Can seedling phenotypes be identified by stalk colour?

Many varieties have phenotypes which tend to be either strongly indica or sativa in their characteristics. I have a number of seedlings of a certain type, and some of them (at 1 week) had stalks which, tiny as they were, were notably purple-ish, which others of the batch were and are much closer to a white-ish green which most weeds are. I wonder if this indicates which way the plants will lean on the phenotype scale.
Eh?

I have also noticed the different color stems, and to be honest, I just figured it was genetic based on strain.

No

AgentPothead said:

I have also noticed the different color stems, and to be honest, I just figured it was genetic based on strain.

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It no doubt IS both genetic and based on strain - but the question still stands!

Treevly said:

It no doubt IS both genetic and based on strain - but the question still stands!

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NO, There is no way to know phenotypic expression without taking a plant completely to harvest, dry and cure.

Purple stems are also a signal you have a phosphorous problem.

Treevly said:

Many varieties have phenotypes which tend to be either strongly indica or sativa in their characteristics. I have a number of seedlings of a certain type, and some of them (at 1 week) had stalks which, tiny as they were, were notably purple-ish, which others of the batch were and are much closer to a white-ish green which most weeds are. I wonder if this indicates which way the plants will lean on the phenotype scale.
Eh?

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Keep a log of everything you notice on every plant you grow and eventually you'll have all your questions answered, plus you'll get a whole bunch of even more interesting new questions to investigate and you'll also be the sole possessor of hard won knowledge and possibly increased self confidence as well. In a few months you might have a pretty good idea about the meaning of stem colors on the young plants.

Well, in some cases, stem color can be an indicator of a specific trait. As an example, Mr. Greenegenes Cherry Bomb has a few phenos. Most are very similar, with minimum variation. Some a little taller, some shorter, but in plants that tend to have red, or red striped stems, the real Cherry tasting pheno tends to be more common than in green stemmed plants.

This is something I both read, and have experienced. In this strain, it is a pretty good indicator that the Cherry pheno is linked to the red stemmed/striped plants.

I'm sure there are other strains that have similar characteristics where stem color is an indicator of a certain trait.

An aside: I visited a friend the other day and his plants (2 feet so far) look to have stocks similar to mature rhubarb stocks. It seemed weird, exotic, and interesting. I will ask him the type.

from my experience ......... NO ................... height and bud structure are good indicators tho ... like a jack herer grow i did ...all the taller ones were clearly more sativa in affect ... shorter ones more indica ............ but gotta grow, cure, and smoke to truly know a plants qualities

Treevly said:

I wonder if this indicates which way the plants will lean on the phenotype scale.
Eh?

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Well purple hues may give a hint the plant has some of those traits in it, but how much you will see later when you flower them. Not every seedling that has some purple on the stem or under the leaves will turn out to be super purple in bloom but it can have more hues than her fully-green sisters


But yes, you can see different traits on seedlings even at very early stages of growth; different colors being one of the traits you can pick up; You may see purple stems/leaves or even purple resin glands on the first true leaves; You can see different shades of green (or purple/blue hues) on the first true leaves etc.

- You can also look at the first true leaves and see Narrow vs. Broad leaf traits.

- You can see different expressions when you compare the serration on the first (true) leaves and how long the stalk on the first few leaves are etc. etc.

Here are some seedlings from the same batch of seeds. Spot the difference.
Some of these were more purple at early stage but i didn't take any photos. it's one of the trats of their mother who has blue-ish tones on hear leaves, thou she still stays fairly green in bloom..

a seedling with purple stems might indicate it'll also grow more purplish parts later on, but other than that, it comes down to mendel's 2nd law. i.e, independent assortment, i.e., stem color says nothing about any other trait.
ofcourse we now know linked genes are a thing too, but that's an exception, they can still recombine, and if you've got a more complex trait, made up of multiple genes, it would be pretty unique/strange if all those genes involved are linked, and also linked to seedling stem color, and on top of that all so tightly linked to eachother they rarely recombine away from eachother(something like that could probably only happen if all those genes are located on an inverted piece of dna-strand that forms a loop, and so never recombines).

the way I sometimes see people talking about phenotypes in weed, like it's a whole set of linked traits that always stay together, just doesn't fit with how genetics work. you can talk about phenotypes if you talk about just one trait(like purple vs. green phenos). but something like a 'sativa pheno' vs an 'indica pheno' is not really a thing, at least not if you see sativa/indica as a combination of effect and growth structure. if you're talking about just the high, you could say one leans more to sativa than another. but no relation with growth structure, or leaf shape, within a hybrid genepool.

That's interesting!