Why strain? 🦠

Basic Growing Info
#1

I have to ask, as a plant nerd, why does the cannabis community use the word strain as synonymous to variety or cultivar. Strain has always been a reference to fungi🍄, bacteria🧫 and viruses🦠. Sometimes I catch myself referring to a cannabis variety as a strain and it makes me feel a bit like I’m going backwards with my accuracy of correct terminology. As a large community of cannabis professionals and hobbiests, can we attempt to use the correct words, “cultivar” and “variety” to describe the varieties of plants we’ve selected? I think it would make the cannabis industry look a little more respectable and legitimate if we used the right terms. No offense to anyone at all. It’s just something Ive always noticed but have never brought up.

Thanks for your input and level-headed responses. OG rules!

:seedling::green_heart::rhinoceros:

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#2

How about we get Indica and Sativa correct first and then we can move onto “strain.”

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#3

How about “breed”?
Like a cockapoo, or puggle, today’s weed varieties are nature’s melting pot of people’s curiously selected genetic traits to suit their aesthetic preferences. You could say “cultivar”, but i think thats more like a “litter” in that sure, its a bunch of cockapoo dog babies, but its This dog’s babies… (i think)

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#4

That’s a valid question, as I think most horticulture/gardening folks would say that “variety” is the better word.
I think it’s maybe just a cannabis culture thing.

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#5

Hard to teach an old dog new tricks. (frequent offender)

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#6

I often say cultivar

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#7

Most definitely is a thing. I never associated with many other growers before, so as a plant enthusiast I used variety. But being around folks using strain, I catch myself sometimes saying it too. And I’m an old dog. :wink:

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#8

At this point, I’d question more whether or not it’s actually evolved into correct terminology for cannabis specifically. After all, according to Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, and other well-respected dictionaries, “crunk” is now a word. That’s how etymology works - words evolve out of nonsense sounds, and once enough people know what they stand for they become “real words.”

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#9

Strain is a perfectly acceptable term when talking about plants. You can find white papers about strains of Arabidopsis. Sequencing of natural strains of Arabidopsis thaliana with short reads - PubMed

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#10

Fun observation brother!
It is interesting the way that cannabis cultivators have “warped” the language of biology.
I’m reminded of the fact that we also take any two plants, cross them, and then call the generation f1.
I’ve learned that is incorrect, unless both parents are IBL… but in weed land, we all know what f1 means.
A theory:
The fact that cannabis cultivators have historically operated outside the academy, and other scientific institutions, created a subculture where those individuals attempting to collaborate in the underground needed to have a common language to describe their experiences. These non-botanists read what they could, and likely brought their understanding of an academic language to conversations about cannabis.
In the process, a new language was created; similar to the one you are referencing, but as unique as American English is to the King’s English, or Spanish in Mexico vs Spanish in Spain.
To me cannabis nomenclature is simply a dialect; if we know what is being said, it’s effective.
If we need to express ourselves in an academic way, then I do see value in learning the scientific dialect as well, but I don’t think it’s necessary to change our “local” dialect if it is serving its purpose 🪙🪙

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#11

I think its just the word itself people don’t like to use. 3 syllables sounds aggressive lol. Varietal says the same thing but just feels better when saying it. I say strain even though it feels wrong. It’s all silly but we should try to fall more inline with what is used in horticulture.

D

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#12

but I smoke weed to forget Botany class…

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#13

Hallelujah my guy!

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#14

Weird you posted this as I just watched a video/listened to a podcast a day or two ago with someone saying the same thing.

We could call it cultivar or variety but we’d still have things like “drops” that make it sound more like DnB than jazz, and all color packages that look like confectionary more than wine.

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#15

I thought it was f1, and the f1 x f1=f2

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#16

A true F1 hybrid would be from two unrelated parents who were IBL. An F2 would be a cross between two F1s.

I think you maybe meant to write F1 rather than F2. In the weed world there a lot of F1s that aren’t true F1 hybrids. I’m not sure what they’d be called in the world of maize or whatever, I suppose just hybrids.

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#17

I meant f1, and I clarified my post. Thank you. :bear::+1:

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#18

I’m interested to hear this. Any chance you could share? Just a thing that my old brain has always put up a red flag for.
I agree @HeadyBearAdventures , I always just assumed it was because it was counterculture. Passed on skills outside of the institutional systems.
It does have a similar meaning, just for different life forms.

Haha.Crunk. I hear you @Cormoran. Guess I’ll update my brain to include Cannabis sativa and indica to the other “strains” lists. I love OG. :green_heart::green_heart::green_heart: Thanks for all the great input.

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#19

Probably because it was easier to say than Thin leafed or wide leafed Drug type Cultivar.From my recollection Sativa was a wide based Wording to explain “any” Type of plant that was cultivated for a use by man food,Drug,Rope,Material ect.

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#20

I will have another look when I’m home. I only really watch YouTube so 2 days of history throws up a lot of stuff. It could one of many hour long vids

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