Mendo Purps 54 x Bubba Kush 146 brings Mendo Purps together with Bubba Kush. The first is the Mendocino County purple that came out of Northern California in the late nineties; the second, the West Coast indica benchmark, a Los Angeles clone from the mid-1990s named after the grower who kept it. Two lines that were never going to produce a quiet plant. These are held cuts, not recreations. CSI's entire catalogue works that way, and it is the reason their crosses are worth chasing.

The number in Mendo Purps 54 is a specific plant, not a decoration. Humboldt CSI grow a population out, keep the individuals worth keeping and number them, so Mendo Purps 54 is one identified selection rather than Mendo Purps in general. A pack naming a different number is a different mother. 146 identifies the x Bubba Kush used here. Numbered cuts come out of a population that was grown and sorted, and the number rides with the plant that was kept. Two crosses that both say x Bubba Kush are only the same cross if the number matches too.

Order matters in a cross name. In Mendo Purps 54 x Bubba Kush 146 the Mendo Purps side supplied the seed and Bubba Kush the pollen, and the reciprocal - the same two plants the other way round - is a separate breeding decision with its own results.

Genetic Lineage

• Mother: Mendo Purps. The Mendocino County purple that came out of Northern California in the late nineties. The purple lines people can name mostly run back through it. Its own origin is a story rather than a pedigree - the usual account has it grown from the bagseed of a purple Afghani kept since 1977 and not planted until 1998, and no source gives a clean lineage for it. It circulated clone-only at first; BC Bud Depot later stabilised seed of it, and it took High Times Strain of the Year in 2007. It is not a heavy yielder and was never grown for that.
• Father: Bubba Kush. The West Coast indica benchmark, a Los Angeles clone from the mid-1990s named after the grower who kept it. Dense colas need airflow; the Pre-98 cut is the shorter, broader-leafed, heavier expression.
• Why it is worth a pack rather than a look. The two sides are far enough apart that seedlings genuinely differ. That range is the product.

Flavor and Aroma Profile

Two distinct smells, and a pack will give you both plus everything between.

• The Aroma. Fruity and grape-like with deep colouration from the Mendo Purps side, against dark cocoa and roasted coffee with old hash and wood underneath from the Bubba Kush side.
• The Taste. Grape first, then a deeper berry note up front, turning to spice and earth up front, closing thick and hashy through the exhale.

The two halves, side by side

• Timing. Mendo Purps runs eight to nine weeks, with outdoor crops coming down in the middle of October, and that is the half of this cross you can actually plan around.
• Where the nose comes from. One side gives fruity and grape-like with deep colouration; the other gives roasted coffee, dark cocoa and old-school hash with a woody edge. Plants landing in the middle are the keepers.
• Two frames in one pack. Mendo Purps is slightly indica-dominant and not a big plant - three to four feet indoors, six to eight outdoors. It is not a beginner's plant: it wants training and trimming to yield properly. Bubba Kush is short to medium and stocky, broad deep-green leaves, tight internodes, modest 1.2 to 1.5 times stretch; golf-ball to cola-sized buds with thick calyces and heavy resin, forest green through to plum. Decide which suits your room before you flip, because you get both.
• Opposite ends. Mendo Purps is reported as settled rather than racy; Bubba Kush as gentle and unhurried, warm and loosening, body-forward. The cross sits somewhere between and moves plant to plant.

Cultivation and Growth Traits

• Plant Structure. The two parents disagree here, so plan for range. Mendo Purps is small by modern standards and slightly indica-leaning; it needs stress training and a trim to give a worthwhile yield, which is why it is not recommended to first-time growers. Bubba Kush is a stocky plant with barely any stretch - one and a half times at most - carrying dense, thick-calyxed flower that colours from deep green towards plum under a heavy resin load.
• Training. Worth the effort early - it is the difference between an even canopy and three colas and a lot of leaf.
• Flowering Time. Mendo Purps runs eight to nine weeks, with outdoor crops coming down in the middle of October. Start checking trichomes a week before you expect to be ready.

Effects and Experience

• The Mind. Growers describe Mendo Purps as settled rather than racy.
• The Body. Bubba Kush is reported as gentle and unhurried, warm and loosening, body-forward, and that is the side supplying the weight here.

In the pack

7 feminized seeds per pack. Feminized seeds from Humboldt CSI. Nearly everything CSI put out is built from cuts they hold themselves rather than from other people's seed lines, which is why their catalogue reads like a list of clones instead of a list of brands. Real Humboldt CSI stock, not a copy.