The Official Cannabis Independent strain guides
Blue Cheese Shop

Genetics

Is Blue Cheese indica or sativa? Its genetics and family tree

Blue Cheese is an indica-dominant cross of Blueberry and Cheese, a pungent Skunk #1 phenotype from England.1,2,3,4 Sources agree on those two parents but not on the details: which Cheese was used, and whether the cross was backcrossed to Cheese.2,5,6

Family tree

  • BlueberryIndica; credited to DJ Short; late 1970s
  • Cheese (UK or Exodus Cheese)Skunk #1 phenotype; England, late 1980s or early 1990s

Blue Cheese

  • Triple CheeseBlue Cheese × Cheese (Barney's Farm)
  • Double CheeseBlue Cheese × Cheese (Big Buddha Seeds)
  • Purple CheeseBlue Cheese × Purple #1 × Lowryder
  • Blue Cheese AutomaticBlue Cheese × Automatic
  • BluchiBlue Cheese × Biker Kush
  • AirheadzBlue Cheese × Plushberry
Parents and offspring as reported by Leafly, SeedFinder and the breeders.2,7,8,9,10

The two parents

Cheese is a pungent, clone-only Skunk #1 phenotype from southern England.3,4 Soft Secrets reports, as rumor, that the female was selected in 1988 or 1989 from a pack of Skunk #1, and says a clone reached the Exodus crew near Luton around 1995.11 Leafly says UK Cheese was cultivated in the early 1990s by a UK collective known as Exodus, hence its other name, Exodus Cheese.3 Skunk #1 itself was bred by Sacred Seed Co. in the late 1970s from Afghani, Acapulco Gold and Colombian Gold.12

Some seed versions of Cheese add Afghani: Leafly's general Cheese listing, also called Dinafem Cheese, gives Skunk #1 × Afghani and says breeders such as Big Buddha Seeds later added Afghani genetics for more trichomes and bigger yields, and Big Buddha's own Big Buddha Cheese is a UK Cheese × Afghani line.13,14

Blueberry is the indica credited to DJ Short, whose work on it goes back to the late 1970s; Leafly's description gives Purple Thai × Thai, while its family tree shows Afghani × Thai. It won Best Indica at the High Times Cannabis Cup in 2000.15

Which Cheese, and was it backcrossed? Accounts differ

Every source names Blueberry and Cheese, but they describe the cross differently.1,2,5,6 Big Buddha's own description is ambiguous: its text crosses the Blueberry male with the original UK Cheese mother, while its genetics line reads (Skunk No. 1 (Cheese) × Afghani) × Blueberry, the makeup of its Big Buddha Cheese, a UK Cheese × Afghani line.5,14

SourceCheese sideBlueberry side
LeaflyThe original UK Cheese, a Skunk #1 phenotype (female)2A Blueberry male2
Big Buddha Seeds (breeder text on SeedFinder)Its original UK Cheese mother; genetics given as (Skunk No. 1 (Cheese) × Afghani)5A Blueberry male chosen from several breeders' versions; a fruity male from that cross became the father5
WeedmapsA Cheese phenotype Big Buddha had perfected (female)6A Blueberry × Big Buddha Cheese male6
SeedFinder lineageBig Buddha's Cheese: the Exodus Cheese cut × Afghani7DJ Short's Blueberry7
AllBudThe original Cheese, first bred in the UK1A Blueberry male1

Weedmaps' account amounts to a backcross: a Cheese female crossed with a Blueberry × Big Buddha Cheese male.6 Big Buddha's text says the father came from a Blueberry × Cheese cross without restating the mother, while Leafly and AllBud describe a straight cross.1,2,5

How indica is it?

Most sources call it indica-dominant, but the split depends on the source and version: Leafly lists Blue Cheese as an indica, AllBud and Barney's Farm give 80% indica, Big Buddha's listing at Zamnesia 75%, and Royal Queen Seeds' version 60%; Weedmaps and SeedFinder file it as a hybrid.1,2,5,6,16,17,18 Big Buddha nonetheless entered it as a sativa at the 2006 High Times Cannabis Cup, where it placed third in that category.19,20

Big Buddha's original and other seed versions

Unlike its Cheese parent, which Exodus only ever passed on as clones, Blue Cheese is a seed strain: Big Buddha sells it as regular and feminized seed, and Barney's Farm, Royal Queen Seeds and Dinafem sell their own Cheese × Blueberry crosses under the same name, so the name can cover different genetics.11,16,18,21,22

Seed versionCross as listedIndica shareTHC claimed
Big Buddha Seeds (original)(Skunk No. 1 (Cheese) × Afghani) × Blueberry575% (Zamnesia listing)1720% (Zamnesia listing)17
Barney's FarmOriginal Cheese × Blueberry1680%1626%16
Royal Queen SeedsOriginal Cheese × Oregon Blueberry Blend, backcrossed to Cheese1860%18Up to 19%18
DinafemExodus UK Cheese × Blueberry22Indica-dominant2210–14%22

Seed companies' own figures, not independent measurements.

What our lab data adds

State lab records show how loosely the name travels: we counted only strict name matches as Blue Cheese and excluded 50 test results recorded under near-miss names, led by "Blue Cheese Bubblegum" (32 tests); no other name appeared more than 3 times.23

Strains bred from Blue Cheese

StrainCrossSource
Triple CheeseBlue Cheese × Cheese (Barney's Farm)Leafly8
Purple CheesePurple #1 × Blue Cheese × Lowryder, an autoflower (Auto Seeds)Leafly9
Double CheeseBlue Cheese × Cheese (Big Buddha Seeds)SeedFinder7
Blue Cheese AutomaticBlue Cheese × a third-generation autoflower (Big Buddha Seeds)SeedFinder10
BluchiBlue Cheese × Biker Kush (Cheese Gang Seeds)SeedFinder7
AirheadzBlue Cheese × Plushberry (AV3 Genetics)SeedFinder7
Blue BananaBlue Cheese × Ice Cream Banana (Terpethic)SeedFinder7

SeedFinder counts 14 direct descendants of Big Buddha's Blue Cheese.7 Blueberry Cheesecake is not one of them: Leafly lists it as a separate strain bred from Blueberry and Cheese.7,24

Sources

  1. AllBud, Blue Cheese marijuana strain information and reviews. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  2. Leafly, Blue Cheese strain information. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  3. Leafly, UK Cheese strain information. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  4. Leafly, Exodus Cheese strain information. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  5. SeedFinder, Blue Cheese (Big Buddha Seeds): strain info and breeder description. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  6. Weedmaps, Blue Cheese strain page. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  7. SeedFinder, Blue Cheese (Big Buddha Seeds): lineage and hybrids. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  8. Leafly, Triple Cheese strain information. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  9. Leafly, Purple Cheese strain information. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  10. SeedFinder, Blue Cheese Automatic (Big Buddha Seeds). Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  11. Soft Secrets, Classic strains: Cheese (2014-10-20). Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  12. Leafly, Skunk #1 strain information. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  13. Leafly, Cheese strain information. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  14. Weedmaps, Big Buddha Cheese strain page. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  15. Leafly, Blueberry strain information. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  16. Barney's Farm, Blue Cheese (feminized). Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  17. Zamnesia, Blue Cheese (Big Buddha Seeds) feminized: seller listing. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  18. Royal Queen Seeds, Blue Cheese (feminized). Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  19. Wikipedia, Cannabis Cup. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  20. SeedFinder, 19th High Times Cannabis Cup 2006: winners. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  21. SeedFinder, Big Buddha Seeds: breeder profile. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  22. Dinafem, Blue Cheese (feminized). Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  23. Cannlytics (CC BY 4.0), cannabis_results: public state lab results (filtered and aggregated by Official Cannabis). Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
  24. Leafly, Blueberry Cheesecake strain information. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.