The Strain:
Created by Greenshock Farms in 2018, Purple Royale is an exotic hybrid created with two of the Emerald Triangles most legendary strains. Northern California has for many years been known as a very special place to grow cannabis, but it is also home to some of the most talented breeders in the cannabis industry. Purple Candy Cane is an award winning strain that was created by Greenshock Farms.
It has been in the top 3 best sun-grown flowers at the Emerald Cup two years in a row with its amazing terpene profile and exotic flavor. Long Valley Royal Kush was a masterpiece created by Mandelbrot aka Ras Truth. Bred in the heart of the Emerald Triangle this strain is a great outdoor plant and is known for its thick oily aroma and strong effects. The combination of these two elite strains has given birth to something very unique that everyone is anxious to try. From the piercing orange and fruit terpenes to the creamy fuel funk, the Purple Royale will leave your mouth watering and your body relaxed.
Strain Overview:
Opening up a freshly cured jar of Purple Royale I am instantly hit with a hurricane of terpenes that collide with my nose. Sweet oranges, pine and oily grape funk fills the studio. I pick out a nice top bud, crack it open and an avalanche of tricombs fall into the paper as I begin twisting. The smell is quite powerful as these buds get crumbled, very tacky sticky resin is instantly coating my thumb and index finger.
The taste is delicious. I am very excited about this strain not only because it looks and smells fantastic, but the backstory of its creation hits home being a Mendocino local. For years breeders have been working very hard in the field to find unique traits that can be captured and bred with to make truly outstanding strains.
I have so much respect for these people, breeding is truly an art. Even though so many people do it, especially nowadays, there’s only a handful of master breeders in the world. Mandelbrot was known as one of the greatest cannabis breeders in the Emerald Triangle. Creating strains like The Truth, Oil Spill and the original Royal Kush. I never had the honor of meeting him personally but I have got to enjoy numerous flavors that he was responsible for creating.
One of those being Long Valley Royal Kush. Our good friend and partner, Mark with Greenshock Farms is another Mendocino farmer who has been breeding his own genetics for over 20 years. Creating strains like Purple Candy Cane, Dr Greenshock and high terpene dominant strains like Tropical Sleigh Ride. With the combination of these two top breeders work getting brought together could only mean one thing, pure fire! To understand the depth of this strain you first need to know what all came together to form this unique hybrid. Long Valley Royal Kush is a three way cross of a clone only of Sour Diesel, a highland Afghani and a Garberville Purple Kush. I have always been a big fan of real Sour Diesel along with Afghani.
Back in our first years of growing we acquired a very rare Afghani plant from a local Mendocino farmer and loved how it grew and smoked. It was extremely frosty, potent, and it had an amazing look to the flower. Purple Candy Cane is a complex blend of Lavender, Bubba Kush, Blue Moonshine, Agent Orange, Blue Dream and Hawaiian Haze. We have had the opportunity of growing such strains as the Bubba, Blue Dream and Agent Orange so I knew how special this strain could be when we first heard about it.
Across the board Purple Royale has inherited some of the best traits from all of these amazing strains. This is the ultimate West Coast blend having both the exotic fruit and the all time favorite OG gas. Through years of work pheno hunting searching for specific growth patterns, terpenes and resin production it has given this strain a big jump start into the exotic category. Purple Royale grows very stocky and thick producing solid pine cone style buds.
The structure of this plant is very strong. With its thick branches it can easily hold up the solid dense buds that stack through flowering. In 2019 we were able to test various phenos of the Purple Royale and they were all quite uniform in growth patterns. The bud structure and smell was another story. Some were portraying the classic motor oil, dark grape funk aroma and others had strong orange gasoline terpenes.
This is what makes breeding new strains fun and exciting because now you have the ability to create more then just one flavor line with a new genetic. When Greenshock set out to create this new cross he had a couple different males of the Long Valley Royal Kush plants to collect pollen from. One was growing more stretchy and green with a sweet oily melon smell while the other was a more stout purple indica looking pheno with a strong fuel and oil aroma. Instead of doing the normal he decided to combine both of these plants’ pollen to breed with the Purple Candy Cane.
With the different pheno variations that were being produced by this process there were now two totally different style flowers from the same seed batch. Purple Royale is the welch’s grape jam, kush and motor oil version of this cross. On the other side of the flavor spectrum you have the Orange Terpentine which smells like a gasoline orange juice. Breeding this way will give you a wide variation of phenotypes to create different flavor lines in your catalog.
As long as you are ready for a pheno hunt you have the ability to find something unique that stands out from the rest. Getting to walk amongst these beautiful green plants from their first days of being planted to the final days of flower was unforgettable. Stopping to smell each plant on the way down the row was something I always looked forward to. Strong smells of what I would describe as old school funk brought me back to some of the first times smoking weed. This was the new and improved enhanced version.
One plant in particular had caught the eye of my brother Bleezy early on and once it began to flower we were all hooked. The resin glands were massive on these beautiful green buds. The structure was very explosive with large calyxes, light orange hairs and sometimes a slight purple shade on the tips of the flowers. Bleezy described the smell as a creamy kush Vicks vapor rub mixed with an exotic citrus fruit. Layers upon layers of tricombs surrounded every cola as well as the surrounding leaves.
The performance of this plant was very impressive to say the least. Through its 8 week flowering cycle it produced an insane amount of resin and stacked gorgeous large green buds even down to the lower branches. Smoking the Purple Royale left my mouth coated in a kerosene fuel that transformed into a sweet almost black licorice flavor on the exhale. It was a thick tar-like potent oil aroma that was complimented with oranges and honey dew melon.
The buds were all very chunky from the numerous phenos and they all had a great mold resistance. The effects of this strain can range with the different phenotypes, but overall it is a great creativity enhancer that puts you in a laid back and relaxed mode. It is a great anxiety reliever that will have you in a happy talkative vibe. This trait I believe was carried over from the Purple Candy Cane which Mark dubbed “Storyteller” due to the fact that people tend to talk a lot after smoking it.
Overall I was very impressed by this strain and I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys an old school fuel and fruity flavor. It is a solid plant for outdoor growing and produces amazing looking flowers with an exotic bag appeal. If you ever get a chance to smoke or grow the Purple Royale I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Breeder: Greenshock Farms
Genetics: Purple Candy Cane X Long Valley Royal Kush
Yield: Heavy
Height: Medium
Harvest: 56 to 60 Days
Indica: 60% Sativa: 40%
Written and Published By Dope Francisco (Mendo dope) In Weed World Magazine Issue 146
