Is Tropicana Cherry indica or sativa? Its genetics and family tree

The two parents

Tropicana Cookies is the mother. Leafly credits it to Harry Palms of Bloom Seed Co, who crossed GSC with Tangie; Oni Seed Co of Colorado later made a second generation, Tropicanna Cookies F2, and the strain is also sold as MTN Trop. Leafly files it as a sativa whose top effects are focused, energetic and uplifted.³ Tangie, the grandparent on that side, is a California Orange × Skunk-1 sativa known for its tangerine aroma, which Leafly calls a remake of the 1990s Tangerine Dream.¹¹

Cherry Cookies is the father. Relentless Genetics describes Tropicana Cherry as Tropicana Cookies crossed with its Cherry Cookies F3 “stud”, and SeedFinder calls it Relentless’s own Cherry Cookies F3 male.^1,2 Leafly lists Cherry Cookies as Cherry Pie (aka Cherry Kush) × Cookies F2 and ranks it among the most popular GSC crosses, next to Pink Cookies and Thin Mint GSC; Cherry Pie itself is Granddaddy Purple × F1 Durb.^4,12

How sativa is it?

Most sources put it at 60% sativa: Relentless Genetics, AllBud, SeedFinder, Prime Cuts Nursery and Skunk magazine’s strain report all give 60/40, and Weedmaps calls it sativa-leaning, although the same Weedmaps description also calls it “nearly-balanced”.^{1,2,5,13,14,15} Leafly files it simply as a hybrid and rates its effects mostly energizing; Maryland’s Curio Wellness and Montana’s Groove Solventless sell it as a sativa, and Blimburn Seeds lists its seed version as 50% indica, 50% sativa.^6,16,17,18

The Relentless cut, a backcross and seed versions

SeedFinder says Relentless Genetics’ Tropicana Cherry was never sold as feminized seed, and the breeder himself writes of a “trop cherry clone”. In a note published with the seed bank BlackBuffalo’s listing, Relentless says he went through 130 seeds of a backcross, Trop Cherry × Queen of the South, and now prefers it to the clone; it is sold as Trop Cherry Bx1, in regular seeds.^2,10

Other seeds sold under the name are separate lines. Barney’s Farm sells a feminized Tropicana Cherry, made with the Berlin techno duo FJAAK according to SeedFinder, and lists its genetics as Tropicana Cookies × “Tropicanna Cherry” while its description says Tropicana Cookies × Cherry Cookies with Barney’s “Evo” twist.^19,20 Hypno Seeds and Blimburn Seeds sell feminized seeds they describe as Tropicana Cookies × Cherry Cookies.^18,21

What our lab data adds

Our strict matching counts “Tropicana Cherry” and “Trop Cherry” as the same strain.²² In state lab records, 92 of the 265 tests on this site were labelled “Trop Cherry” and the rest “Tropicana Cherry”.²² It excluded another 50 results, 28 of them flower, sold under near-miss names such as “OCal Tropicana Cherry” (5) and “Tropicana Cherrys” (5), and crosses such as “LA Bomba × Trop Cherry WF”, “Zanimals × Tropicana Cherry #15” and “Rozay × Tropicana Cherry #12”.²²