Leafly Buzz: 12 top weed strains of October

The West Coast is awash in za-za whether you’re into indoor or outs. As Croptober dries in barns and rooms, the indoor growers keep pumping out near-flawless gas, candy, cake, and classic strains.

The last 30 days of reporting took us from Hall of Flowers seshes with Wiz Khalifa, to hash hookahs deep in Mendocino County, CA, to road-testing the new Puffco Pivot high up in the fall trees of Montana.

Here’s your monthly cheat codes for the best bong loads of October. Here’s October’s Leafly Buzz.

Data grinder

We broke out our calculators, plugged into the Leafly strain database, and ran a scan for zaza. Here’s what the stats tell us.

Connie Chung

This rare strain jumped from No. 3,769 to No. 120 after the iconic female anchor mentioned her namesake strain in an interview to promote her new book. Connie Chung is a DNA Genetics LA Flavor x G13.

Moroccan Peaches

Watch out for Purple City Genetics’ Moroccan Peaches—it’s up from #983 to #287 in just a single month. So much good Moroccan Peaches is being made into hash right now. It’s a cross of Spanish Barbara x Lemon Tree Skorange.

Street Tarts

Here comes the next new thing. Street Tarts is a cross of cross of Guava Tart x Street Guru by Purple City Genetics. It’s up more than 200 places in a month to No. 521.

Amnesia Haze

A 20 year-old classic stays strong this October. Amnesia Haze jumps up 25 spots to No. 108 in our 9,000-strain databse.

New in the Leafly strain database

Dark Web

Zoap bagseed is out there in the wild seeding whole new adventures. Among them, Alien Labs Dark Web—everything we’d want in an OGZ x Sherbert.

Gotti Beltz

Gotti and Rainbow Beltz makes for a more aggressive candy strain in Gotti Beltz, which is taking off from Phinest/Dubplatez. Gotti Beltz held court amid a table of zaza at the Phinest booth at Hall of Flowers.

Ridgeline Throbber

One of California’s top growers—Ridgeline Farms is working on new crosses of its hit LANTZ. We got our hands on Ridgeline LANTZ x Gushmints, known as Ridgeline Throbber. If you like your LANTZ even bigger and more minty—this is it.

Gary Satan

Tiki Madman’s Gary Payton x Jealousy project Gary Satan enter the database this month. Look for it among the pack of hype, new-new.

Picks of the dispensaries

New on shelves

Headbanger by Wood Wide Farms

Burning up the charts

Permanent Marker by MOCA Humboldt

Best-sellers

Ballin out

Scotty’s Cake by CAM in Cali

Ballin’ on a budget

Golden Pineapple by Phat Panda

High Note

Puffco Pivot with Alien Labs Z-squared rosin

The world’s leader in electronic dabbing tech, Puffco, returns to refresh thei dab pen for 2024. You load a glob of top-notch rosin into the silicone, flip-top chamber, then stash that thang in your jacket pocket until it’s time to really get zooted. Just double-click the sleek black button on the unit to unleash a huge heat cycle inside the micro-sized ‘360 chamber.’ When the Pivot buzzes, it’s time to sip fresh, bright, maximally flavorful vapor until you tap out.

The $130 device comes with little cotton swabs you use between dabs to keep the chamber clean and tidy. Be prepared—the black silicone tip gets a little gunky as you rip all those resinous dabs. But we’re not mad at it. The Pivot proved easy to master and a delight to experienced dabbers and novices alike. It’s perfect for one-and-done dabbers who value traveling light. Stick some brand new Alien Labs Z2 rosin in there to hit a new peak for a dab pen. Available on Puffco.

OK, we’re turning and burning into Croptober and Green Wednesday. Keep your notifications on.

Growers, breeders, brands, stores—got buzz for Leafly? We’re all ears. Email us at david.downs@leafly.com