Why It’s Important to Trim Your Buds Before Harvesting

Did you know that experts expect the cannabis industry will be valued at a hundred million dollars by 2030?

While the industry continues to grow, it’s also likely to become more competitive. This means that successful marijuana growers will need to know how to produce the best possible buds. Since consumers prefer buds that are free of leaves, it’s important to know how to trim them correctly. 

To help you know what to do to start trimming buds like a pro, we’ve created a guide. Keep reading and we’ll tell you what you need to know. 

Why It’s Important to Trim Your Buds Before Harvesting

If you want your plants to grow large buds, you should start trimming them while they are still young. The goal of doing this is to get rid of large leaves that take energy away from the developing buds. 

It’s also important to trim away leaves and stems that are dead or dying because they take away the plant’s precious resources. Once you’ve trimmed them, the plant will be able to use its energy to grow new leaves, stems, and buds. 

 

When to Start Trimming Your Plants

Growers often make the mistake of waiting too long to start trimming their plants. As a result, their marijuana becomes bushy and doesn’t grow as quickly as it should. 

You also don’t want to start trimming too early because it’s possible your plants won’t be mature enough to recover from losing their leaves. This means that their growth might be stunted. 

Once your marijuana plants are at least a month old, you can start trimming away dead leaves. But it is a good idea not to start doing serious trimming until several weeks before you’re ready to harvest. You should focus on getting rid of large fan leaves that block the sun from reaching other parts of the plant. 

The Benefits of Properly Trimming Your Buds After Harvesting Them

The buds that people see on display in magazines and at dispensaries are painstakingly manicured. By trimming your buds in this way, you’ll make it more likely that people will want to pay top dollar for your marijuana. 

Not only will trimmed buds smell better, but their scent will be more potent. Untrimmed buds, on the other hand, tend to have a stale smell that isn’t appealing. 

Untrimmed marijuana tends to be harsh on the throat and lungs, which causes people to cough. If you choose to trim away the extra leaves before smoking the marijuana you’ve grown, you’ll notice that they have a smoother flavor when you smoke them. 

Lastly, trimmed buds tend to have higher concentrations of THC. The leaves that you trim away, even though they sometimes have trichomes encrusted on them, have much lower levels of THC gram-for-gram. 

If you don’t like the idea of wasting plant matter by trimming it away, don’t worry because there are several easy ways to make use of your trim. This includes making dry ice hash or butter.

You can add dry ice hash to the top of bowls that you smoke to increase how potent they are. And it’s possible to add butter to edibles. 

Dry vs Wet Trimming

All growers have different techniques and ideas about wet trimming and dry trimming. Both have their pros and cons. 

People who embrace wet trimming tend to want to get the job done as quickly as possible. This makes sense if you run a business and don’t want to pay for extra overhead in trimming costs. 

There are others who don’t want to lose valuable trichomes and sugars by trimming leaves away too quickly. Therefore, they choose to dry trim their buds, which means that they only trim their buds after drying them first. 

Some people choose to dry trim and wet trim their buds. They do a wet trim to get rid of the biggest leaves. Then, after drying their plants for several days they perform a dry trim to get rid of the smallest leaves. This is a great strategy if you want your buds to trim your buds with precision. 

Since different growers will say different things about what the correct procedure is for trimming buds, it’s important to know that there is no right or wrong answer. These are just different techniques that share the same end goal: getting rid of unnecessary leaves so that your buds will have the highest possible concentration of THC. 

Hand Trimming Versus Machine Trimming

Hand trimming involves trimming every bud by hand. This is the most traditional strategy for getting rid of leaves and stems. It is a dependable method that delivers great results, even if it takes longer.

If you have a team of skilled trimmers to help you out, it’s possible to trim several dozen pounds of buds per day. If your helpers don’t know what they’re doing, it will probably take much longer. This is why people often choose machine trimming. 

 

Benefits of Hand Trimming

If you value quality and aesthetics, then you should consider trimming by hand. Every bud will be tended with attention, which will mean that its unique characteristics will be more obvious. 

Hand trimming also tends to be more precise than machine trimming, which means that your buds will have a higher quality and will be larger. This is because they will lose fewer trichomes. Lastly, trimmed buds are prettier, which means that people will value them more than buds that are trimmed on machines. 

 

Downsides of Hand Trimming

It’s necessary to put a lot of time and energy into the trimming process when you do it by hand. If you’ve got a huge quantity of buds to trim, it’s going to take a long time to do it by hand. This means that you need to be prepared for it to take many days and cost you a lot of money.

Therefore, many commercial growers choose to save money and time by using machines. 

 

Benefits of Machine Trimming

In recent years machine trimming technology has made huge advances. There are various sizes of machines that trim at different speeds. The ones that trim more quickly tend to cost more as well. A high-quality commercial trimmer can trim around nine kilograms (about twenty pounds) per hour. 

Even though most people agree that hand-trimmed buds tend to be of higher quality, the newest commercial trimmers are able to trim buds that look like they were done by hand. 

 

Downsides of Machine Trimming

Critics of machine trimming say that the process damages buds. Hand-trimmed buds tend to have more trichomes and resin than machine-trimmed buds. 

Machine trimmers also tend to take too much of the bud away. This means that buds tend to be smaller. Not only will you have less marijuana if you choose to machine trim, but it’s also possible that the potency and flavor of your buds will be negatively impacted.  

Lastly, machine trimmers cost a lot of money. Smaller ones that are not efficient will only cost you a few hundred dollars, but commercial models cost thousands of dollars. 

How to Trim Buds

Once you harvest your plants, it’s time to trim them. Here are the most important steps that you need to take to properly trim your buds. 

 

Cut Down the Branches

Get a pair of large shears and break down the biggest branches. Make sure you are handling the branches so that you don’t disturb the buds. Since they are still wet, it’s possible to flatten them if you lay them down on a surface. 

You should also make sure that the branches that hold the buds are just the right length. They should not be too short or too long. Take the cut branches and place them in a container. 

 

Get Rid of the Fan Leaves

With your trimming scissors, snip away the large fan leaves (also known as water leaves). It’s easy to identify these leaves. They are larger than the rest and tend to be bright green. 

 

Trim Away the Small Leaves

The next step is to get rid of the tiny leaves that stick out from the buds. As noted before, some people choose to do this while dry trimming. Others prefer to dry their buds before doing a dry trim to get rid of the smaller leaves. 

Some people choose to remove all of the smaller leaves, while others like to leave ones behind that are covered in trichomes. Just keep in mind that buds that have more leaves on them tend to have a more harsh taste when you smoke them. 

Important Tools for Trimming

If you’re just growing a few plants, it’s not necessary to spend a lot of money on your tools for trimming, especially if you’ll be trimming by hand. On the other hand, if you’ve got a lot of buds to trim, you might want to invest in top-of-the-line equipment, including a trimming machine. Here are some of the most important trimming tools.

Specialty Scissors that Are Sharp

There are various companies that manufacture scissors that are specifically designed for trimming marijuana. They have sharp bent blades that make it easy to trim away tiny leaves.

Other people prefer to use Fiskars scissors because their blades are sharp and they have a built-in spring. Keep in mind that your hand can get tired after using these scissors for many hours on end.

 

Pruning Shears

You’ll need these when you’re harvesting. They are great for cutting down entire plants and large branches. These are not ideal for using to trim buds.

 

Latex Gloves

Marijuana leaves and buds are incredibly sticky. If you don’t wear gloves, the resins and trichomes will stick to your hands. You’ll have to use special solutions to wash them away.

Since human skin has particulates that can damage your buds, you’ll also protect your plants if you wear gloves while handling them.

 

Metal or Plastic Trays

You’ll need several trays while trimming by hand. You can use one to hold your untrimmed buds, another for those that have been trimmed, and a third one for putting the trim (foilage that you’ve cut from the buds).

 

A Magnifying Glass

When you start harvesting plants it’s important to be able to tell which ones are ready and which ones need more time to grow. This is why you should always have a magnifying glass handy. You can use it to look at the buds of a plant to find out whether or not it is growing trichomes.

 

Rubbing Alcohol

If you get resin on your hands, rubbing alcohol will help you to wash it away. It’s also great to use when cleaning your tools and work area.

A Trimming Machine

Before buying the right trimming machine, you’ll need to decide if you want to wet trim or dry trim your buds. You also need to know how many buds you’ll need to trim.

If you just need to trim buds from several plants, all you’ll need is a basic model. On the other hand, if you’re trimming huge quantities of buds, it’s a good idea to invest in an industrial trimmer.

Start Trimming Buds Today

If you’re ready to start trimming buds like a pro, it’s important to first learn about the trimming process. You’ll need to decide if you want to trim by hand or if you want to use a machine. You’ll also need to decide whether or not you want to dry trim or wet trim. 

Do you still need help to get started trimming your buds? If so, we’re here to help. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for anything you might need.