8 Tips for Growing Cherry Pie Marijuana: Grower’s Guide

Cherry Pie is the offspring of two famous parents, Granddaddy Purple and Durban Poison. Therefore, you would expect it to be an exceptional marijuana strain. The good news is that it does not disappoint. Its THC content can reach a staggering 26%, so it is not for novices.

Although Cherry Pie is a strongly indica-dominant (80%) strain, it generally does not cause couchlock. On the contrary, Cherry Pie’s effects are uplifting, euphoric, and relaxing. And Cherry Pie is not just popular with recreational cannabis consumers. Medicinal cannabis users consume the Cherry Pie strain to address pain, anxiety, stress, and depression.

Keep reading to learn some helpful hints and tips for growing this tasty strain.

1 – You Can Grow Cherry Pie Indoors or Outside

You can grow it outside if you live in a warm, Mediterranean climate with daytime temperatures between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Although the growth difficulty is moderate to easy, Cherry Pie is clone-only, so finding it may be a challenge. Also, many growers complain about the strain’s issues with self-pollinating.

You need to keep a close eye on your plants to prevent this from happening, a difficult feat if you grow them outside. However, outdoor Cherry Pie yields up to 14 ounces per plant and is ready for harvesting by the end of October. If you grow Cherry Pie inside, it flowers in 8-9 weeks and provides up to 16 ounces per square meter.

2 – Use Soil as Your Growing Medium

Although you can use a hydroponics setup, Cherry Pie prefers soil. You can purchase potting soils from gardening stores or create your own. Bear in mind that soil varies in several ways, which impacts the growth of your marijuana plants. Make sure you take into account drainage, the pH level, nutrients, and texture.

There is sand, silt, clay, and loam soil on offer in terms of your options. Loam is a mixture of the other three and is by far the best to use. The majority of potting soil you’ll buy is loam. It should have a dark color and a structure that enables you to squeeze it into a loose ball before it breaks apart. It is expensive, but it offers the following benefits:

• It has the ideal pH level
• It is easy to work with
• It supports microorganisms
• It retains nutrients well
• It has high oxygen levels.

3 – Prune Your Cherry Pie When Necessary

Pruning is an often-neglected method of increasing yield and reducing the risk of mold growth. If your plants receive the right amount of nutrients and plenty of light with good airflow, they will thrive. As soon as your Cherry Pie strain begins to look bushy, it is time to take out the pruning shears.

Prune the plants in cycles to avoid causing shock.

Aim to remove the lower branches that are not receiving light and bud sites low down on the main stalk. Use a pair of Fiskars for smaller leaves and branches and a sharp pair of scissors for larger foliage. Prune the plants in cycles to avoid causing shock. Not only does shock slow down growth, but it could also lead to hermaphroditic plants (plants that exhibit traits of both genders).

It is best to begin by removing the largest branches, because this gives you more space to perform intricate pruning. Once the plant recovers from the initial shock, it should experience a significant growth spurt. Pruning marijuana plants once they are a couple of weeks into flowering is not advisable.

4 – What Are the Advantages of Cloning Compared to Growing from Seeds?

Cherry Pie is a clone-only strain that has several advantages when compared to growing from seeds:

• It is much faster to work from cuttings as you skip the germination stage altogether. When growing from seed, the seedling stage alone can take up to three weeks indoors and double that time outdoors. Just allow the clone time to develop roots, and then it is in the vegetative stage.
• Not all seeds germinate, and non-feminized seeds have a 50% chance of developing into a male plant. When you purchase your Cherry Pie clone from a reputable seller, the cuttings will be from a female plant.
• Growing a clone offers a more predictable outcome. However, the same isn’t true for seeds. Even buying from a trusted seed bank doesn’t guarantee the phenotype you’ll end up with.
• You also get more harvests per year with cuttings. Again, this is mainly due to skipping the germination stage.
• Clones increase the likelihood that you’ll have healthy plants every time, as long as they’re from a healthy mother plant.

5 – What About Lighting?

The tried and trusted tactic is to expose plants to 18-24 hours of light a day during the vegetative stage. Once you are ready to force your Cherry Pie into flowering, switch to a 12-12 cycle. You must ensure that the plants remain in 12 consecutive hours of darkness each day.

When growing indoors, you need to select the appropriate lighting and place it at the proper distance from the canopy. Too many growers overdo it, not realizing that excessive light exposure damages the plants. CFL lights are ideal for a small grow setup because they emit just enough heat to help plants grow.

HPS lights and LEDs are often used during the flowering stage. If you use HPS lights, make sure they don’t generate excess heat and drive the room temperature above 80 degrees. If this happens, switch to LED lights for the rest of the cycle because they don’t emit excessive heat.

6 – Stress Your Plants for More Terpenes

Cherry Pie contains terpenes such as linalool, alpha-pinene, beta-myrcene, and beta-caryophyllene. Terpenes are responsible for the stunning scent of the strain, and they reportedly have medical properties. Be careful not to stress your plants to the point where they go into shock and stop growing. However, a little stress may boost the crop’s terpene profile.

This tip is for experienced growers only. Theoretically, stressing the plant enhances the aroma because terpenoids are synthesized in trichomes that are created as a defense mechanism. When you subject your plants to controlled stress, they can develop more prominent trichomes, which produce more robust flavors.

You can also attempt super cropping, which involves bending and twisting the stems; just be careful that they don’t break! Another tactic is to place the plants in 48 hours of continuous darkness just before harvest.

7 – Flush Your Cherry Pie Before Harvest

As harvest time approaches, it is time to flush your plants to remove the remnants of nutrients. As you know, when plants absorb nutrients, they travel throughout it and into the buds. While the nutrients help the buds grow, we don’t want to taste them in the final product. Failure to flush your plants could result in unpleasant-tasting weed.

While nutrients help the buds grow, we don’t want to taste them in the final product.

Wait until 1-2 weeks before harvest and use pure water to flush the soil. This process will cause the plants to use up any reserves they have left in the bud. As you are not replacing the nutrients, there is no danger of a foul fertilizer taste when you smoke your weed. While there are pre-packaged solutions designed for flushing, pH-neutral water will work just as well.

8 – Keep Relative Humidity (RH) Low, Especially When Curing

RH refers to the amount of water vapor air can hold at a specific temperature. Cherry Pie prefers lower RH levels, so during the vegetative stage, gradually reduce the level to 55%. By the early flowering stage, you can reduce the RH level to 50%. In the late flowering stage, you can reduce it further to 40%.

You should also pay attention to humidity during curing. Curing refers to the process of slowly drying the buds to remove any moisture while retaining cannabinoids, flavonoids, and terpenes. If you allow the RH level to stay high during curing, you risk mold growth, which will ruin your crop.

When you ensure the RH is at the perfect level, you benefit from a higher THC content. When you cure cannabis correctly, chlorophyll gets broken down and released from the buds. You will even benefit from enhanced terpene production.

Particular humidity regulators come in packet forms—pop one into the mason jar storing your buds and allowing it to work. For example, a 62% RH packet will make sure the humidity remains at 62%. Eventually, you will need even less moisture, so you must purchase a 55% packet. These packets will cost extra, but when the result is higher-quality cannabis, it is a purchase well worth making.