Cherry Pie: The California Strain That Fathered Half of Modern Cannabis

Cherry Pie is a classic Bay Area cannabis strain, a cross of Granddaddy Purple and Durban Poison that sits quietly in the family tree of nearly every modern dessert strain. This video traces the full history of Cherry Pie: its two parent strains, the breeders who made it, its role as medicine in early San Francisco, and its genetic link to Girl Scout Cookies, Gelato, and Runtz. It explains how a mysterious plant called the F1 Durban connects Cherry Pie to half the exotic strains on today's top shelves. It also clears up the internet myths and mislabeled crosses that have followed the strain for years. What's covered in this video: Cherry Pie's mother strain is Granddaddy Purple, bred by Ken Estes around 2003 as a Purple Urkle and Big Bud cross, known for deep violet buds, grape and berry sweetness, and a heavy body effect that won Best US Indica at the 2015 High Times Cannabis Cup. Its father strain is Durban Poison, a pure African landrace sativa from Durban, South Africa, carried west in the 1970s by cannabis writer Ed Rosenthal, later stabilized by Sam the Skunkman, and rich in the rare cannabinoid THCV. Cherry Pie was bred by Bay Area grower Kenny Dumetz, known as PieGuy, co-founder of the Powerzzzup crew alongside Jason Mejia, a group that later joined Cookies and helped create Gary Payton and Cereal Milk. The cut was made famous by Jigga, real name Jai Chang, of the Cookie Fam, who grew it in the mid-2000s out of a house on Noriega Street in San Francisco's Sunset District. Jigga has said Cherry Pie was one of the strains he grew for terminally ill patients through San Francisco's public health system under Prop 215, California's Compassionate Use Act. The strain smells of sweet-tart cherry, baked dough, and a sour earthy edge, driven by a terpene stack of myrcene, caryophyllene, and limonene, and typically tests between sixteen and twenty-four percent THC. Cherry Pie placed third in its category at the 2014 High Times Cannabis Cup in Denver. The video separates three commonly confused strains: Cherry Pie (Granddaddy Purple and Durban), Cherry Kush (an OG Kush cross), and Cherry Pie Kush (a separate plant at the center of a long-running controversy). The Cookie Fam's secret weapon was a mystery plant called the F1, which Jigga refused to name, crossed with Durban Poison to create the F1 Durban that anchors the whole family. The F1 Durban crossed with Granddaddy Purple produced Cherry Pie, while the same F1 Durban crossed with a Florida cut of OG Kush produced Girl Scout Cookies, making the two strains half-siblings. Both Cherry Pie and GSC were preserved as clone-only cuts, locking in a single phenotype with no seed drift. The video debunks a single-source internet rumor that GSC is literally Cherry Pie crossed with Chemdawg, a claim Jigga has personally dismissed and that lab terpene data does not support. Cherry Pie's documented descendants include Forbidden Fruit, a cross with Tangie from Crockett Family Farms, and Birthday Cake, a cross with its own sibling GSC. It corrects the widespread error that Wedding Cake is Cherry Pie crossed with GSC, noting that JBeezy of Seed Junky confirmed Wedding Cake is a Triangle Mints phenotype, with the Cherry Pie cross actually being Birthday Cake. The GSC branch of the tree led to Sunset Sherbet, then Gelato, Leafly's 2018 Strain of the Year, then Runtz, the 2020 Strain of the Year. Cherry Pie was a founding strain of the Cookie Fam run that Berner turned into Cookies, a company Forbes valued at one hundred fifty million dollars, promoted along the way by Wiz Khalifa. Mentioned in this video: Cherry Pie, Granddaddy Purple, Ken Estes, Purple Urkle, Big Bud, Durban Poison, Durban, South Africa, Ed Rosenthal, Sam the Skunkman, THCV, Kenny Dumetz, PieGuy, Powerzzzup, Jason Mejia, Gary Payton, Cereal Milk, Cookies, Cookie Fam, Jigga, Jai Chang, Noriega Street, Sunset District, San Francisco, Prop 215, Compassionate Use Act, High Times Cannabis Cup, Cherry Kush, OG Kush, Cherry Pie Kush, F1 Durban, Girl Scout Cookies, GSC, Chemdawg, Forbidden Fruit, Tangie, Crockett Family Farms, Birthday Cake, Wedding Cake, JBeezy, Seed Junky, Triangle Mints, Animal Mints, Sunset Sherbet, Gelato, Leafly, Runtz, Berner, Forbes, Wiz Khalifa.