Purple Punch: A purple dream of resin
There are only a few cannabis strains that have buds which go purple when grown in indoor rooms with regular, warm temperatures. That’s why this highly attractive strain is quite a rare case to behold indoors.
Barney’s Farm strain story
Few growers are willing to lower the night temperatures significantly - below the optimum - to enable their plants to produce the purple pigment anthocyanin in large amounts, and who can blame them.
The anthocyanin acts as a kind of anti-cold and anti-freezing agent for the plants. But there’s a handful of strains with a special genetic make-up that allows for ample generation of anthocyanin with regular indoor cultivation temperatures.
Such a strain is Purple Punch from Barney’s Farm, which owes its purple flower garment to its noble mother Granddaddy Purple, a very popular Californian cross of Purple Urkle and Big Bud released in the year of 2003. The father Larry OG, as powerful as he is famous, originated in California, too, so Purple Punch, the elite offspring of these two, is another case of top-shelf West Coast genetics from California.
The basic data of this 90% indica variety sounds equally promising: it requires merely 50-60 flowering days to create opulent indoor yields of up to 600-700 g/m2. The bushy, multi-branch plants exude resin in vast amounts and grow to a medium height indoors, up to 90 cm. Purple Punch is highly suitable for outdoor cultivation as well, finishing in the second to third week of September under natural light and being equipped with a strong resilience against all kinds of mould. Fabulous yields of up to 2 kg per plant are accomplishable outdoors given an optimum environment, with the plants not becoming taller than 1.5 metres!
The effect corresponds to the 90/10 indica dominance, depending on dosage ranging from relaxing and stress-combatting to heavily sedative or narcotic. Aroma-wise, Barney’s comes up with something super exquisite: Purple Punch is supposed to smell and taste of “baked apple pie with cloves glazed with caramelised blueberry and cherries” – now if that doesn’t stimulate your senses nothing will!
Very bushy uniform indica growth
The two seeds were sown quickly germinated without any problems, and after two weeks of growth, The Doc wrote into his grow diary:
“Just as expected, they’re growing markedly indica-like, with wide leaves and short internodes.”
Due to their 90/10 indica dominance, he gave his two Purple Punches five weeks in veg, extra long. At the end of this period, he reported:
“I’ve moved them into flowering now. They’re still displaying a shrub structure, looking like 100% indica even. With heights of 40-45 cm, very homogeneous!
Purple calyxes and early trichome coating
The two plants swiftly transitioned into flowering once the light was switched to 12/12, it took them only six days to display their first female preflowers. What followed was the start of an industrious mission to build buds – after just three weeks into flowering, there were tightly packed white-haired flower clusters everywhere.
The branch elongation effect was quite restrained so the plants kept their dense compact shape. After four weeks of flowering, the Doc noted:
“they’re making fast progress, still with a high degree of uniformity. The buds are noticeably becoming thicker, with their calyxes – hooray! – having begun to turn purple. So much to my delight, Purple Punch lives up to its name. But there’s another reason to cheer, it’s absolutely astounding how heavy the resin production is at that early stage, those purple calyxes are already covered with loads of trichomes, it seems as if they’d explode with resin soon...”
Purple resin factories with copious yields
When the eighth week of flowering was over – very much on time - the two Purple Punches were fully ripe so The Doc could harvest them, commenting:
“They’ve evolved into true resin factories, with even the upper fan leaves so widely encrusted in crystals it makes Purple Punch look like a ‘white strain’, a white strain though with a purple heart, sooo gorgeous! And they’ve remained pretty uniform until the very end.”
Weighing the dry buds a few weeks later turned out to be another highlight since they weighed in at 83 and 86 grams - given the final plants heights of only 59 and 64 cm, that was really something! Luckily, the Purple Punch nuggets had kept their violet colouring through the drying process which made them a fancy eye-catcher the visual fascination of which was increased by its thick-layered “bling-bling” resin carpet.
The Doc gets steamrolled by a heavy indica stone and sings “Purple Brain“
He went with an almost festive feeling to grind his first Purple Punch bud – excited about exploring the psychoactive aspects of this variety. He loaded his “Mighty” vaporizer and deeply inhaled a big first vapour cloud which he kept it in his lungs for a very long time.
Three more clouds followed, and then it came rolling by, a huge hunk of an indica stone!
“It ironed me completely flat“, chuckled The Doc.
“My whole body became as squashy as Jell-O, the tensions in my back were soon gone, giving way to a warm feeling of deep relaxation.
The same happened in my head which down-shifted into the gear of maximum relief, it was that buttery soft feeling again of total serenity and bliss.
Cultivation data:
Genetics
Purple Punch (Larry OG x Granddaddy Purple)
Vegetative stage
five weeks (after germination)
Flowering stage
58 + 60 days / 56-63 days in general
Medium
Plagron Grow Mix soil, 11 litre pots
pH
6.2-6.6
EC
1.2–1.8 mS
Light
up to 12 x SANlight S4W = 1680 watts
Temperature
19-28°C
Air humidity
40-60%
Watering
by hand
Fertilisation
Organic Bloom Liquid from Green Buzz Liquids
Additives/stimulants
Living Organics, More Roots, Humin Säure Plus, Big Fruits, Fast Buds and Clean Fruits from Green Buzz Liquids
Tools
CleanLight Pro for mould prevention
Height
59 + 64 cm
Yield
83 + 86 grams
Words & Pics: Green Born Identity – G.B.I.
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