Grow Report: Cheese CBD, curative and calming, a cheesy state of mind

A strain packed with history

Today's world of cannabis strains is almost unimaginable without the ubiquitous Cheese strain. From a genetic point of view, it actually is an old acquaintance as it evolved from the "mother of all indoor strains", the legendary Skunk #1: In the late 1980s, from a batch of Skunk #1 a grower in Southeast England selected a highly special genotype that had supposedly underwent a spontaneous mutation and gained enhanced powers through this, being superior in any aspect.

He preserved it as a cutting, and via the "Exodus" group, a circle of English homegrowers, this cutting was spread all over England from 1995 on. Spain's seed bank no. 1 Dinafem Seeds managed to get hold of a genuine Exodus Cheese cutting and brought it into seed form by means of sophisticated breeding techniques. Then they not only put the pure Cheese on the market as a seed strain, but also created and marketed hybrids such as Blue Cheese and Critical Cheese.

However, the Dinafem breeders thought that a sublime variety like Cheese should be available also for lightweight smokers who cannot handle a strong cannabis high or simply don't need it. For people who strive to benefit from the medicinal blessings of the cannabis plant without getting totally spaced out. Being in possession of the original genetics of the famous "Dancehall" strain with an extremely high CBD count, an obvious solution for the breeders was to create a CBD version of Cheese.

Pungently aromatic and easy to grow

So crossing Cheese with Dancehall resulted in Cheese CBD, a very productive 50/50 indica/sativa hybrid that proudly boasts an unadulterated Cheese flavour, skilfully transferred by the breeders from mother to daughter. That unique signature flavour which with its spicy complexity reminds of cured cheese, savoury and sweet, but also slightly flowery. Due to the penetrant nature of this smell, Dinafem strongly recommends to use a well-functioning exhaust carbon filter. The THC/CBD ratio of Cheese CBD always amounts to at least 1:1, depending on the cultivation conditions though, the CBD content may be higher, with the ratio approaching 1:2. Under good conditions, a total amount of cannabinoids (THC + CBD) of about 15% can be achieved.

Growers don't have to wait very long for their blooming reward - after a moderate flowering period of 50-60 days, they can reap a harvest of up to 500 grams per square metre. The plants' appearance leans more to the  sativa than to the indica side, with fairly narrow, long shade leaves and symmetrical branching. According to Dinafem, Cheese CBD requires only moderate amounts of fertilizer. This variety is suitable for outdoors, too, growing to heights of up to 2.5 metres and ripening around mid-October.

Given optimum conditions, yields of up to 1kg per plant are possible. With the high CBD count attenuating the psychoactive THC effect, Cheese CBD delivers a mild and mellow turn that causes a pleasant state of well-being with a great deal of inner balance. So relaxation and calmness are on the agenda which makes Cheese CBD a good treatment for anxiety and muscle tension. It's also supposed to increase one's appetite. As an aficionado of "cheesy" cannabis strains and such with a high CBD count, Ellis D. quickly had Cheese CBD in his sights and no sooner said than done, he put it to a cultivation test. Due to his small cultivation area and the fact that he wanted to simultaneously test Dinafem's Moby Dick CBD as well, he could only get two feminised seeds started.

The seedlings of which poked out of the 1 litre pots filled with seedling soil after less than two and a half days already, eagerly stretching towards the LED light. In the course of the three weeks veggie stage that was to follow, the two plants evolved magnificently (after about a week, Ellis D. had transplanted them to 11 litre pots), with early vivid branching out and those sativa-dominant shade leaves as described by Dinafem. Because of tighter internodal stacking, one of the plants grew more compact than the other though, also spreading out more horizontally.

Cheese CBD delivers a mild and mellow turn that causes a pleasant state of well-being with a great deal of inner balance

When Ellis D. triggered the plants into flowering, one measured 27 cm in height, while the other had already arrived at 41 cm. After the light regimen switch from 18/6 to 12/12, florescence quickly gained momentum – merely two weeks later, all the shoot tips were budding, sporting plenty of white pistils shortly afterwards.

Both Cheese CBD plants doubled their height during the first four weeks of flowering, at the same time busily enlarging the volume of their buds. Reported Ellis D. after six weeks into flowering, "these plants just cannot deny their substantial Cheese heritage – fortunately! The buds are becoming fat and chubby, just as you would expect from an authentic Cheese strain. And they are covered in dense blankets of sticky crystal trichomes which goes along with accordingly hefty aroma clouds. Both plants are smelling simply delicious, with a sweet and spicy, multifaceted bouquet, including a hint of fruit." It turned out that the two plants exceeded the official flowering time a little bit, it took them 63 and 66 days of flowering to fully ripen.

In the end, the buds of the smaller plant were ultra-hard and dense like cured green plant concrete. While the ones of the taller Cheese CBD specimen with a stronger sativa influence were pretty compact, too, but not as rock-hard, they exhibited an even higher calyx-to-leaf ratio. In terms of resin content, the buds of the smaller plant were a length ahead again, with an impressively opulent trichome buildup that made Ellis D. cheer "welcome to frost wonderland!"

It was a case of rare coincidence when weighing the dried buds made Ellis D. realise that the yield of the two plants was almost identical to one decimal place – 66.2 and 66.5 grams he read off the scales! "Near the home stretch, they both turned into Route 66, so to say", Ellis D. said with a smile. He stuck his nose deep into the two storage jars filled with Cheese CBD buds, to get an impression of the cured aromas which he described as follows:

"Both plants' buds are still basically giving off an intensely sweet and condimental smell, and yes, my nose takes that kind of aroma as cheese-like. The only difference between the two is that the buds of the smaller plant have a somewhat nutty side to their fragrance, while the other ones reveal a slight strawberry undertone."

Perfect for therapeutic use

For testing the effect of Cheese CBD, he invited a friend who suffers from the restless legs syndrome (RLS) and had her inhale Cheese CBD from his "Mighty" vaporizer. The restless legs syndrome is characterised by an uncontrollable urge during rest to move the limbs, especially legs. That discomfort is accompanied by tingling sensations, feeling like electric currents running through the limbs. She took two not particularly deep tokes from the vaporizer, leaned back and guess what – after less than a minute already, she noticed that the restlessness began to fade, and soon after it was completely gone!

Full of praise, she said, "awesome! that kind of curative green cheese was of phenomenal help for my disorder, and it even also has a wonderful taste." She announced to recommend it to other affected people, as a mild herbal alternative to the usual heavy chemical drugs prescribed to RLS patients, such as Valoron. Of course from those two tokes she didn't get high, just feeling relaxed both physically and mentally. Ellis D. himself experienced the effect of Cheese CBD just in the way he's used to from high-grade CBD weed: it served as an anchor of mental stability to him, providing a harmonious feeling of inner balance and calmness. "From now on, I call that sort of feeling a 'cheesy state of mind'!", he chuckled.

She took two deep tokes from the vaporizer, after less than a minute already, she noticed that the restlessness began to fade, and soon after it was completely gone!

And inhaled in the evening shortly before going to bed, Cheese CBD gave him deeper sleep with considerably less wakening up and no undesirable side-effects. Ellis D.:

"When using regular THC-rich marijuana for my sleep disorder, after getting up in the morning, for hours I feel like having a bell jar over my head. In contrast, CBD-rich weed with a CBD/THC ratio of about 1:1 makes me wake up feeling as fresh as a daisy."

He also liked the savoury sweet Cheese CBD flavour a lot: "It's really a special treat, absolutely palatable and with a long-lasting piquant aftertaste, just like the Exodus Cheese mother." "Cheese CBD is a markedly well-done CBD adaption of that famous THC-rich strain, Dinafem has done a humdinger of a job here again", Ellis D. concluded, "this weed is medicinally valuable, the resounding success when treating her RLS with it was simply astounding! But also for Cheese aficionados who don't wanna be stoned to the bone all the time, but nevertheless enjoy that toothsome cheese flavour, Cheese CBD adds a most rewarding diversification to the Cheese strain assortment."

Cultivation data

• Genetics:  Cheese CBD (Exodus Cheese x Dancehall)
• Vegetative stage: 3 weeks (after germination)
• Flowering stage: 63 and 66 days, 50-60 days in general
• Medium: Compo potting soil, 11 litre pots
• pH: 6.3-6.8
• EC: 1.2–1.6 mS
• Light: Seedling stage - 2x SANlight M30 = 55 watts / Vegetative stage - 1x SANlight S4W = 140 watts / Flowering stage - 2x SANlight S4W = 280 watts
• Temperature: 18-28°C
• Air humidity: 40-60%
• Watering: manually
• Fertilisation: Organic Bloom Liquid from Green Buzz Liquids
• Additives/stimulants:  More Roots, Humin Säure Plus, Big Fruits and Clean Fruits from Green Buzz Liquids
• Height: 54 and 79 cm
• Yield: 66.2 and 66.5 grams

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