I seem to have some amount of purple stems on every plant I grow, some much more than others, and I suspect that I do run my plants a little harder on amounts of nutrients than I should. How concerned should I be and what should I do about them?
Purple stems or streaks of purple can be a few things more than likely its just the plants natural defense to intense light. if you look at a flowering canpoy you will find that leaf stems in direct contact with the light will turn red or purple this is complealty normal and is the plants defense mechinism against heat stress. Now purple of the stem could be a mixture of this and if its streaking its actully not a bad thing at all on the contary the plant is giving you a visible sign that she is healthy and getting them mobile nutrients around the plant. It could also be a slight lack or phosphorus when the plants are in this stage and look like yours they are going to require alot of P to keep ripening and fatting up. Hope this helps bro.