The Color Purple
By Subcool
Purple Cannabis is all the rage in the Nocal clubs and it is highly sought after by both consumers and producers, lets explore this phenomenon and learn some things about Cannabis and Color. Do we see any great demand for purple today? Not in normal things because theyre readily available but when it comes to Purple Pot its another story.
Cannabis floral clusters are basically green, but changes may take place later in the season, which alter the color to include various shades. The intense green of chlorophyll usually hides the color of accessory pigments, Chlorophyll starts to loose its vibrant green color late in the season and anthocyanin pigments also contained in the tissues are uncovered and the amazing colors are produced at this time. Purple, resulting from anthocyanin accumulation, is extremely common in Cannabis, this color modification is usually triggered by seasonal change, and also can be influenced indoor by a temperature drop of between 20-30 degrees.
This does not mean, however, that Purple is controlled by environment alone and it can be passed on genetically. For purple color to develop upon maturation, a strain must have the genetically controlled metabolic potential to make anthocyanin pigments and be responsiveness to environmental change such as cold nighttime temps. This means a strain can have the genetic potential to change color but if conditions never exist you may never know it. I have grown Jacks Cleaner for a long time and when I moved west and it found some dramatically cooler temps I got a nice maroon/ purple coloring at maturity
There are other pigments that effect the color of mature cannabis for example Carotenoid is largely responsible for the yellow, orange, red, and brown colors in buds. I find this effect is much easier to accomplish in Organics and soil but in order to really call a strain Purple it needs to have more than colored outer leaves and the inner buds need to actually be Purple.
One aspect that I also find interesting is the purple potency debate, for those that have collected a few plants that produce Purple buds under any conditions like certain Black Russian phenotypes we have noticed something that seems to be consistent. When growing out females of a hybrid that have both color females and non colored females the colored one seems to always be less potent.