Every once in a while, a cannabis strain shows us the power to become a great delight for any of our senses.
With Red Pure Auto CBD® (Sweet Seeds® variety SWS81) you can get all the pleasures that the cannabis plant has to offer, without experiencing the psychoactive effects of THC.
It is fast, sweet, easy to grow and features an amount of CBD that turns it into an outstanding option for therapeutic and medicinal cannabis users, along with users who enjoy THC most of the times but also like to have the option of smoking/vaporizing their delicious weed without getting high in specific activities. And that’s not all. About 95% of the specimens develop the most gorgeous purple flowers that I’ve ever seen in a cannabis plant and this is also a therapeutic feature, as you can read next.
Personally, I prefer my cannabis with high THC. But that is just a preference and many times I also enjoy to have some flowers without any psychotropic effects, for some special occasions. When you are going for a family dinner or in any other situation when you feel like smoking some cannabis without getting high, it is very useful to have a jar of CBD-rich cannabis buds.
Furthermore, in 2019 I tried Sweet Pure CBD® (SWS65) and I got really sad when my jars were empty of this strain, because it was ideal for any night before an important day. I remember that it allowed for a pleasant and refreshing night of sleep, making it so easy to wake up totally focused and concentrated in morning activities of any kind. In the human body, melatonin levels are very high in children and then in midlife they start to drop, meaning most adults find it more difficult to have a good sleep than they used to when they were younger. With CBD-rich strains we can re-balance this issue and get proper sleep, which significantly contributes to a stronger immune system.
Hoping for some stash with a similar cannabinoid profile and similar effects, I decided to give a try to the brand new Red Pure Auto CBD®. This strain is the resulting hybrid from the cross between the previously mentioned Sweet Pure CBD® and the amazing red-flowered classic Red Poison Auto® (SWS39). It features very low THC levels, standing between 0.4% and 0.5%, and high CBD levels of between 15% and 17%. This is a THC to CBD ratio of between 1:15 and 1:20.
As I didn’t need a big harvest of CBD buds, I only sprouted 4 seeds for a fast grow operation in my old 60cm x 60cm x 120cm grow closet. With this, I have enough production for 1 or 2 years of my high-CBD flower consumption and I can keep with my traditional high-THC grow operations for the rest of the season. It was a lot of fun, as you can check next.
The 4 seeds sprouted in between 48 and 72 hours. They were then placed in the first pots of only 200 ml, where they stayed for the first 15 days.
While they were in the first pots I used my 100w High Pressure Sodium lamp, because in the first stage of growth the plants can benefit from a lower distance between them and the bulb and such a low potency HPS light system produces very few heat, so we can have the top of the plants closer to the lamp. With this, we avoid the initial stretching in search for more light, so usual in cannabis indoor growing.
Once they achieved to the third week from germination, I transplanted them to their final pots. And this is where I decided to give them all the space possible for the root development, using the biggest pots possible according to the area of the closet. Four pots of 20 cm x 20 cm, with a capacity of 30 liters, filled all the horizontal area available.
But of course, for such amount of soil with autoflowering strains indoors, one has to give them as much light as possible. So I used my 400w HPS system, which in such a small closet is the equivalent to using 1200w HPS in a 1m2 area.
This means that professional air extraction and appropriate air circulation is a must, or else the heat can become unbearable for the plants, even grown in the peak of the winter as in this case. So, as usual with this closet and light setup, I used a RVK extractor for constant (24/7) air renovation and two Sunon fans for air circulation inside the growing area. It was enough to keep the temperatures under 28º C at all the times of the grow operation. At day 23 from germination they were already in their final pots and the structure of the plants was already adequate for flowering to start. The plants started to show the first flowering signs at day 27 from germination, a time when they were already showing 4 nodes.
In the first two weeks of flowering my four Red Pure Auto CBD® kept stretching a lot, developing many side branches strong enough to hold a bunch of heavy flowers. The main colas were also very promising already. That’s the result of high potency of light and a lot of space for the roots to develop within a high quality soil mix. Resin production started at day 37 from germination, when pistil development was at its peak.
That’s when the first sweet aromas started to become noticeable in this wonderful strain from the Sweet Seeds® genetic collection. Although not possible to identify at this stage, a remarkably pleasant fresh pine touch was already there. As I used a soil mix very rich in nutrients, to which I also add some worm humus and powdered bat guano, the plants were still all green at day 42 from germination, even in the lower flowers. So I decided to avoid using liquid fertilizers and only used liquid bat guano for two times, one at day 42 and the other dose at day 49 from germination.
When the buds were 50% formed, one of the plants started to show some beautiful reddish tones. It was day 45 from germination. The other 3 plants showed these tones one week later, at between day 50 and day 54 from germination. Observing the trichomes with the macro lens of my camera was definitely entertaining, as you can see in the photos. All of them were red or purple in their base, with a very beautiful contrast in regards to the leaves that usually remain green in this strain.
Only the calyxes showed purple shades, making the plants even more gorgeous. Has stated in the Sweet Seeds® catalog and official website, approximately 95% of the plants acquire red or purple tones in their flowers, so I was lucky enough to stay within the 95% range, as all the four plants showed these appealing colors. The red or purple tones are caused by a anthocyanins, which are pigments that color certain plants in their leaves, flowers or fruits. Scientific studies have shown that their consumption is beneficial for humans as it is a powerful antioxidant.
After the 55th day from germination the flowers started to achieve maturity very fast. The four plants showed the traditional shape of a pine tree, like most other Indica plants, with a large main cola and at least 5 great side branches per plant. In the last two weeks the aromas became as amazing as the wonderful colors. This “pure CBD” autoflowering strain released the most delicious earthy aromas, with shades of fresh pine and cypress hints along with a background of fruits of the forest. One of them was more on the fruity side and the aromas were reminiscent of strawberries with some hints of mint. At this point the lower leaves started yellowing, which is actually desirable at this stage.
Between day 62 and day 68 from germination, the trichomes of the four plants showed clear signs of maturity and they were all harvested at day 69. A few days after the 9 weeks listed in the data sheet of this strain, but it was a personal decision, as they were mature enough to be harvested with 9 weeks. The four plants ended up with heights standing between 40 and 45 cm, right in the limit that my 120 cm closet allows for, as we have to use 25 cm for the pots and 30 cm for the reflector and bulb. After 12 days of drying and 14 days of curing, the flowers were at their best. The buds were so compact that they seemed to expand after going around for a couple of times in the grinder.
The smoke report was super pleasant. While grinding the buds some lovely scents of strawberry and blueberry filled the room. The smoke shows us a more acidic side of these aromas, but totally on the pleasant side, with a persistent taste that you can still feel until 10 minutes after smoking or vaporizing some calyxes. Then comes the effect… When you think you feel nothing, a sense of tranquility and relaxation fills your body and muscles. Then the mind also calms down a lot.
A perfect setting for some meditation or for a good night of sleep. Or, as I said in the beginning, an ideal effect for these times when you want to feel the good taste of cannabis without getting high. In just a couple of months I managed to fill four jars with real medicine that will last for at least one year of the sweetest weed on earth without any psychoactive effects.
Written and Published By Sweetseeds, Words By Tommy L. GomezIn Weed World Magazine Issue 149
