Mendo Purps #54 x Cherry Pie sits between Mendo Purps and Cherry Pie: the Mendocino purple that the whole Northern California purple catalogue leans on on one side, Granddaddy Purple crossed to Durban Poison, roughly sixty-forty indica on the other. Both parents here are cuts CSI keep in their own room. That is the whole difference between this and a seed line named after the same strains.

Order matters in a cross name. In Mendo Purps #54 x Cherry Pie the Mendo Purps side supplied the seed and Cherry Pie 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: Cherry Pie. Granddaddy Purple crossed to Durban Poison, roughly sixty-forty indica. Built from Granddaddy Purple x Durban Poison. Considered easy to grow.
• 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

Expect the profile to move plant to plant rather than settle.

• The Aroma. Grape and fruit, and it looks the part from the Mendo Purps side, against dark stone fruit and berry over earth from the Cherry Pie side.
• The Taste. Grape and dark berry up front, turning to cherry and berry with an earthy finish through the exhale.

What each side brings

• Two different harvest dates. Eight to nine weeks, with outdoor crops coming down in the middle of october for Mendo Purps, eight to nine weeks for Cherry Pie. Judge each plant on trichomes rather than pulling the room together.
• Where the nose comes from. One side gives fruity and grape-like with deep colouration; the other gives dark stone fruit and berry over earth. Plants landing in the middle are the keepers.
• Two frames in one pack. Mendo Purps is 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. Cherry Pie is short and bushy at eighty to a hundred and twenty centimetres with wide lateral branching that suits low-stress training. Decide which suits your room before you flip, because you get both.
• Opposite ends. Mendo Purps is reported as settled rather than racy; Cherry Pie as 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. Cherry Pie is short and bushy, eighty to a hundred and twenty centimetres, branching wide enough sideways to suit low-stress training.
• Training. Worth the effort early - it is the difference between an even canopy and three colas and a lot of leaf.
• 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, Cherry Pie eight to nine 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. Cherry Pie is reported as settling, and that is the side supplying the weight here.

In the pack

7 feminized seeds per pack. Feminized seeds from Humboldt CSI. CSI work from clone stock they have kept for years and reverse it into seed, so what arrives in a pack is the real cut's genetics rather than a seed-line approximation of it. Original Humboldt CSI stock.