Some strains earn their name the hard way. Black Maple — Dulce de Uva x Sherbanger, bred by Harry Palms of Bloom Seed Co — finishes so dark in the right conditions that the flower looks dipped, and it backs the bag appeal with a 20–29% THC range and one of the strangest, best noses in modern breeding: grapes and dark berries over something people keep describing as pancake batter. This guide covers the genetics, the near-black fade and how to trigger it, and everything we have learned running this cut in our own room. Black Maple clones are available here, cut to order and HLVD-screened before they ship.
Key Takeaways
- Black Maple is an indica-dominant cross of Dulce de Uva and Sherbanger from Harry Palms at Bloom Seed Co, one of the best dessert-gas breeders working today.
- Published testing puts it between 20 and 29% THC — this is a genuinely strong evening cut, not a dinner-party smoke.
- The near-black purple fade is real but temperature-driven: cool lights-off temps in late flower make the difference between black flower and green flower with the same smell.
- It flowers in 9–10 weeks indoors, finishes by mid-October outdoors, and published yields run up to 650 g/m² inside and up to 1,200 g/plant for large outdoor plants.
- The bushy structure loves a ScrOG net and needs interior defoliation to avoid larf and moisture problems.
- As a clone, you lock in the exact pheno — with a cross this new, seed phenos vary widely and not all of them go black.
Black Maple Genetics
Credit where it is due: Harry Palms at Bloom Seed Co has quietly built one of the strongest dessert-gas catalogs in the game, and Black Maple is a standout from it. This is a documented modern cross, and both parents pull real weight.
The mother, Dulce de Uva, is a Grape Pie x OG Kush cross. She contributes the deep grape sweetness, the OG backbone in the stone, and — critically — the anthocyanin pigment that lets this plant fade to near-black in bloom. The father side, Sherbanger, brings the creamy sherbet funk, dense frost-coated bud structure, and a gassy edge that keeps the sweetness from going flat. Stack them and you get something rare in the current market: a designer cross that actually smells like breakfast, ripe blackberries and griddled dough over savory gas, instead of yet another interchangeable cookie.
Understanding the parents tells you how to grow the plant. The OG blood explains the appetite for training and the potency ceiling; the Grape Pie side explains the color response to cold; the Sherbanger explains the density that demands airflow late. Genetics is not trivia — it is the grow plan.
Aroma, Flavor and Terpene Profile
We are not printing a terpene breakdown for this cut, because we have not found published lab terpene data we trust, and we do not print guesses. What is well documented is the profile itself, and it is genuinely unusual. Up front: ripe grapes and dark berries, closer to blackberry jam than fresh fruit. In the middle: pepper and exotic spice. Underneath: that strange, wonderful savory layer growers keep reaching for breakfast metaphors to describe — pancake batter, sandalwood, a low hum of gas.
The flavor leans blueberry ice cream with earthy spice on the exhale. Combined with near-black, frost-coated flower, it is one of the most distinctive jars you can put on a table. In a blind smell test against generic purple strains, nobody confuses this for Granddaddy anything.
Black Maple Effects: What To Expect
Black Maple hits fast, and it hits behind the eyes first — a quick cerebral thump that settles into heavy, carefree body relaxation. Reviewers consistently describe a jovial, relaxed state with a creative streak in the first hour before the indica side takes the wheel. This is an evening cut through and through: session smoke with friends and food nearby, then a soft landing toward the couch.
Respect the numbers. At 20–29% THC, one bowl too many and your plans for the evening become theoretical. New consumers and low-tolerance smokers should treat it like the heavyweight it tests as. The onset pattern is worth knowing in advance: the cerebral phase arrives within minutes, the body weight builds over the following half hour, and the total ride runs long for a modern hybrid. Plan it as the last strain of the night, not a stepping stone to something else.
Black Maple Stats at a Glance
| Stat | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Indica-dominant hybrid |
| Lineage | Dulce de Uva x Sherbanger (Harry Palms, Bloom Seed Co) |
| THC range | 20–29% (published testing) |
| Flowering time | 9–10 weeks indoor; mid-October outdoor |
| Yield | Up to 650 g/m² indoor; up to 1,200 g/plant outdoor |
| Difficulty | Moderate |
Growing Black Maple: What You Need To Know
Black Maple grows as a bushy plant of moderate height — a welcome change from the stretch monsters — and it is forgiving enough that we rate it moderate rather than advanced. It runs well indoors or out, finishing by roughly mid-October in most outdoor climates.
The headline technique is the color. The blackish-purple fade is temperature-driven: hold your lights-off temperature in the low 60s Fahrenheit for the final two to three weeks of flower and the foliage and calyxes go nearly black. Keep the room warm and you get a green plant with the same smell and half the shelf presence. If you are growing this strain, you are growing it partly for the look, so plan your late-flower environment from day one — our VPD guide helps you manage humidity as you drop those night temps, because cold nights plus dense flower is exactly where condensation problems start.
Space planning is simpler than with the sativas: moderate height means it fits a standard tent without heroics, and the width comes from branching you control with training rather than uncontrollable stretch. Veg it four to six weeks from a rooted clone for a single-plant tent run, shorter if you are packing multiple plants per light. Outdoors, give it room to bush and stake the main branches by August — the flower weight this plant can carry will fold unsupported limbs in a September storm.
New to clones entirely? Start with the week-by-week clone timeline so you know what a healthy first month looks like before this plant starts bushing out.
Training for Maximum Yield
This plant was made for a ScrOG net. The bushy, branchy structure fills a screen evenly with minimal coaxing, and screen-trained runs are where those up-to-650 g/m² numbers become believable. Top once in early veg to multiply the leaders, weave through the net during stretch, and stop training once flowers set.
The non-negotiable companion move is interior work. Because Black Maple grows dense and bushy, strip the interior growth around the start of flower and again near day 21 — larfy inner sites steal energy, and trapped moisture inside a cold, dense late-flower canopy is asking for rot. If you have not run a screen before, our ScrOG vs SOG guide covers which approach fits your space, and the topping and LST guide handles the fundamentals.
Feeding and Nutrition
Feed it like the OG-blooded indica it is: a solid but not extreme appetite. Standard veg nutrition builds the bush; through flower it takes a normal bloom program and rewards a modest PK bump in mid-flower without demanding boutique boosters. The fade you want at the end is pigment, not deficiency — so do not starve the plant chasing color. Cold does the work; nitrogen starvation just costs you yield.
Taper feed through the final two weeks alongside the temperature drop, and keep an eye on runoff rather than feeding by label. Dense-flowered cuts punish overfeeding late with harsh smoke, and this one is too pretty to ruin in the cure.
Common Problems
Bud rot risk in late flower is the one to respect. Cold nights, dense flowers, and a bushy interior are the classic recipe — the defoliation passes and steady airflow are your insurance, and if you skip them, check deep in the colas weekly from week seven on.
Second, green-plant disappointment: growers who keep a warm room and expect black flower anyway. The color is environmental. Follow the low-60s lights-off protocol or accept a green harvest with the same nose.
Third, overwatering the bushy structure in veg — a dense canopy shades the medium and slows dry-back. Water by pot weight, not schedule; our watering guide covers the technique.
Why Buy Black Maple as a Clone Instead of Seeds
Black Maple is a young cross, and young crosses mean pheno variation in seed form: different color expression, different flower windows, different ratios of grape to gas. Some seed phenos will not go black at all. A clone skips the lottery — you get the exact selected cut, the one already vetted for the fade, the nose, and the structure, and every harvest after that is repeatable.
Clones also save you the pheno-hunt math. Hunting a keeper through a pack of seeds costs months of veg time, sexing, and flowering test runs before you even know what you have. For a grower who wants this specific plant rather than a breeding project, the cut is simply the shorter path. Our mothers are maintained in-house and screened for hop latent viroid — worth reading about in our HLVD guide, because viroid-infected clones from unverified sources are the biggest hidden risk in the cutting market. Get your Black Maple clone here, or browse our full lineup of indica-dominant clones.
Who Is Black Maple For?
Growers who care about bag appeal will get the most from this cut — it is a showpiece plant that also happens to yield. It suits intermediate growers comfortable managing late-flower environment, evening smokers who want genuine potency with a dessert-gas profile, and anyone who has grown tired of green flower that all looks the same on the shelf.
Skip it if you cannot control your lights-off temperature, because you will be leaving the plant’s best trick on the table. And if your tolerance is low or you want daytime smoke, look at our sativa shelf instead — this one ends evenings, it does not start mornings.
Harvesting, Drying, and Curing
Indoors, the window is 9–10 weeks; outdoors, plan for mid-October. Judge by trichomes — mostly cloudy with amber showing for the full-weight body effect — and remember the plant will look darker than the trichomes suggest, so do not let the black fade trick you into chopping early.
Dry slow and cool, around 60/60 for ten to fourteen days. The savory pancake-batter layer of the nose is the first thing a hot, fast dry destroys, and it is the layer that makes this strain worth growing. Cure at least three weeks in jars with daily burps early on; the grape sweetness deepens noticeably between week one and week four. Dense buds hold moisture in the core, so check jars carefully in the first week. Full walkthrough in our drying and curing guide.
FAQ
What are Black Maple’s parent strains?
Black Maple is Dulce de Uva (Grape Pie x OG Kush) crossed with Sherbanger, bred by Harry Palms of Bloom Seed Co. The Dulce de Uva side brings grape sweetness and the dark pigment; Sherbanger brings creamy funk, density, and gas.
Why isn’t my Black Maple turning black?
Temperature. The near-black fade requires cool lights-off temperatures — low 60s Fahrenheit — during the final two to three weeks of flower. In a warm room the plant stays green with the same aroma and potency, just without the show.
How strong is Black Maple?
Published testing runs 20–29% THC, which puts it firmly in the heavyweight class. Expect a fast cerebral onset followed by heavy body relaxation. It is an evening strain; plan accordingly.
Is Black Maple good for beginners?
It is a moderate-difficulty plant. The growing itself is forgiving, but getting the signature color and protecting dense buds from rot in a cold finish takes environmental control most first-time growers do not have dialed yet. A motivated beginner with a controlled tent can absolutely pull it off.
