Higher Thought LA Pure Kush x Cherry Pyromancer

This plant finished with a superior flavor in the end, what the author was aiming for: sweet fruit (cherry, strawberry, watermelon) and chemicals with a sandalwood and acrid, dry kush aftertaste that coats the mouth for a substantial time. The effects of this plant are reminiscent of LA Pure Kush.

Origins and Backstory:  I made these seeds last year using 2 Cherry Pyromancer males, and the famous LA Pure Kush clone. Personally, while my aim was just to increase the Cherry Pyro seeds I had (I only had about 10 total originals from Meangene, and couldn’t believe how special they were) I felt all of the Kush clones I had at the time were matches made in heaven with the CP as well. As soon as I had harvested the seed, I regretted I didn’t have any CP sensi to smoke and knew I had to grow these. While the LAPK is not my personal top favorite of all the kushes, I did think it was a great match, and really wanted to see the outcome of this cross. I expected the resulting flower from these seeds to be satisfyingly dense, resinous, extremely aromatic and multidimensional, high bag appeal, and potent indicas with exceptionally unique and complex flavors. Let’s see how I did!

Morphology: These plants were interesting in growth, resembling more vigorous and robust LA Pure Kush plants. They grew relatively stout but had good branching, and shaped themselves into almost perfect spheres in a greenhouse and outdoor environment, with no training. Indoors, the lower buds are not impressive, and it’s best to train for some nice kushy tops. Somewhat leafier than I’d like, these need to be defoliated in flower. All these plants were a light green during vegetative state, but immediately had purple accents in all the same places along leaf ridges, stems, and bud undersides through harvest. These are really beautiful plants, that finish with a diversity of color. I can only imagine how they’d look in the great outdoors in the fall! Flowers finish very dense, very colorful, and very resinous. Trimming is easy and minimal.

Aroma:  As one would expect, the aromas are very complex, and shift a lot through the flowering cycle. Finished buds exhibit tones from both parents, as well as some new ones that I didn’t necessarily expect. Overall I’d describe the aroma as intensely sweet and fruity, with heavy chemical accents, and mild incense and kushy notes. There are even notes of raw cookie dough, baked goods, and pastries. When I smell deeper, I can narrow in on the fruit: there are notes of strawberry, cherry, watermelon, coming together as a fruit punchy, juicy-fruit gum kind of thing. Each plant emphasizes or exhibits different fruits, as well as chemical traits. Some have a hint of the clorox bleach I mentioned in the Cherry Pyro review, while others have more of a hand sanitizer, or aloe vera skin-product kind of smell. My favorite plant has some of the sandalwood-incense apparent in the jar, but it becomes exceptionally pronounced when buds are broken up for consumption. The smell left on one’s hands or in a grinder is more like sandalwood and kush than it is like fruit, which is also remarkable. Every time I break these buds up or grind them, it is truly an olfactory experience, and really the moment of experiencing the consumption of this weed begins when a jar is opened, not when a joint is lit.

Flavor:  Highly variant from plant to plant, my favorites have an exceptionally complex and diverse flavor that hits all the same notes from the aroma. The smoke is fruitier and sweeter than either of its parents, a bit milder on chemicals than the Cherry Pyro, with a heavy emphasis on sandalwood incense and spicy, dry, acrid, kush. The fruit is somewhat ambiguous and none in particular stand out to me, it is more of a fruit punch kind of thing. The aftertaste is almost entirely like that of LAPK, coating one’s mouth in the spicy sandalwood incense that is really lovely. It’s an experience to have the fruit and some chemicals up front, and then all the kush on the back end.
Other plants are not quite as satisfying, more of a fruit-dominant and sweet flavor that also features the aloe vera hand sanitizer character. It’s weird, interesting, unique, but not necessarily my favorite, and does not leave the mouth completely coated in kushy flavor later.
When these plants were drying, an experienced growing friend of mine (the cultivator featured from my BBQ & Buds in KC post) could not stop pinching them, smelling them, and reiterating, “that smells crazy….” pinch, repeat

I was flattered and let him have at it for a while but eventually had to ask him to stop and leave some volatile compounds for the jars! It’s as fruity as any cultivar without sacrificing many of the other chemical, herbaceous, and funky tones that fruit-forward plants often do.

Effects:  This is probably the biggest surprise. I expected these to be really potent, but they’re more of a laid back and relaxing experience overall (with some variance). The come up is slow, which has gotten me into trouble, but not much. This weed isn’t very punishing at all, and is a mild and relaxing experience. It can have a pretty sleepy conclusion reminiscent of LAPK, but I didn’t feel it was as sleepy or put-down as pure LAPK or other kushes. I smoked a few joints of this weed at a local outdoor concert venue, and it was a really enjoyable and relaxing experience. At one point I did feel a bit in my head and mildly paranoid, but not even close to how OGs and some other strains might make me feel in that setting. Some plants produce good, mild, “working weed” as a friend calls it, while other plants are more like LA Kush. It’s mild and relaxing and happy without being at all debilitating. I do enjoy it some evenings, but generally prefer something more potent to cap off a night.

Overall:  These are highly variant, beautiful plants, easy to grow in multiple environments, and they grow exceptionally attractive and aromatic flowers with great bag appeal and resin production, all in an exceptionally fast time frame. The smells and flavors are unique and I’m not sure I’ve experienced this particular combination elsewhere in cannabis. These are really enjoyable to smoke and easy to consume a lot of the flower, but personally I prefer something a bit harder-hitting. I grew 3 females of this cross, and they do have a lot of variance. This would be a fun one to grow 30 or so plants of, and really see all the different expressions (but then again, what F1 cross wouldn’t be?). The similarities are that the aromas are really complex and far reaching, with attractive and weird tones. I would have liked to see a bit more of the chemical side of Cherry Pyromancer coming through in these, but I do believe I could find that in a larger germination. I’d also personally like to look for some higher potency plants. The ones I grew ranged from relatively low to medium-high, but I believe there are some higher potency plants to be found in this pool too. I do think I am nitpicking at this point as I think most people would be really pleased with these plants and consider them elite, but for my own personal pursuit and tastes, I do think going through a significant number of these to find a really special standout would produce a keeper of a plant that you couldn’t really find elsewhere. Someday maybe I’ll have the time and space!