CANNABIS

Warning: Don’t Be Fooled by PGR Weed

Could these nasty little chemicals be hiding in your bud?

Cat Winske
Beaches and Weed
Published in
4 min readMay 13, 2022

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black skull and crossbones on yellow background with the words “danger, poison”
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

If you find super dense buds at a discounted price, you might feel like you’re getting the deal of the century. And sometimes, you do get lucky.

But you could be unknowingly buying PGR weed. If you haven’t heard of PGR weed, this article will tell you what it is, why you should be concerned about it, and how to recognize it.

What Are PGRs?

PGR is short for “Plant Growth Regulator.” Charles Darwin discovered the first natural plant growth regulator, auxin, way back in the 1880s. Later, researchers found four more natural PGRs, including ethylene, cytokinins, gibberellins, and abscisic acid.

Natural PGRs are hormones plants produce to control how they grow and develop. Just like with human hormones, natural PGRs are essential for plant health. These hormones repress certain stimuli and activate specific genes to control various aspects of the plant’s development, such as:

  • The production of roots, stems, leaves, and flowers
  • What types of cells the plant creates
  • The elongation of cells
  • Timing of fruit ripening

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