Whether you’re a hobby grower or an aspiring breeder, knowing the terminology used by seed makers, breeders, and even seedbanks can help ensure an educated purchase. The terminology is written as I understand it as a passionate cannabis cultivator and breeder. If you notice any errors or wish to suggest any additions, we welcome you to comment at the bottom of the article.
A
Allele
Alleles are segments of a plant’s DNA containing genetic information that determines potential expressions within a genotype. When a seed is formed, it inherits two alleles, which can be dominant or recessive. The combination of these alleles determines how a plant expresses its traits.
Autoflower
Autoflower is a term used to describe cannabis plants that begin flowering automatically without needing to change the light cycle. They were created using the Ruderalis plant, an automatic flowering cannabis variety from the north of Eastern Europe. These plants are typically smaller than their photoperiod counterparts and have a shorter lifespan. Additionally, they cannot be efficiently cloned.
B
Bract
The bract is an area of the female cannabis flower where seeds are produced once the plant has been pollinated. Bracts have a high density of trichomes, relatively speaking.
Breeding
Sometimes made distinct from seed making, breeding is the term used to describe goal-orientated seed making where the breeder will work lines and make selections to get to a goal they’ve set. For instance, a breeder may want to stabilize specific traits.
BX (Backcross)
The abbreviation of BX stands for backcross, a method of seed making where the breeder will cross a plant with one of its parents, a grandparent, etc, or another strain where that parent’s expressions are dominantly expressed.
For instance, let’s assume we have the following strain:
Military Chocolate (Bubba Kush X Tropicana Cookies)
Now, I want to strengthen the Tropicana Cookies side of things. Say I want to reinforce the presence of the Naartjie terps. I can backcross the Military Chocolate to a cut of Tangie, and by reinforcing those genes into the line, you’ll strengthen them.
Some breeders may choose not to cross it directly to the Tangie, but perhaps they’d pick something with Tangie, such as Sour Tangie.
C
CBD
A non-psychoactive cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant. CBD seeds are bred to provide relatively lower amounts of THC and higher CBD. The result is typically a strain with less psychoactive effects but remains medicinal.
Chemotype
While Chemotype is used in a few ways, it most often refers to the composition of cannabinoids and terpenes within the plant. Each plant technically has its own unique genotype. Still, the term is sometimes used on a broader scale, particularly in literature. The five main umbrella chemotypes commonly referenced are High THC, Balanced THC & CBD, CBD dominant hemp fiber with < 0.2% THC, CBG dominant, and finally, plants that are low on all cannabinoid production.
Still, it is important to note that the term chemotype is used slightly differently, depending on the context. But as a brief summary, it most often refers to how much THC, CBD, or certain terpenes a plant creates on a genetic level.
Clone
A clone is a cannabis plant that has been rooted from a cutting and not from seed. Clones are typically taken from a mother plant and are used indefinitely to grow the same plant.
Clone-Only
The term clone-only refers to specific strains that cannot be truly bought in seed form without being inauthentic. They are plants that have typically been selected for their standout traits. The topic of clone-only strains is contentious, as many breeders have resorted to using these strain names to sell seeds, even if they’re the same thing.
For instance, even if you bought seeds of a BX or S1 cross to these clone-only varieties, they may carry similar genes, but they will rarely be identical to the cut. Most of the world’s most famous clone-only strains are only available to the US market and, in some cases, don’t even make it into the clone market.
Examples of clone-only strains include Girl Scout Cookies, OG Kush, Sour Diesel, GG#4, and Apple Fritter, to name just a few.
Colloidal Silver
Colloidal silver is a liquid mixture of fine silver particles. In cannabis, colloidal silver is often used as a reversal method to get female plants to start developing male flowers. This is how feminized cannabis seeds are made.
Cotelydon
The cotyledon is the rounded first leaf of the cannabis plant that emerges prior to any ‘true leaves’. These leaves are arguably the most important in the plant’s life cycle and damage to the cotyledons in the early stages of life can stunt growth.
Crossbreed
Crossbreeding is the opposite of backcrossing. Instead of trying to remove diversity, it aims to create diversity. This is done by crossing two distinctly different plants to create a wider gene pool. It is sometimes used interchangeably with the term ‘hybridizing.’
D
Dioecious
The term describes all plants that have separate male and female sexes. While most cannabis plants are dioecious, plants that show both sexes are referred to as monoecious (also known as hermaphrodite).
Duds
A dud seed is a seed that is unviable. Seed dudding differs from general non-germination and implies damage to the embryo, usually caused by age, fluctuating temperatures, or excessively high humidity during storage. The term is frequently misused to describe plants that didn’t germinate due to environmental problems.
E
Entourage Effect
The entourage effect has been discussed in literature for years and is only now starting to gain mainstream traction. It is a term that describes the effects produced by both cannabinoids and terpenes as they occur together. The concept is that isolated cannabinoids are not as effective as those combined with terpenes, which provide additional effects to the user. This is something many breeders consider when making their selections.
Environment
When discussing cannabis plants and germination, this term describes the growing area’s humidity, temperature, CO2, and lighting. Maintaining a suitable environment for each stage of growth is essential.
F
F1 Generation
F1 describes the first generation of a cross, typically when crossbreeding. The term has become synonymous with any cross between two different strains. To help better understand what F1 seeds are, think of it this way.
Say you have a Blue Cheese female and an Amnesia Haze male. If you cross these two strains together, the resulting seeds would be F1, as it’s the first generation of the cross.
F2 Generation
An F2 generation is where two F1 sibling plants have been crossed together. The F2 generation is where recessive traits open up. Depending on how the plants were selected from the F1 population, F2 seeds can have more variability than an F1 hybrid.
F3 Generation
The F3 generation occurs when you cross two F2 plants together. When breeders start selecting from the F2 population to stabilize the line, one can notice more uniformity in this population. Few breeders work past F3 in the modern market. This breeding process can be repeated into the F4, F5, F6, etc generations.
Feminized
Feminized seeds are cannabis seeds that only have a female population. They are created by reversing a female plant (turning it from diecious to monocious). In other words, when the female plant is reversed, it produces pollen like a male plant. This lets breeders and seed makers pollinate female plants with other females.
The result is seeds that do not have males in their population. This method is used more frequently in the modern seed market and has become popular for home growers who don’t want to use males for breeding and only want female plants.
Filial
The term filial is most commonly used in the phrase “filial generation,” it describes the progeny of a parent strain. For example:
“I had some great plants in the first filial generation.”
In other words, they found good plants in the F1 generation.
Flavonoids
Flavonoids are a type of organic compound found within cannabis and other plants. In cannabis, they influence both the taste and flavour, but are different from terpenes. While many still consider terpenes and cannabinoids the sole defining factors of cannabis flavors, there are far more compounds that are less frequently discussed, but all of which play a role in the entourage effect. Flavonoids have a more complex structure than terpenes.
Flowering Time
Flowering time is how long (usually described as weeks or days) it takes for a cannabis plant to go from the start of flower production until the end. Some growers begin counting this period from the first signs of flowers, while others count from when they changed the light cycle to a flowering one.
Breeders will provide an estimate for flowering times for their strains. Still, it’s important to remember that phenotype differences can greatly impact the flowering time, and some plants may flower for several weeks longer than other seeds from the same pack.
G
Genetics
Genetics usually refers to a strain, with consideration to its lineage. The term is used interchangeably with ‘seeds’ quite often.
Genotype
A seed or plant’s genotype is its genetic makeup, the DNA sequence of the plant. The environment cannot influence the genotype as a phenotype can. When comparing genotypes with phenotypes, the difference is that a phenotype is a variable expression of a particular genotype.
To make it easier to understand, let’s draw an analogy.
If you cook the same recipe multiple times, you get slightly different results, and if you give that recipe to someone else, there is likely to be even more variation. That’s because the recipe is just the base, but the results are influenced by the environment and even the freshness of the ingredients.
In the same way, the genotype is like the ingredients; it’s a genetic baseline. But the expressions you see from that genotype can change depending on the environment, what it’s fed, etc. The observable traits expressed from the genotype are called the phenotype.
The term phenotype is often misused, and genotype is what is being referred to instead.
Germination
Germination is the period when the cannabis seed is provided with moisture and subsequently begins its life as a plant. The germination process lasts from the time you plant or soak your seed until the first true leaves appear.
Gibberellic Acid (GA3)
Gibberellic acid is a growth hormone. A naturally occurring PGR that some growers and breeders use to assist in the germination of very old seeds that may otherwise have challenges germinating.
H
H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide)
H2O2, or Hydrogen Peroxide, is a chemical compound that is comprised of two hydrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms. It can be used as a disinfectant as well as a proficient oxidizer. Breeders and growers sometimes use it to assist in germination, where lack of oxygen in the root zone can cause damping off. H2O2 needs to be mixed appropriately in small doses. It is also sometimes used to sterilize tools and pots.
Hermaphrodite (Herm)
Hermaphrodites are plants that express intersex traits. A female plant that produces both male and female flowers is the most common reference when talking about herms, but male cannabis plants can also express intersex traits and produce parts of the female flower.
Husk
The term husk refers to the outer shell of the cannabis seed. These can be solid colour or feature tiger striping. The husk breaks open during the germination process, which allows the plant and its cotyledons to come out.
Hybrid
Hybrid is a somewhat contentious term that is most commonly used to refer to a cross of cannabis strains that are not pure in their lineage. It is supposed to refer to a cross where the mother and father have unique lineages from each other.
The term is often used to simply describe two crosses of different strains, but in many cases these crosses fall under incrossing rather than hybridizing.
I
IBL / Inbred Line
IBL has also become somewhat of a contentious word, with some disagreements about what constitutes an IBL. I believe IBL best refers to plants that have been incrossed to the point of a stable genotype that is reliably expressed in the population. Over time, incrossing narrows down the gene pool, creating more stability in that population. Most times, this occurs naturally in nature, but some breeders work towards creating IBLs, too.
Incrossing / Inbreeding
Incrossing or inbreeding is when you cross a plant with another plant that has a similar genetic makeup in order to strengthen those traits. For instance, if you were to pop 50 seeds from the first filial generation, you’d likely find a variety of expressions from both parents. If you wanted to incross, you could find two similar plants from that population and cross them together. By crossing the siblings with similar traits, you’d further stabilize those traits in the progeny.
It is similar to backcrossing but tends to have slightly more variability, as the gene pool in the sibling F1 population is larger than if you crossed it back to the parent.
Indica / Sativa
The term Indica has become extremely contentious. Originally, it was loosely used along with the term Sativa to describe plants with a particular morphology. Sativa were tall and thin-leafed plants, while Indica was used to describe plants with broad leaves and squatting. People also believed that Indica would make you sleepy and Sativa would make you wired.
While there is some truth to this, these classifications are far too broad, and the topic has become a popular one within the breeding and growing community.
It’s the combination of terpenes and cannabinoids, through the entourage effect, that provides the experience you have when you smoke. Both Indica and Sativa can share similar terpene and cannabinoid profiles, depending on where they grow.
These differences in chemotypes are typically a result of terrain, elevation, and environment of the plant rather than just being. Plants that grow at high altitudes in cold temperatures naturally evolve Indica-like traits, and plants that are grown in areas with lots of heat, sun, and UV light tend to evolve thinner-bladed leaves.
We’re all looking forward to further scientific advancements in these classifications.
Intersex
See Hermaphrodite
L
Landrace
Landrace refers to cannabis plants that have not been domesticated and bred by humans. It tends to incorporate plants that grow naturally in the wild and over extended periods of time develop stable expressions as plants continuously incross, to the point where it essentially becomes an IBL.
M
Monocrop
Monocrop tends to refer to a run of the same strain of cannabis. For instance, some growers will grow multiple varieties in their space. When monocropping, they will use uniform cuts of the same genetic. That is to say, each plant will have the same genotype.
O
Open Pollination
An open pollination is when multiple genotypes of male plants are flowered out in a female population. Open pollination ensures a broader gene pool as genetic diversity from multiple males leaves the line more open than crossing it with a single male.
P
PGR
PGRs is a controversial topic. It stands for Plant Growth Regulators. These hormones drive plant growth, but while some PGRs are naturally occurring (like those found in kelp), other PGRs are synthetically made and given to the plant. Many growers do not have a positive sentiment in relation to synthetic PGRs.
Phenotype
Phenotype refers to the observable expressions of a plant. Unlike the genotype, a phenotype is influenced by its environment and can change depending on where and how the plant is grown.
Photoperiod
Photoperiod plants are those that change their life cycle based on the amount of light they are receiving. For instance, cannabis can be kept in a vegetative state by maintaining sufficient light hours each day. If these hours drop towards between 12 and 14 hours, plants will typically begin their flowering process. The only cannabis plants that are not photoperiod are autoflowers.
Progeny
Progeny refers to the children of a particular plant. For instance, if you cross Columbian Red with Ghost Train Haze, the plants found in the resulting seeds would be the progeny.
Q
Qualitative Traits
Qualitative Traits are morphologic traits that can be observed but cannot be objectively measured. An example of a qualitative trait is the colour of a leaf or the shape of a cola.
Quantitative Traits
Quantitative traits are morphologic traits that can be measured. In cannabis plants, this can refer to the weight or height of the tree, for instance.
R
Resin
Resin is a slang term that’s used to refer to the trichomes of a cannabis plant. It is also sometimes misused to refer to extracts.
Ruderalis
Ruderalis is a classification of cannabis plant that originated from the far northern hemisphere. It is in these harsh, dark, and cold conditions that the Ruderalis evolved different traits than those grown in equatorial areas, for instance. They evolved to automatically flower without the need for light cycle changes, as they needed to in order to survive in those conditions. It was later used to create autoflower strains. By making careful selections, breeders were able to isolate the autoflowering trait and cross it to traditional cannabis varieties. The result is plants with more potency and bigger structures than traditional Ruderalis, but that can flower in any light cycle.
S
Seed Maker
Seed makers and breeders are sometimes put into the same basket, but there is a technical difference between the two. Seed makers are the same as pollen chuckers, making crosses for the sake of seeing what could come out. Breeders, on the other hand, work towards a specific goal and make their crosses with the intention of taking the project towards a final vision they have. Neither one is inherently better than the other; they are just two different things.
Selfing
Selfing is when a cut is reversed onto itself. That is to say, you take cuts from plant A (female), and then you use STS or other reversal sprays to cause the one cut to create pollen. You then take that plant and cross it with the other plant (of itself). This can also occur by accident if a plant herms and pollinates itself. Seeds that are selfed are annotated with S1 for the first generation of the selfing.
Sensimilla
The term for an unseeded female cannabis plant.
Sexual Stability
Sexual stability is a term that refers to a genetic tendency to become intersex (otherwise known as hermaphrodite). A sexually stable plant is one that doesn’t show flowering traits from the opposite sex.
STS Spray
STS stands for Silver Thiosulfate. It is a chemical treatment that causes female plants to produce male pollen. It is a leading method for creating feminized seeds.
T
Terpenes
Terpenes are compounds found within cannabis and other plants. In cannabis, the terpenes are found within the trichome head. These terpenes are responsible for aroma and flavour, as well as having a dramatic impact on the effects through what is known as the entourage effect. Different terpenes are associated with different smells; for instance, limonene is commonly found in lemon-tasting strains and real lemons. The combination of terpenes gives each strain a unique smell and taste.
V
Viability
In cannabis seeds, viability is most commonly used to describe the ability of a plant to breed successfully or for a seed to germinate successfully. Some plants produce unviable pollen, while some seeds may also be unable to germinate. If a seed is viable, it has everything it needs to start its life, assuming the environment is suitable.