Any suggestions on how to maximize the color in your flower? What recommendations are out there to bring out the purple etc.
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What strains are you working with? Just curious.
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Hi @emily1!
There are several tricks to maximizing the color in flower. Some of the least popular techniques involve Depriving the plant of oxygen, carbon dioxide or any other gas; this will not increase the chance for purple buds. Another poor technique is increasing Nitrogen, this also will not work and will burn your buds to a crispy shade of brown.
A few simple steps should be followed to successfully grow purple buds.
Step 1: Select the Correct Cannabis Seeds
In order to turn purple, your plant must be high in anthocyanin. This is the same pigment that makes eggplant and blueberries purple. Examples of strains that are high in anthocyanin are Blue Cheese, Northern Lights and Blue Mystic. A great source for genetics like these is TGA Genetics ask @Subcool and he will point you in the right direction!
Step 2: Create the Correct Temperature
Anthocyanin is typically hidden by the stronger pigments in chlorophyll. During the fall months, however, the green pigments break down. This causes the anthocyanin to come out. In other strains, it can cause yellow, gold or blue pigments to come out.
One of the most popular techniques among growers is by subjecting the girls to a cold treatment. This is typically done during the flowering stage. Turn the temperature down during the night cycle. It should sit below 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius. The bud should begin to purple about two weeks before harvest.
Hope This Helps!
Happy Harvesting
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Purple bud, cannatonic and agent orange.
Emily M Estkowski
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Thank you! You are the first to give a scientific reason and action!!
I can’t thank you enough!
Emily M Estkowski
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You can probably also breed for more anthocyanins/lower chlorophyll. Some of the purple-leaved plants and trees out there are examples of that.
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Dropping the temperature strictly works here. Try dropping the temperature down to 18 degrees Celsius and flushing with cool water for the last week of flower. Turn lights off for last 3 days and run temperature down to 12 degrees Celsius. The last 3 days of no lights and cool temperatures enables the plant to convert the sugars stored and resin to come out. Enjoy!
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Some genetics are just dialed in too; I’ve found pretty consistent results with Sweet Seeds genetics for their color properties for example.
Here’s a Sweet Seeds Red Poison autoflower grown under 24/0 lighting conditions from seed to harvest, no ice, no cold water shocking, no cold temps (76-80 F the entire grow.)
Here’s a question, does vegetation with increased anthocyanin amounts (ie, like purple plants) respond to spectrums of light differently? Is the absorption of light the same? I know chlorophyll is still present and working, just wasn’t sure if the amount actually would change the requirement of the plants.
Thoughts? Ideas?
I’ve also noticed myself (and have heard from a large group of growers/consumers) that purple buds typically are WEAKER in potency (to me, the purple is just bag appeal, and looks really cool when you make purple oil or rosin.) Anyone else notice this? Do I just have the tolerance of rhinoceros?
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I hate to be a broken record here…but…while dropping the temp will cause the plant system to push more anthocyanin as a stress response, selecting your strains to for their inherent purple traits will be a far more reliable (and less stressful!) means of producing purple nugs.
A few stalwart purple strains I might recommend: Blackberry Kush, Purple Urkel, Grandaddy Purps, The Black, Spacequeen and Grape Ape. Also Bubba Kush, Jilly Bean and Agent Orange tend to purp out if you drop the temps a few degrees during the dark cycle.
Hope this helps!
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