A precise and efficient trimming process is essential for cannabis growers—from small-scale boutique growers to large-scale commercial operations. The quality of your trimmed buds affects their weight (and hence your revenue), their cannabinoid content, their susceptibility to mold, and their visual appeal.
There are techniques you can use trimming solutions to achieve a high-quality trim on your cannabis buds—whether you opt for hand trimming or machine trimming. And while some methods are more efficient than others, putting these insider tips into practice consistently will help you produce top-shelf trimmed buds every time.
Trimming Weed by Hand
Growers have probably been trimming buds by hand since cannabis was first written about in 2800 B.C.E., and perhaps even earlier. When it’s done correctly, experienced hand-trimmers can turn out results that are unrivaled even by the best conventional bladed machine trimmer.
When trimming cannabis buds by hand:
- Use adequate lighting so that you can see the buds clearly.
- Wear sterile gloves and a facemask to prevent contamination.
- Clean your trimming shears with rubbing alcohol before use.
- Hold the buds by the stem to prevent trichomes from sticking to your gloves.
- Twirl each bud slowly and snip off the sugar leaves, collecting them in sterile trim trays for further processing.
- Place the trimmed buds directly in airtight jars and seal the jars for curing at room temperature (if they’ve already been dried).
- In the case of wet buds, place the buds carefully on drying racks or freeze-dryer trays for drying. Minimize the amount of time the buds spend outside of a carefully controlled environment (your drying room or freeze dryer) to reduce terpene and cannabinoid loss.
Wet Trimming vs Dry Trimming
Wet trimming vs dry trimming is a debate that’s probably been going on since mankind discovered the cannabis plant. However, with a few millennia to observe the results of each, we now have a pretty good idea of the main pros and cons.
Wet Trimming
Humid climates. It’s best to trim buds before drying and in humid climates. Leaving the sugar leaves on during the drying process can encourage the development of mold.
Live extraction. Use wet trimming or flash-frozen trimming if you plan to create live extracts from the buds or trim.
Dry Trimming
Dry climates. Trim weed after it’s dried if you live in a dry climate and plan to sell the dried buds as-is rather than processing them into extracts. Trimming the buds prior to drying in this case can result in buds that are overly dry, have faded colors and degraded terpenes, and taste harsh when smoked (unless you use a freeze dryer, which avoids all of these problems).
Smokeable flower. Most cultivators do a dry trim for flower that’s sold as-is for smoking or processed into smokeable products like joints, blunts, and pre-rolls.
Trimming Weed Faster
An expert trimmer can trim one pound of weed in 4 to 8 hours. While speed increases with practice, there are more efficient ways to trim weed that don’t compromise the quality of the trimmed buds or the trim.
Machine-Trimming Cannabis Buds
Conventional bladed trimming machines are many times faster than hand trimming, which is why they’re so frequently used by large-scale growers. However, while bladed machine trimmers can process a pound of dried buds in around 2 to 30 minutes and a pound of wet buds in 1 to 4 minutes, machine-trimmed weed tends to be smaller in volume (reducing your revenue), less consistent in shape, and the slicing action decimates the trim—streaking the sugar leaves with chlorophyll and plant particulates.
If you really want to trim cannabis like an expert, we recommend cryo-trimming® with CO2 using The Original Resinator. This innovative bladeless trimmer uses liquid CO2 injections to lower the buds to ice-cream temperature, which is sufficient to make the sugar leaves brittle. Then, gentle rotation encourages the sugar leaves to snap off, leaving you with beautifully trimmed cannabis buds, a mere 0.3-0.8% cannabinoid loss (check out our COAs), and intact, full-bodied trim that can be sold or processed into premium extracts. In fact, you can use that trim for just about anything – make sure to take a look at our Product Pathways chart to get some SKU inspiration.
Wet Trimming vs Dry Trimming with The Original Resinator
The Original Resinator can trim wet, dry, or even frozen cannabis buds. And whether you cryo-trim ® your buds wet or dry, there are a few tricks to obtaining the best result.
Wet Trimming with The Original Resinator
Wet-trimming buds immediately after harvest will allow you to make live extracts with your trim (you can’t make live extracts from dried buds). You can also buck, bag, and freeze your buds immediately after harvesting and trim them at a later time.
- Harvest your cannabis plants and remove the fan leaves. If it’s not convenient to trim them right away, you can buck, turkey bag, and put them in a regular freezer until you’re ready to trim. When stored in a freezer, CBD and THC levels remain more or less constant for several years after harvest.
- Place the wet or frozen buds in the Resinator drum using the 1/4″ or 1/2″ nylon mesh screen and close the lid. The Original Resinator OG can handle 1.5 lbs of wet buds in a single cycle. The Original Resinator XL can handle 7 lbs of wet buds.
- Inject liquid CO2 into the drum and wait a minute or so for the buds to chill.
- Set the drum to rotate for up to a minute per pound of cannabis, checking every couple of minutes to catch them before excess trichomes start to separate from the buds.
- Place the buds on trays in the freezer until you’re ready to freeze-dry and cure them.
- Process the live trim immediately or keep it in the freezer for later processing when it’s convenient for your workflow. You can use the wet trim that’s separated using The Original Resinator to produce top-shelf bubble hash and rosin because it’s not streaked with chlorophyll or plant particulates.
Dry Trimming with The Original Resinator
Dry trimming with The Original Resinator is preferred if you want to use the trim to make pre-rolls or dry sift. The buds can be dried conventionally, or you can freeze-dry them for a Crop-to-Cure® time of as little as 24 hours.
- Place the dried buds in The Original Resinator.
- Complete the trimming cycle as described above. For dry trimming, you can trim up to 3 lbs with the OG model and up to 14 lbs with the XL.
- Jar the newly trimmed buds and store them until the curing process is complete.
- Use the trim to make pre-rolls, submerge it in ice water to make bubble hash, or process it with one of our micron-rated screens to make premium dry sift (and dry sift rosin if desired).
Time to Trim Cannabis Using The Original Resinator
Trimming takes one minute per pound of cannabis using The Original Resinator. I.e. You can trim up to 3 lbs of dry buds in 3 minutes using the OG and 14 lbs of dry buds in 14 minutes using the XL.
In a day, the XL can process 250-300 lbs of dry material and the OG can process 60-80 lbs. This is significantly more than the one or two pounds produced by a hand-trimmer or entry-level bladed trimmer in an eight-hour day, with virtually indistinguishable results.
Trimming Cannabis Plants Like a Pro Is Easy with The Original Resinator
Growing a visually spectacular, cannabinoid-rich marijuana plant takes time, patience, and skill. Once your cannabis plants are ready for harvest, getting the trimming process right is the final hoop you need to jump through to produce the dankest, most premium quality buds (and fetch the highest price).
If you’re new to the cannabis industry, are looking for the fastest way to trim weed, or are still sitting on the fence regarding hand trimming vs machine trimming, don’t waste time and money on subpar trimming solutions. The Original Resinator produces an equivalent result to expert hand-trimming with zero bacterial contamination, creates full-bodied trim that you can use to make extracts, and all in only a fraction of the time.
