Cola

The central flower cluster that forms along the top of the main stems and large branches of a mature female cannabis plant. Colas are made up of tightly woven, teardrop-shaped buds that can grow to over 25 cm when grown in greenhouses. They are highly prized by growers and consumers alike for their high concentration of active resin, as well as for their photogenic qualities due to their size and brightness.

The anatomy of a cola

An untrained female cannabis plant will generally reach the flowering phase with most of its growth concentrated upwards on a central stem with minimal upward branching, giving it an overall pear shape. A trained female plant will enter the flowering phase with several budding sites that will encourage the growth of several equal-sized colas throughout the plant.

On an untrained plant, the distance between the nodes, the intersection on the main stem where leaves and branches grow, is smaller towards the top of the plant, giving the top of the main stem an overcrowded appearance with lots of small branches and leaves. When the flowers start to grow and ripen, the untrained cannabis plant concentrates most of its metabolic energy towards the top of the plant and produces a large cola with many small buds below.

The ripe flowers growing on these clustered nodes develop into each other, giving the whole upper third of the plant the appearance of one giant bud. Despite what it may seem, cola is made up of numerous small buds rich in trichomes which have ripened along the upper stem, and are surrounded by numerous sugar leaves which are also covered in trichomes. Breaking a bud in the middle of a cola reveals the central stem that holds the plant's entire structure together. Because colas have a large stem in the middle, astute cannabis buyers often avoid buying colas so they don't have to pay for a stem.

Growers often use training techniques during the vegetative phase to encourage the growth of several budding sites and discourage the growth of a single cola. As these plants move into the flowering phase, the larger branches develop colas, and the term main cola is sometimes used to differentiate them. Pruning and trellising offer distinct advantages of spatial efficiency and even light distribution, and have become ubiquitous in both indoor and outdoor cannabis cultivation. Pruning and training techniques such as trellising Screen of Green (SCROG), Sea of Green, and others, all aim to achieve more uniform growth between the main stem and the branches. This produces colas that are generally shorter and less voluminous.

Buds at the top of the cola plant often have a higher cannabinoid content than those at the bottom. This hypothesis is based on differences in light intensity, which have an impact not only on plant growth, but also on potential cannabinoid production. However, pruning a plant to ensure even light distribution can theoretically reduce the disparity in THC levels between flowers on the main stem and those on the branches.

How is cola produced?

The growth of cola follows the formation of flowers on the cannabis plant - cola is simply a large group of buds. However, the authorized use of the associated botanical terms is useful for connoisseurs, lumberjacks and growers alike.

As the cannabis plant emerges from the seedling stage, the leaves it produces increase from three to five, then to seven fingers. Larger, finer-leafed sativas can grow up to nine fingers. Towards the end of the plant's vegetative cycle, leaves begin to return to five, then three near the top of the plant. Branching is also minimal at the end of the cannabis plant's vegetative cycle. Fewer leaves near the top give the flowers more room to grow, allowing them to see direct sunlight.

In more technical terms, seed germination precedes the emergence of two cotyledon leaves at the first node. This node gives rise to a set of two further leaves from a second node growing perpendicular to the cotyledons. The stem between them lengthens, and another set of leaves grows from the next node, perpendicular to the last, and so on. The first set of leaves to grow after the cotyledons have the characteristic serrated edges of cannabis leaves, but their leaf arrangement, or phyllotaxy, has only one leaflet (finger). The second set of leaves develops three leaflets, the third develops five, up to seven, and even nine during the most intense phase of vegetative growth. The phyllotaxy changes again as the plant approaches its maximum height; the number and size of leaflets decreases, and the length of branches decreases considerably in the upper third of the main stem.

The decussate phyllotactic arrangement (i.e. symmetrical leaf growth at each node) can in some cases transform into an alternate phyllotactic arrangement as the late summer flowering cycle approaches. Alternate phyllotaxy means that a single leaf grows at each node, instead of two, and occurs in the upper third of the plant, where cola grows.

The beginning of the flowering cycle is marked by the formation of primordial flowers at each node. These are initially undifferentiated between females and males, but females quickly develop bracts and calyces at the nodes behind the stipule, at the intersection of the petiole and the main stem. During the first five weeks of flowering, many more bracts and calyxes are produced. pistils emerge at each node, and the cola begins to take shape as a cluster of cannabis flowers that are abundant in white pistils from top to bottom, giving them a hairy appearance. In the last three weeks of flowering, the bracts swell while the pistils shrink and turn brown. Mature cannabis plants often collapse to one side due to the increased weight of the resinous, swollen trichomes that cover every part of the cola's anatomy. Growers use trellising to support the main cola and smaller colas on lower branches.