Grow Journal 52: Black Cherry Punch by 34 Mongrels
One of my least favorite strains is Purple Punch. Though the body effects and flavor are usually fine, the head effects just don’t hit my sweet spot. Ironically, though, I usually enjoy purple punch crosses, so for this News Joint Grow Journal 7.0 cycle, I decided to pop Black Cherry Punch by 34 Mongrels as my one nighttime strain.
Black Cherry Punch is a cross of Black Cherry Pie (Cherry Pie and Blackberry Kush) and Grape Punch. From a feminize seed picked up from the breeder, Black Cherry Punch grew vigorously as a seedling and extremely leafy throughout vegetation, enough that the plant saved a week or two of vegetation time for an early flip to flower. I topped the plant late and kept the lower branched trimmed well. I low stressed trained the larger branches, but other than that, I left the plant alone because she didn’t need any attention throughout a healthy grow.
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A week before flipping the light cycle to flower, I performed Kyle Kushman’s supercropping and “chiropractic” techniques, and throughout the grow, I used FloraFlex nutrients, sponsored its Midwest representative Seed Attics. Because of the vigorous growth while in veg, I expected a long stretch as well, but the Black Cherry Punch only stretched the normal 3-4 nodes. Once the plant started flowering, the buds turned from lime green to forest green, to dark purple and gray, with tall trichomes covering the bud and leaves. The aroma in the tent hit with a classic sweet purple-punch scent and heavy notes of sweet kush, cherry, grape, and blackberry.
I chopped on day 65 and cured for 14 days. The buds were a little leafy and harder to trim than the other plants. The aroma after cure developed an even sweeter grape, cherry, and artificial Kool-Aid scent for an overall berry medley. The lighter back notes included a Durban-Poison spice, pine, sweet earth, and floral mint. The flavor matched the aroma with a heavy sweet-berry medley on the inhale, and kush, sweet spice, and pine notes on the back end of the exhale.
The effects landed on the indica-leaning hybrid spectrum. The head high at first was clear, uplifting, and euphoric, but after the initial burst, the buzz leveled off. As the buzz continued, the head high leaned more indica with less-focused thoughts that accompanied a careless attitude. This coincided with the body buzz that took longer than expected, but once it hit, the effects provided a weighted-down and sinking feeling that became more pronounced with more doses. Though not a “knockout” strain-to-sleep strain, the Black Cherry Punch provided a great nighttime strain for winding down and relaxing, and with heavy dozes, the strain eventually provided sedation.
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Effects & Medical Attributes are based on anecdotal evidence. Individual experiences can be varied.
