Weapon X (Mendo Purps x Pakistani Purple Kush) sits between Mendo Purps and Purple Hindu Kush: the Mendocino County purple that came out of Northern California in the late nineties on one side, a purple Hindu Kush selection, indica to the core on the other. Humboldt CSI work almost entirely from clones they hold themselves, so both sides of this are the real thing rather than a seed-line approximation of it.

Order matters in a cross name. In Weapon X (Mendo Purps x Pakistani Purple Kush) the Mendo Purps side supplied the seed and Purple Hindu 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 purple that the whole Northern California purple catalogue leans on. 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: Purple Hindu Kush. A purple Hindu Kush selection, indica to the core. Parentage: Hindu Kush x Purple Afghani.
• What the cross is reaching for. One side brings the structure and the other brings the nose. The plants worth keeping out of a pack are the ones that hold both rather than picking a side.

Flavor and Aroma Profile

Neither parent is subtle, and the cross has nowhere quiet to go.

• The Aroma. Grape and fruit, and it looks the part from the Mendo Purps side, against earthy, piney and spicy with strong grape and berry over a pungent base from the Purple Hindu Kush side.
• The Taste. Grape with dark berry under it up front, turning to grape and earth, hashy at the end through the exhale.

Where the parents disagree

• They are not on the same clock. Mendo Purps runs eight to nine weeks, with outdoor crops coming down in the middle of October; Purple Hindu Kush runs seven to eight weeks. Across a pack that gap shows up as plants finishing days or weeks apart.
• Where the nose comes from. One side gives fruity and grape-like with deep colouration; the other gives earthy, piney and spicy with strong grape and berry over a pungent base. Plants landing in the middle are the keepers.
• Build. On the Mendo Purps side: 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. On the Purple Hindu Kush side: dense resinous buds in deep purple with bright orange pistils under a thick trichome coat; colour develops as temperatures drop in flower. Select early rather than trying to train your way out of it.
• Opposite ends. Mendo Purps is reported as settled rather than racy; Purple Hindu Kush as indica and settling. 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. Purple Hindu Kush is dense resinous buds in deep purple with bright orange pistils under a thick trichome coat; colour develops as temperatures drop in flower.
• Vegetative Phase and Training. Open the middle out early. Light reaching the lower sites is worth more than any late correction.
• Flowering Time. The parents are not on the same clock. Mendo Purps runs eight to nine weeks, with outdoor crops coming down in the middle of October, Purple Hindu Kush seven to eight weeks. Judge each plant on trichomes rather than pulling the room together.

Effects and Experience

• The Mind. Growers describe Mendo Purps as settled rather than racy.
• The Body. Purple Hindu Kush is reported as indica and settling, and that is the side supplying the weight here.

In the pack

Feminized seeds from Humboldt CSI. Humboldt CSI are preservationists before they are breeders - most of what they release is a clone somebody has kept alive by hand for years, put into seed so it stops depending on one grower staying in the game. That is what you are buying into here. Original Humboldt CSI stock.