Cannabis Terminology and Slang

If you’re new, or even a veteran stoner, it can be overwhelming trying to read and learn about cannabis without understanding all of the lingo. In this blog post, and future posts coming every Wednesday, we’re going to cover 10 of our favorite terms.

Welcome to the first ever BudSeed Weed word weds.

If you have a word or phrase I’ve missed, something you’ve heard recently for the first time, or anything else you’d like included in next weeks post, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Cheers Buds.

Auto / Automatic (seeds): Auto refers to a variety of cannabis that automatically switches from vegetative growth to the flowering stage based on age, in contrast to the ratio of light to dark hours needed with traditional photoperiod cannabis varieties. All seeds on Budseed.ca are automatic feminized.

Feminized (seeds): Any type of seed that has been genetically altered such that they reliably produce female plants. Only female cannabis plants produce flowers (buds) containing high amounts of cannabinoids.

Normal (seeds): Seeds which have not been genetically altered to ensure the gender of the offspring. Regular seeds can produce either male or female plants. When growing regular seeds, Cannabis cultivators must cull/kill all male plants prior to entering the flowering stage or risk having the female flowers (buds) pollinated by a nearby male plant.

Hermy/herm (hermaphrodite): A plant exhibiting both male and female traits. When cannabis plants are under heavy stress, often from environmental factors (light, temperature, moisture), they can ‘herm’ or ‘hermy’ resulting in both male (pollen sacs) and female (pistils) traits being present. Hermaphroditic cannabis is often used in the breeding process of Cannabis, particularly feminized cannabis breeding.

Larf: The bud/flowers that are lacking in density, often from the lower stems of the cannabis plant. Larf normally is feathery and fluffier in appearance than the buds growing at the top of the stems. The lack of light received by the lower buds is the most common cause of larfy bud, or airy bud. Growers typically remove the to-be larf buds early on in the flowering stage, or incorporate advanced growing techniques such as LST or side-lightning to reduce or even eliminate larf.

Cotyledon: The very first leaves that appear from a cannabis seedling. Sometimes referred to as seed leaves. Cotyledon leaves typically grow in a pair, and will fall off the plant early on in the vegetative stage as the plants progresses through its growth cycle.

Calyx: This is the part of the female cannabis plant that is often referred to as the ‘flowers’ or ‘buds’ of the plant. The buds are actually a collection of calyxes growing very closely together. When growing seeds, each of the many calyxes become homes to a single seed after being pollinated.

CFL: Compact Fluorescent Lamp. These lights used to be the most popular lights used to grow cannabis indoors. They were extremely popular in many forms in indoor home lighting, widely available, and had a low cost. CFLs are still able to grow some fire bud if you don’t have access to superior LEDs lights most common today.

Cola: A stem that will grow buds and flowers. Typically, colas refer to the most prominent stems, the bud sites at the top of the canopy closest to the light source. While every single stems on the plant will produce at least some weed, only the large THICK buds at the top of each stem are true COLAS. Its reference to these buds being as large as a can of (coca-)cola.

Medium: The material in which the cannabis is being grown. The commonly used mediums for growing cannabis are dirt, soil, coco coir, water (hydroponics), air (aeroponics), rockwool, vermiculite, perlite.