains from certain weed seeds than most people know. Here, we look into what causes the manifestation of these purple hues and some common facts and myths about these weed seeds! If you’re looking to enhance your smoking experience, consider exploring a variety of options available, including high-quality accessories like shop weed bowls.
Where Do Purple Marijuana Plants Come From?
The purple shades that you will usually observe from your cannabis plants are caused by the compounds called anthocyanins. These are compounds that usually house and develop themselves in the leaves of the marijuana strains. Because they are a type of substance that will usually incorporate itself into water contents, it can also be found in many other (if not tall) types of plants. The blue hues of blueberries, the red of strawberries, and the purple of grapes all come from the high doses of anthocyanins present in them.
As you can see, they are capable of giving a lot more than just purple shades of color to cannabis plants. Anthocyanins are actually also known to contribute greatly to the green of both indica and sativas! But, like everything else that has to do with a cannabis plant’s growth, this will also depend on the environmental conditions that the plants are placed in!
Factors That Will Give You Purple Marijuana Plants
It is true that not all cannabis plants will present a purple hue in their leaves and buds as they mature. If you are a grower who will really enjoy the development of purple marijuana strains in your gardens, then here are the things that you should look out for!
Genetics Plays A Major Part In Purple Strains
Indica marijuana strains are more likely to develop purple colors than sativa ones. If you observe most sativa strains, they will show a bright green hue with yellowing streaks in their plants. However, indicas that show deep, dark green colors can also leave traces of purple in them!
This is because some marijuana genetics will have a lot more concentrations of anthocyanins in their weed seeds as compared to others! There will be certain marijuana strains that will not turn purple at all, no matter how much you try and tweak their growing conditions to the optimal levels.
It may be a straight up coincidence but most of these purple marijuana strains will actually have flavors and smells of grapes and blueberries! Genetics suchs as Granddaddy Purple, Purple Urkle, Purple Kush, Purple Haze, and Shaman are all top-notch weed seeds that are sure to give you beautifully colored purple plants if maintained under the proper circumstances.
Placing The Plants In Cooler Temperatures
This one fact is something that you may have already heard of before. The purple coloration in the marijuana plants will only stimulate under cooler temperatures. It generally happens during the stages of a cannabis plant’s life when it is nearing the harvest. To do this, you will want to slowly reduce the temperatures of your growing area to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep in mind that this should be done around 1 to 2 weeks before harvest! Keeping marijuana plants in the cool conditions for extended periods of time can hinder their last weeks of bud development.
The dropping temperature in the growing area will start decomposing the chlorophyll content in the leaves. This will lead to the anthocyanins stimulating themselves more, causing them to “overwhelm” certain parts of the plant and replace the green shades with purple ones.
Adjust Your pH Levels Accordingly!
A quick background on pH levels: 6.0 is even ground, higher amounts will result in excess alkalinity and lower amounts will mean acidity. Believe it or not, the pH levels of your growing medium and water will also affect the colors that your marijuana plants from weed seeds will display!
Higher and lower levels will hinder the absorption of nutrients by the roots of your plants. This may cause the anthocyanin levels to stop developing in the plants, which will lead to the leaves settling for a green hue instead.
For the best results, you should always keep the pH of your soil and water at a neutral 6.0. Not only will this bring out the purple color of the marijuana plant, it will also keep the overall health of your plant in good condition!
Do Not Listen to Myths and Untrue Methods
From forcing nutrient deficiency, freezing, and even using food dye, there are all sorts of ridiculous myths that people claim to work if you want to end up with a garden full of purple marijuana plants. These, as you can tell, are not true! The deficiency in nutrients will most certainly not cause the manifestation of purple streaks. Instead, depriving them of essential elements will only lead them to their death!
Because anthocyanins will develop much better in cooler conditions just like we said, a lot of growers out there took this as a sign to freeze their cannabis plants. While the concept of cooler temperatures still applies, this is not what we meant by it. The sudden drop in temperatures if you freeze the cannabis plants will stunt their growth and increase the moisture content in them. This will lead to them falling ill and dying. Now do you understand why we told you to drop the temperatures slowly?
Last and most certainly the least, we have the use of food dye/food coloring. I am pretty sure that I won’t need to explain why this won’t work but for all of you interested growers out there, using food dye is basically a cheat code to the whole process. While it won’t exactly damage your plants in any way due to its organic ingredients, coloring your cannabis plants with purple food coloring defeats the purpose of growing cannabis plants the right way.
There isn’t much behind the science of having purple marijuana plants in your gardens. But because they are just amazing to look at and add another depth to the appearance of your gardens, trying them out wouldn’t hurt! All you will have to do is pick the right strains to grow and know where to place them! It is a simple process that will give you invaluable qualities to your growing experience!
For the best purple strain weed seeds, make sure to visit SunWest Genetics to avail of the most premium quality marijuana products out there! This marijuana seed bank holds a reputation for being one of the most trustworthy sources of weed seeds anywhere in the US and Canada. With the fast delivery time and discrete shipping that comes with their services, it will be easy to see why it is one of the best in the business!
