12/09/2025 Last week of nutes and last week of real flowering. Both ladies look just about done. Papaya Cookies is nearly there. Lemon Cherry Cookies isn't too far behind either. But she definitely has the whole week plus a couple days to go. Papaya Cookies might be done by the end of the week, if not sooner. I might have to push her a little more so I can harvest them at the same time. I won't be changing out the water until after lights out as I always do. So today will just be a plain water top off. Well, that's been everyday for like 2 weeks. Lol. But, I noticed both ladies definitely didn't drink as much as usual last night. Another sign that they are almost done. Normally it's close to a gallon a day. This was about a half gallon. Anyway, I won't be recording the morning readings as the water will be changed out today. If it were under the normal night and day schedule, it would be easier to do this, but the AI suggested this time of day for lights out. It's warmer now than at night. Obviously. Lol. So now I have to wait for lights on after the plants have had their rest to change the water out. Then we can take readings. Next week, which will only be 3 or 4 days, I'll be doing a slow wet trim. Or I guess the defoliation I should have done 2 months ago. Anyway, I'll be pulling anything with a reachable stem. I won't be cutting the sugar leaves. That's after drying with my new cannabrush. We'll see how well this baby works. On a final note before lights out, Papaya Cookies has a few buds that are nearly done on the bottom and they are super hard. Really nice smalls. There's a bit of larf, and I can't really reach the buds in the middle, but they seem to be the ones taking the longest. So I think we'll be waiting for those ones to finish. Lemon Cherry Cookies is kind of the same. Lots of bud in the middle that I can't reach. They aren't done and still have loads while pistils. But the buds on top are still swelling, so that's a good thing. We'll definitely see some bigger buds from this little lady. Good afternoon everyone. It's 6:41pm. New water new nutes cut in half. Readings: Papaya Cookies: pH: 5.8 EC: 824 TDS: 409 Lemon Cherry Cookies: pH: 5.8 EC: 874 TDS: 439 So it's 10 pm and I decided to check the pH and whatnot. It spiked to 6.8. What is happening? I cannot get it to stay in range. I don't know what to do here. It has to be something in the roots. I wonder if it's my tap water. It seems to have worsened since I started using it, but I can't afford distilled bottles. I will be ordering distilled for the 3 day flush. But that's only 3 days and I'm saving up for it. Back to the matter at hand. pH spiking. Both plants. The EC and TDS also increased. Not by much, but still increased. The goal is to decrease. Hopefully, with the lower nutes, the roots or whatever gets diluted enough to slow everything down. They're already not drinking as much. So there's very little time. I wanted to get it corrected by today. But nope. Nothin doin. Well, I guess I'll be checking the pH tomorrow morning and changing the water out. I might have to change it in the morning and after lights out. We shall see. If it drops, I'm going to pH it back to 5.8 and leave the water alone. That's the plan. 12/10/2025 So today I checked the readings like everyday. BUT today my back is killing me and I can't lift the shit. It's really annoying. So frustrating. Anyway, Lemon Cherry Cookies didn't change one bit overnight. pH is still at 6.8. the EC and TDS are also in roughly the same spot. But she did drink about a half a gallon and there was no change, so that's good. No increase in nutrient concentration. But the pH man, the pH is brutal. Papaya Cookies dropped her pH down to 6.6, so that's good. Not in range, but still good. Her EC and TDS are also about the same. So same situation but a lower pH. So I popped 3 ml of pH down in and mixed it up. Half gallon went into each container. It did nothing to Lemon Cherry Cookies. The pH stayed the same. But the EC and TDS dropped a little. Papaya Cookies with the gallon, dropped down to 6.2 and the EC and TDS dropped a little bit as well. Readings: Lemon Cherry Cookies: pH: 6.74 EC: 922 TDS: 465 Papaya Cookies: pH: 6.5 EC: 867 TDS: 430 Forget everything you just read. LMAO. The numbers increased. I guess it's just a waiting game now. I'm gonna pH the water for both ladies after lights out. This morning I just added the plain pHed water. And not much happened. It's the roots. Gotta be. There's nothing left to look at. Well there's the tiny dose of nutes, but I don't think that's the problem. It could also be from the water itself. It's pretty hard. But I have no idea what to do about that. Is there a water softener that can be used in a bucket? Or would that be a really bad idea? Also, I just thought about this yesterday when I was removing Lemon Cherry Cookies from her bucket into the reserve for the water swap. As we all know, the tail of the roots is super long. So I have to lift it with my hands out of the water. My question is why didn't it ball up like Papaya Cookies? I think they have the same amount of roots, but Papaya Cookies has an actual ball where Lemon Cherry Cookies has a tail and smaller root ball. What gives? Anyway, that was my weekly WTF question. Next week it's gonna be something like why won't this carboflush work? Should I add more? Should I swap out the water... Again?... You know. I'm implementing Murphy's Law here. What can go wrong will go wrong. LMAO. It's all good. I'm preparing for that exact question. I bet it's gonna be increasing EC and TDS levels. That's gonna be the problem. And no idea how to solve it. Swap out the water every few hours? That's crazy. Maybe one or two swaps every day, but not every few hours. A waste of carboflush and water. So I'm super concerned with who will finish first. Papaya Cookies looks like she could be done by the end of the week. Lemon Cherry Cookies looks like she could use the whole week and then some. I know I said this last week, but it is a real concern. And I still have nowhere to put the other tent. But it's only for a few days and not an entire week. Well, hopefully not an entire week. I have to trim in the tent so I can kinda keep the smell concealed. The fan on level 10 with just a side door open should be fine. Plus, I'm only taking off the sugar leaves at that point. So it should be a little faster with this brush thing and less smell will escape. Oh, I'll be using Grove Bags for the curing process. I really do like them. But I still need to add a Bovida pack because of the dry winter air. 12/11/2025 Morning readings after correction. Papaya Cookies: pH: 5.95 EC: 763 TDS: 381 Lemon Cherry Cookies: pH: 6.2 EC: 946 TDS: 473 I got a couple trichome videos posted for everyone to see. I actually haven't watched them yet, so I'll update shortly. But in bigger news. I found a full fledged flower on Lemon Cherry Cookies this morning. Complete with 1 seed. Then I found a bud with 3 seeds. Not developed yet, but there nonetheless. So that explains why she's taking longer to finish up. I'm hoping it was isolated and those are the only ones. I looked all through the bottom where I found the 2 sites. I think I found one more, but I left it alone. My question is, if I clear out the seeded sites, will the plant mature faster? Good question right?! Because what I read was that seeded cannabis plants will take longer to mature because of seed production, as seeds take 6 to 8 weeks to mature.i had a gorilla cookies that went for like 21 weeks because it got seeded everywhere. No clue how, I never found the pollen sacks. But that plant was super healthy and HUGE. Well huge for an Autoflower in a 3x3 tent with 3 more plants in there. Anyway, I'll definitely have to bring out the 2x2 now. As I said, I have trichome videos and I haven't seen them yet. But I have a feeling that Papaya Cookies is just about finished. As in I could probably start the flush this weeks as I suspected. We'll see though. Oh speaking of healthy plants. Lemon Cherry Cookies is also still unhealthy. I spoke too soon. Still locked out and now more leaves are turning yellow. The weird thing is, I added a very small amount of nutrients. How there's still an issue I don't know. I guess just wait longer? 🤔 Ok, so I just watched both videos. Lemon Cherry Cookies definitely has more time to go. The trichomes are mostly clear toward the middle of the plant. So she definitely has more time to go. Hopefully with any luck, she'll mature by the end of the week. Papaya Cookies has almost all cloudy trichomes. I like a bit of amber in the mix and there is none. So I'm going to wait for Sunday I think then start flushing her. I'll flush for 3 days. So that will be finished on Tuesday. And that's when I should be able to start flushing Lemon Cherry Cookies. Then I chop Papaya Cookies and hang her up. At the same time, I do a 3 day dark period for Lemon Cherry Cookies while she finishes up. In the meantime, Papaya Cookies is happily drying right above her. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to work the environment. I'm thinking I can just keep the temp at around 66° and bring the humidity up to 50% I think that's good. I have to look into it. But it's only for a few days and there's still plenty of airflow. I will be turning 1 fan off though. As to not disturb Papaya Cookies while she dries. Plus I don't need 2 fans for 1 plant this size. So yah, that's my plan. And as long as it works I'm good to go. If it doesn't work, I'll have to bring out the 2x2 and hook it up to the 3x3 and use that exhaust to pull from the tent. I have an extra fan so I can run that as well. For air circulation. Not too sure how I'm gonna keep the humidity up in there. Hmmmm. That's not good. I can definitely keep the temp low, but the humidity is super dry here right now. Well, it'll be 3 days in the 3x3 drying so if the 3x3 isn't ready for both plants to dry, the 2x2 will only be used for like 7 days. With a 10 day dry, that is. I'd rather not rush the drying time. Although, if I can't figure out the humidity, I may be rushing it quite a bit. Like in a very bad way. So I hurt my back and am having trouble even checking the readings. Hopefully it's not all messed up. Also, I've been thinking. Both plants have nutrient lockout. Would it make sense to start flushing Papaya Cookies like tomorrow? She only has about a week left. 12/12/2025 Readings: Papaya Cookies: pH: 5.5 EC: 731 TDS: 364 Lemon Cherry Cookies: pH: 6.2 EC: 877 TDS: 438 So I think Papaya Cookies is just about done. Tons of cloudy pistils. But a lot of clear as well on certain parts. I was gonna wait to flush in 4 days, but I think she needs it now. I'll start the flush later this afternoon I think. Or tomorrow. It all depends on how I'm feeling. My back is still out for torture lunch. Fuck, it hurts. Lol. Anyway, I think she's really close to harvest. Lemon Cherry Cookies on the other hand definitely needs more time. The tops look fine, but the middle of the plant is loaded with unfinished larf. Larf I can press into concentrate. And frankly, I don't want to harvest just the top of the plant. However, when I pull Papaya Cookies out, I'm going to center Lemon Cherry Cookies in the tent. I'm thinking about tossing the trellis net on there and pull the top branches outward to open up the canopy. That should help with the lowers in finishing a little faster. We shall see how I feel about it. Maybe I'll ask around. Update: I moved a couple things around and setup my dry tent. It's going to be exhausted through the 3x3. I'm thinking about putting the exhaust fan up to help with air exchange. Like very low. Anyone think this is a bad idea? Another Update: So I decided to start the flush with Papaya Cookies. She's got plenty of cloudy trichomes. Some buds have some clear on them. The only buds that aren't ready are the ones in the center of the plant. Way in there. I expect they will be ready on the next week. Or 3 days. Lol. I figure if they have too much nutes, then Papaya Cookies should have enough to last a week or so. If that's how it works. We'll find out. 12/13/2025 Goooood Neews Everyone! Papaya Cookies is done. She has completed her grow journey with me and all of you. I'll be trimming anything with a stem. Today I did the front before the lights went out. I don't think I finished. But a lot, and I mean a lot, of the leaves have been absorbed by the buds, so I can't access the stems. These are regular fan leaves. The buds really aren't THAT big, but whatever. They stay on and will be brushed off with the Cannabrush. (Very excited to use that.) I should be able to access a lot of the stems after drying as well, so I can manicure them right out. I was considering doing a full wet trim and bucking them off into my drying rack. But, honestly it's not the best idea for me. Clearing out all the fan leaves is one thing, but a full wet trim is a lot of work especially for this plant. So many leaves. Very leafy plant. Good internodal spacing too. Not too tight, not too far away. Not to mention, I have the Lemon Cherry Cookies in the way as well. So it makes trimming about 60% of the plant a bit daunting. I was considering trying to find a way to bring the whole bucket in the dry tent so I can trim there, but alas, I don't have an air pump in that tent. I don't want to lose the bubbles quite yet. But also, I would have to detatch the lines from the air pump in the 3x3 just to bring them over to the dry tent with no light. Just not feeling it. Lemon Cherry Cookies seems to be doing about the same. Terrible. All the yellow leaves. The larf all over the bottom. Anyway, her pH was down today. Weird. But not far down. I got her to rest at 5.7 pH. I'm thinking I might be in the clear now. She's still swinging, but it's up and down and it's starting to level off. Not completely mind you, but leveling off nonetheless. It's a lot easier to get her back in range now. So that's really good. I recorded her readings, but for some reason the entry didn't save. So I'll have to take it again during lights on. And of course pH as needed. I'm trying to avoid it as much as possible for the next few days. Pulling her out that is, to pH. The drying tent is on her side and locked on. So if I really need to, I have to remove the duct from the 3x3 and pull the dry tent out so I can get access to the side door. Pain in the bottom parts. Both cheeks even. Topped her off with 1 ml of pH up at about a half gallon. Papaya Cookies was also a little low, but in range. I added some pHed water to top her off. Weirdly enough, she took almost the whole gallon. She hasn't done that in days. Is there a thing where the plant takes in more water because of a flushing agent? I wonder. 🤔 I'll have to look into that. Also, should I be adding more Carboflush to the top off? I don't really understand how it works. Unfortunately I have been in a bit of a situation and never really learned if you're supposed to add it in every time or not. I think it's just once per week, unless she's eating more and then add more. But she doesn't need food. So what do? Update: Papaya Cookies: This plant is so very leafy and sticky. I decided to trim the wall side and really couldn't get very far past the forest of buds and giant sugar leaves. And the big fan leaves that have no visible stem. There's lots more leaves to collect, but I just can't get to them. The plant is just too compact. 12/14/2025 Day 2 of flushing Papaya Cookies and honestly I haven't seen any change except for yellowing sugar leaves. Which was happening in the first place. Maybe I'm being impatient, but from what I've read, people only flush for 3 days when growing in DWC. I have been taking leaves off at a rapid pace, so maybe they aren't really turning yet. Could I be stressing the already done plant? Anyway, I'm done taking leaves for now. I can't reach all the way in the back nor on the right side. However, I did manage to get some of it. I might try to get to those two areas after I harvest. You know, hang her up and rotate her until I have all the stemmed fan leaves. Readings: Papaya Cookies: pH: 6.04 EC: 534 TDS: 263 Lemon Cherry Cookies pH: 5.75 EC: 795 TDS: 396 So I can't really tell, because I keep forgetting to check the EC and TDS before I pH and add water, but I think Lemon Cherry Cookies is taking in nutes now. Yesterday after pH and new water the levels were higher. Today was less than half a gallon. Could she be done?! I don't think so. I'd have to check the trichomes to be sure, but there's still white pistils still popping up. I'm gonna go based on her trichomes from now on. Shouldn't be more than a week or so. At least that's what I think. Papaya Cookies has been dropping her concentration nicely. All the way down to 263 ppm after some pHed water. I'm considering harvesting her today, but I'm not quite sure yet. I really wanna f get some fade on all these damaged leaves. But I think I cut off all the ones that would turn color. Lol. Maybe tomorrow? I'm not sure, but very very soon. Maybe Tuesday might be the best idea. It's the beginning of a new week and we have a harvest. Then I can push Lemon Cherry Cookies out til next Tuesday if she's ready before then. I'll see what she looks like later this afternoon and tomorrow. I'll especially pay attention to the water consumption. If it stays low, it's time to flush. Then I'll give this one a good 4 to 5 days in the flush, then a dark period. That could start Tuesday. That'll give the plant a week in flush as well as a few days in the dark. Anyway, I had to pH both plants anyway, so it started out at 5.8 for each bucket. After returning the plants, I waited about a half hour before taking readings. Those are the readings I got. So Lemon Cherry Cookies seems to be dropping and Papaya Cookies increasing. Not by much, but we will have to see after lights on. The dry tent is looking pretty good. I discovered that with the circulation fan off, the humidity drops super low. Like 35%. But with it set to 3, it circulates the air and blows on the bowl of water. That increased the humidity up to 47%. That should be perfect to start out the drying cycle. I'm pretty sure I'll have to take the bowl of water out though. For the time being. I'll add it back in when the humidity drops to 55%. That should only be a day or 2 maybe 3. The rest of the drying period will be a bit low in the humidity so I might need to break out the tiny humidifier I have. I doubt I'll need it though, the environment is really stable. Still at 64°. 12/15/2025 The whole entry got deleted and I lost today's readings. No good. Anyway, I can say what they looked like. Papaya Cookies was low in pH. Below 5. Like 4.8 while Lemon Cherry Cookies was even lower at 4.6. I got Papaya Cookies up to 6.2 so she can drop again and maybe hold that space. She also drank nearly a gallon of water again. What is happening? She's definitely ready to go. On the other hand Lemon Cherry Cookies drank next to nothing. Like maybe 500 or 600 ml. Maybe a tiny bit more, but definitely not much. A sure sign she's getting ready. Papaya Cookies and Lemon Cherry Cookies held roughly the same EC and TDS. A little bit lower than yesterday, so we are going in the right direction. But that's after top off and pH adjustments. The issue is that while Papaya Cookies has dropped a bit, Lemon Cherry Cookies hasn't shown any signs of getting better. She's still locked out and I'm super concerned about he yellowing of the sugar leaves. They are getting dangerously close to the buds. From what I understand, yellowing getting into the bud can cause bud rot. Definitely don't want that. So I'm trying to figure out if I should harvest in like 2 days or can I hold off for the week I want. If anyone has insight to this please let me know. Papaya Cookies is rearing to go. She will be sacrificed to the weed gods today, an hour before lights on. I was going to wait til tomorrow, but she's experiencing the same yellowing issue and I can definitely harvest her anytime. So today it is. I'm also not seeing anymore bulking up or anything. Just trichomes changing to cloudy and amber. Very little clear left. I feel like this is the perfect time to harvest a sativa. So experiment underway. Lemon Cherry Cookies while not ready for harvest, does look kinda pretty. With her buds being so purple and the yellowing being really lush and bright. It actually looks cool. But it be bad. So sad. I could get mad. Just a tad.

Week 5 started July 24, 2022 Growth is still strong into week five, I see no pre flowering, I think that is because she started really slowly due to me getting used to this new light, etc. July 27, 2022 Smells like lime sherbet up in here. LST, light defoliation to get some light on the lower colas. Really watered in today for the first time soaking the media, she is stretching and I see maybe some hairs for pre-flower - hope not too too soon though, I'd like more height than nine inches before she fully stretched

Hello m8 welcome to this journey with me in this diary will have very interesting strains hope u find something useful O.G. Kush Titanium - [ ] 1st week Veg: germinated in substrate lighting very close so it jets medium high humidity after the 3rd day they started sprouting - [ ] 2nd week Veg: this week my ventilator broke down and as the temperature stayed very warm nothing developed much - [ ] 3rd week Veg:fortunately this week i had fixed the ventilation and the temperature has go down a bit allowing the little plants to develop and reinforce - [ ] 4th week:very good developments in this week I already started feeding a bit two times but i didn’t have to…once was enough - [ ] 5th week Veg:this week they were very strong green i only had to water them good and keep the ventilators going no stop .They have good hight already ,but as i have to strains together. I want to transplant them when the hight of the other one have stretched… I’m thinking to transplant next week if not the next one - [ ] 6th week Veg: this week it went great fortunatly i dont have pests that eat my buds i’ve givven a fed once the substrate is very rich already the plants streached very well i will transplant today so be ready m8 i cant wait to show you the progress - [ ] 1st week Fl:they started stretching and looking very healthy just transplanted - [ ] 2nd week Fl this week I’ve been away i had a friend taking care of them they stretching very well i hope that she starts putting energy into the flo - [ ] 3rd week Fl:they are streaching very well ..getting the light very well - [ ] 4th week Fl: - [ ] 5th week Fl - [ ] 6th week Fl - [ ] 7th week Fl

Money maker strain was very satisfying. High THC. Made and smoked with love in 2017.

Wow the buds on her are just getting fatter and fatter she is doing well some fading going on her right now did a sledgehammer flush last watering . Will feed two more times before just watering regularly water on for the last few weeks cloudy tricoms waiting for more red want a couch lock high for her. Smell is great so strong don’t have carbon filter so she sticks up the whole house I love it. Has purple hint going on with her looking great.

She’s still a one floor house between skyscrapers but probably she will become bigger one day 😛

Pumping it for of potassium (K) for 7 days and then flushing for two weeks before harvest. Fan leaves fading to yellow with pink/purp. Sugar leaves dark purple, calyx and tips purpling too. Pics not doing it justice, buds covered in trichomes

The last two weeks of been fantastic you can follow all diaries individually this is just an overall diary for all three strains. But it has been in school the week call me foliar spray with Neem oil water and it drops soap with a pretty standard mix they seem to be doing very well powdery mildew to seem to of went away and it doesn’t look like we’re too far from harvest now thank you for following

did some light defoliation (lower larger leaves and the ones touching soil) on day 28. started feeding her bio-bloom as she transitions to pre-flower. next week will start feeding with top-max as well. looking healthy but im worried they wont grow as much as expected :(

Sollten es mehr als 50g gewesen sein, so wurde der Rest natürlich ordnungsgemäß vernichtet. Auch hier das selbe bild wie bei der Terpingdale, weil ich Narr beide auf einen Haufen warf.

Still no Amber trichomes. Very last feed today.

Last week plants grew very healthy, as they got bushier the humidty raised providing a better enviroment, I could even reduce the amount of water I give them. Planning to move to flowering stage very soon.

Week 16 (Harvest) 1-2 Drying day 1 Temperature: 24.5 to 19.5 degrees Humidity: 65% to 50% The girls are ready to be harvested! Before chopping them down, i took a lot of pictures. I was able to remove most of the soil from the Biscotti #2 to see the rootball. I hang the plants as a whole to have a slow dry. The exhaust fan is on setting 4. 2-2 Drying day 2 Temperature: 19.1 to 17.5 degrees Humidity: 62% to 57% I changed the exhaust fan to setting 2 because setting 4 was a bit high in my opinion. 3-2 Drying day 3 Temperature: 19.9 to 18 degrees Humidity: 62% to 59% Today i checked up on the drying plants, and i see there are some buds touching other buds, so i chopped the plants in half. The buds are still to the main stem for a slow dry, but are hanging more spreaded out to prevent any budrot issues. I changed the exhaust fan to setting 1, as someone told me that it was enough air movement for drying. 4-2 Drying day 4 Temperature: 19.8 to 18.5 degrees Humidity: 62% to 59% 5-2 Drying day 5 Temperature: 19.9 to 18.8 degrees Humidity: 62% to 59% Today i checked on the drying plants and the buds are shrinking a bit, they are getting a little bit crispy on the outside aswell, I hope they wont dry as fast, and i aim for a 12/14 day dry. For the next grow i already germinated 2x Chemdog (GreenHouseSeeds) 2x Gorilla Kush (GanjaFarmerSeeds) and 1x Deep Candy CBD (GreenHouseSeeds) And I have some upgrades planned aswell! I bought a autopot kit with 4 15L pots, this way the plants will have water and air 24/7 whenever they need it. I have seen alot of great results using autopots so i am very exited to try it out! And I bought a small camera so i can shoot some weekly timelapses! Feel free to Follow me if you like to get notified for the upcoming diaries! Thanks for checking out this diary, peace! (More harvest updates coming in the next couple of days!) Huge thank you to Zamnesia for the seeds, and Plagron for the collection of nutrients, and the opportunity to participate in the POWERBUDS contest! It was a fun and learningful adventure!

The stretch finally... finally... stopped, just as I was starting to get worried about her outgrowing her bedroom. Four colas decided to shoot up above the rest of the canopy. I'm not mad about it. She's producing buds with vigor now--fat pistils and, interestingly, purple calyxes (happened with the last one I ran too... passive temp control for the win 🙃). A lot of trichomes popped up overnight too. She may finish sooner than I was expecting, which would be rad. She's grown into a real sphere of doom.

Added 1 tablespoon of baking soda per gallon to watering and we are back to 6.5 24 hours later and holding, Pottasium becomes much harder to uptake with low ph and it was starting to cause yellowing and minor dark spots common from ph potassium deficiency, more understanding I gain of ph and its role to each individual nutrient, I'm going to raise to 7.0. Anthocyanins are a type of flavonoid, a family of powerful antioxidants that fight the effects of aging and oxidative stress. To date, more than 635 different anthocyanins have been identified. What is the color of anthocyanins, and what does this tell us about where we can find them? The definition of anthocyanins is “blue, violet, or red flavonoid pigments found in plants.” In regard to anthocyanin’s structure, anthocyanins are water-soluble, glycoside pigments that can vary in color depending on their specific pH. The exact type of anthocyanin that a fruit or veggie contains is partially what determines how deeply red, purple, violet, blue or even orange it will be. This is one reason why the same food, such as eggplants or onions, can come in many different shades. Here’s the cool thing about most antioxidants: Not only do they benefit you when you eat them, but they also benefit the plants that contain them too. Plants produce phytochemicals like anthocyanin as a protective mechanism; phytochemicals help build plants’ resistance and protect them from being destroyed. For example, anthocyanin can offer a plant protection from being eaten by predators (like bugs, birds or rodents) and from environmental stressors like ultraviolet light, cold temperatures and drought. What do anthocyanins do inside the body once we consume them? We still have a lot to learn to about the exact bioactivity, uptake, absorption and roles of phytonutrients, including anthocyanin. We do know that anthocyanins seem to play a role in fighting free radical damage, which leads to aging and the formation of numerous diseases. (3) Beyond their capacity to fight free radicals/oxidative stress, anthocyanins have many other effects when it comes to protecting cells, tissues and vital organs that we’re still uncovering. For example, research suggests that anthocyanins have positive effects on gut health when they interact with microflora, which can help decrease inflammatory markers associated with many chronic diseases, plus they can support hormonal balance. What are the health benefits of anthocyanins? Some of the conditions that research suggests anthocyanins may help prevent include: Cardiovascular disease and risk factors, such as high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries Cancer Impaired immune function Diabates Neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia Symptoms of poor cognitive function, including poor memory and trouble concentrating Fatigue Poor recovery from exercise/physical activity Vision loss Obesity 1. Protection Against Cardiovascular/Heart Disease Overall, many studies have found that having just one to two(or ideally more) servings of anythocyanin-rich foods per day can protect you from problems from high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis. While it’s great to have antioxidant-rich foods every day, even having them several times per week can improve your health. One finding from the Iowa Women’s Health Study, which included more than 34,000 postmenopausal women, found that women who consumed anthocyanin-rich strawberries and blueberries once per week or more experienced significant reductions in risk of death from heart disease/coronary artery disease. (4) Another large body of research from the Nurses’ Health Study I and II, which followed over 46,000 women from and 23,000 men for more than a decade, found evidence that the those with the highest intakes of anthocyanin (especially from blueberries and strawberries) had a significantly decreased risk for developing hypertension, myocardial infarction and/or having a heart attack compared to those with the lowest intake. (5) This was true even after controlling for other factors like exercise level, family history and BMI. Anthocyanin benefits for diabetes and pancreatic disorders have also been unearthed in recent years, and again the efficacy is attributed to the multiple, simultaneous biological effects these pigments cause in the body, including prevention of generation of free radicals, decreased lipid peroxidation, reduced pancreatic swelling, and decreased blood sugar concentrations in urine and blood serum. (6) 2. Improved Immune Function Anthocyanin bioflavonoids may provide protection from DNA damage and lipid peroxidation, plus they have anti-inflammatory effects and help boost production of cytokines that regulate the immune responses. They have also been shown to support hormonal balance by reducing estrogenic activity, help regulate enzyme production that aids nutrient absorption, and strengthen cell membranes by making them less permeable and fragile. (7) 3. Protection Against Cancer Research suggests that anthocyanin can decrease the risk of developing various types of cancer due to its antioxidant, anticarcinogenic and anti-inflammatory effects. This has been demonstrated in both in vitro and in vivo research trials in humans and animals. Studies show that anthocyanins have the ability to naturally fight cancer by blocking cell proliferation and inhibiting tumor formation by interfering with the process of carcinogenesis. One way anthocyanins inhibit tumorigenesis by blocking activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. (8) Anthocyanin - Dr. Axe 4. Improved Cognitive Function Studies have found that diets high in antioxidants like anthocyanin lead to a reversal in certain age-related deficits that affect neural and behavioral parameters, including memory and motor functions. Anthocyanins have been credited with protecting memory, coordination and neural function in older populations. One study out of Korea found that administration of isolated anthocyanins from purple sweet potato enhanced cognitive performance and inhibited lipid peroxidation in brain tissues in mice. (9) 5. Enhanced Exercise Performance and Recovery Antioxidants seem to improve physical performance by lowering exhaustion and the negative effects of excessive oxygen and radical accumulation during physical activities. In one double-blinded clinical trial that involved 54 female and male athletes, when one group was given 100 milligrams of anthocyanin pills per day for six weeks, the participants in that group were found to experience a significant improvement in their VO2 max (maximal oxygen consumption) compared to the second group that received 100 milligrams of placebo pills daily. (10) Some studies have also found that fruit juices that contain anthocyanins, such as 100 percent tart cherry and blueberry juices, have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects that wind up positively influencing muscle damage following exercise and the ability to properly recover. (11) There’s even evidence from animal studies that anthocyanins consumed as part of a high-fat diet can help inhibit both body weight and adipose tissue increases. (12) 6. Enhanced Vision and Eye Health Anthocyanin has been shown to help enhance night vision and overall vision by protecting the eyes from free radical damage. One study found that oral intake of anthocyanosides from black currants resulted in significantly improved night vision in adults. Research suggests that the enhancement of rhodopsin regeneration and protection against inflammation are at least two mechanisms by which anthocyanins improve sight and protect the eyes. (13)