Trimming is essentially removing stems and leaves from your cannabis plants’ flowers. Essentially, removing everything that you’re not going to be using. Just like with other topics dealt with on this blog, there are many ways and theories dealing with trimming cannabis plants – let’s go over the various options and recommendations so you can choose the right way for you.
Cannabis leaves are incredibly important, as they’re in charge of photosynthesis, storing energy as carbs, metabolizing vitamins and hormones, storing nutrients etc. These are incredibly important for proper plant growth; this is why we don’t recommend removing leaves while the plants are growing, unless it’s absolutely necessary to increase light reach – even then, we recommend removing as few as possible.
Once harvesting time rolls around, the leaves become less important and less necessary, so you can tuck a some of them under the flowers if light is becoming an issue. Some growers also use a technique called defoliation when growing certain strains; this involves removing certain leaves during the second flowering week in order to make sure more light reaches the buds, although this technique is used by growers who tent to work with the same strain and know their plans very well.
Cannabis Trimming Methods
Manicuring cannabis plants can mainly be done via three methods; the one you choose will depend on the humidity and temperature in your drying area.
- Complete trim with fresh plants.
- Parcial trimming: part of the plant is trimmed fresh, the other part when dry.
- Dry trimming.
You can manually trim your plants using scissors or do it semi-automatically using bud trimmers.
Once it’s time to harvest, you can make the most of the fact that your plants are upright in their pots, which allows you to work comfortably, grabbing branches one by one in one hand, with the scissors in the other, achieving a precise cut.
If you plan on trimming using trimmers, we recommend taking off branches and passing them through the trimmer; this is faster and more precise.
Fresh Trimming (Green)
When plants are trimmed when fresh, the idea is to ready the flowers for drying, curing and consuming your buds without needing to trim again. This involves getting rid of all the leaves when the plant is just harvested, even those which have the stems coming from buds.
This method is generally used in more humid areas where plants need to be able to breathe better to avoid nasty fungi from spreading such as botrytis.
Pros:
- Speed and comfort.
- You can use vertical dryers rather than hanging your plants or branches.
Cons:
- When you cut the stems or leaves in half, sap comes out; when you cut leaves close to flowers they can get covered in small amounts of sap, which can decrease flavour as well as cause extra moisture on the buds.
- You won’t be getting any extra trimmings for resin extracts, an any resin obtained will contain too much sap and plant material.
- Less precise finish.
*Most trimming machines can only be used with fresh plants.
Trimming Half and Half
This method involves mainly getting rid of leaves from the plant before drying, leaving just those that can’t be cut because they’re too close to the buds. When doing this method, don’t cut any leaves in half, only those which have visible stems.
Once the plant has been trimmed you should hang it up to dry. Once it’s dry, when you remove the buds from their branches and go to store them, remove any leftover leaves – they shouldn’t have any sap left to deteriorate the flowers.
This method is highly recommended by La Huerta Grow Shop when possible; after our experience with different methods, we think this one provides a more aromatic cannabis that produces more intense flavours and dries easier, as well as producing larger amounts of trimmings to use for extracts in the future.
Pros:
- More precise finish.
- It’s easier to obtain and separate leftover trimmings for resin extracts.
- It’s much easier to remove the leaves from inside the flowers.
- Buds taste better.
Cons:
- You have to trim twice (once fresh and another after drying), although fresh trimming is faster than the previous method in which leaves are cut.
Dry Trimming
This trimming method involves cutting the plant off at the stem and leaving it with most of its leaves (you can remove some of the larger ones) and let it dry. However, this leaves behind the other leaves closer to flowers, which protect them from the light and allow for a more balanced, correct drying process.
This trimming technique can only be done in low-humidity areas. If plants dried using this method have high humidity, the possibility of bud rot increases quite a lot.
Pros:
- Easy, precise and fast trim.
- Balanced and natural drying process.
Cons:
- It’s harder to separate material for resin extraction.
- Only some trimmers can trim dry plants, which means you’ll most likely end up using scissors.
General Advice
- Use latex or NBR gloves for trimming. If not, you’ll end up with sticky and dirty hands which can make it hard to trim correctly.
- You can freeze trimming leftovers until you plan on using them for extracts. This allows you to use them in perfect condition.
- When trimming, plants produce quite the aroma, so we recommend using products such as The Neutralizer or Ona Gel in order to get rid of the aroma in whichever room you’re trimming in; remember, being discreet can help avoid issues.
Enjoy your harvest!
