Hydrolife Magazine August/September 2016 (Canadian Edition)

grow
Cut and Dried:
A Monthly Look at Different MMJ Strains
This month’s featured strain, Purple Berry, grows well in indoor environments because
of its average-sized stature. Best enjoyed at the end of a long day, the finished product
is perfectly dense and delivers a welcoming combination of sativa and indica effects.
by Lacey Macri
Blazin’ Purps
Blaze, of Sacramento, California,
describes her favorite all-around strain
to grow, as well as medicate with:
Purple Berry. She reports that it is a
great medicine for beginners, whether
they are growing it or consuming it.
Origin & Genetics
Blaze’s particular strain of Purple Berry
is bred from seed from a cross between
DJ Short Blueberry and Purple Kush.
Unlike its name, DJ Short Blueberry can
actually stretch fairly tall in its early
developmental stages of growth due to
its sativa roots. Purple Berry picked up
some height from DJ Short, but it doesn’t
get so huge it cannot be grown indoors.
This heavy hybrid is characteristically
indica-dominant in nature, but due to
its extensive lineage, Blaze’s strain has
some renowned sativa effects as well.
Physical Description
The flowers of Purple Berry are generously
frosted and the colour appears to
be on the cooler end of the spectrum,
including pastel shades of greens, blues
and purples. Blaze says another perk
about this medicine is its perfect density;
patients do not need to use a grinder
to avoid waste when preparing their
medicine as it can be easily pulled apart
by hand. However, it has been known
to leave you with pretty sticky fingers
when it is fresh. Not so oddly enough,
Purple Berry smells just like berries right
off the plant. It’s sweet and earthy, and
will produce a thick plume of smoke or
vapour, leaving the room smelling rich
with traces of pine and even chocolate.
Medical Uses
Purple Berry is a well-rounded medicine
that will help with a number of different
conditions. Patients will experience the
mild euphoric head high you get from
a sativa, while relaxing your body and
reducing pain like after medicating with
an indica. Some patients may experience
moderate mental cloudiness if too
much is consumed, so it is advised to
save this strain for the evenings when
all of your responsibilities and chores
have been completed. Patients suffering
from depression and listlessness may
also find positive effects while using
this strain, as it is uplifting in nature
and typically doesn’t spawn any sort of
paranoia or heart-pounding like some of
the heftier strains out there.
Growing Patterns
This strain grows well in an indoor
environment because of its averagesized
stature. However, healthy plants
will likely fill your whole grow tent to
maximum capacity. Blaze grows this
strain year-round in a sterile environment
using an ebb and flow system and highquality,
super-soluble liquid nutrients.
Purple Berry is known to be highly
resistant against pests and diseases,
so assuming proper cleanliness and
conditions are met, Blaze says she rarely
runs into devastating issues.
“ It’s sweet and earthy,
and will produce a thick
plume of smoke or vapour,
leaving the room smelling
rich with traces of pine
and even chocolate.”
The first time she ever grew this strain,
she was slightly taken aback by a peculiar
development in the later stages of
flowering. “There were these long chutes
that would literally shoot up way beyond
the rest of the colas that made them look
like quails,” she says. At first she was
worried something had gone wrong, but
after doing some research, she determined
that this was a classic trait of this
particular phenotype. “There is nothing
wrong with the elongated chutes; they
are actually very potent,” she says. “We
typically use them to make concentrates
and edibles, but they definitely need to be
trimmed away because they are severely
lacking in sexiness.”
Overall, Purple Berry is a heavy yielder
and overall very forgiving plant in most
any situation that comes your way.
Lacey Macri works as head of sales at
CleanGrow, focusing her time on business
development within the company.
She received a bachelor’s degree in
communications and psychology from
the University of California, Davis in 2011,
where she worked at the California Aggie
student newspaper on campus.
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grow. heal. live. enjoy.
myhydrolife.ca