For first time growers when your buds start to bloom you need to plan for the next steps ahead, aka trimming your Mary Jane. This step can feel triumphant and gets you that much closer to being ready to smoke your own harvest, but nonetheless can be overwhelming as a first time grower. Experienced growers tend to feel trimming marijuana is monotonous, but once a technique is perfected things get easier with practice and a bit of trial and error. Here is what you need to know and how to trim marijuana so you can fully maximize your weed growth!
Why is it important to trim marijuana?
If choosing to become a grower for the long haul, it is essential to know how to trim marijuana because this will help your beautiful buds blossom and keep its trichomes the way they should. While you can skip the trimming process, it is highly recommended you don’t because why wouldn’t you try to help your buds all you can? Allowing nature to take its course sans trimming leaves a lot of room for risk. Think of it this way: if you trim your marijuana plants during the growing cycle it is similar to watering a plant where it helps nurture and grow your harvest.
Trimming plants in general is good for its health because it takes away unnecessary parts that might be dying or covering the healthy leaves. Trimming also helps promote new leaves, and new buds at that! Similar to trimming your hair, if you trim your hair regularly it will grow out even better and longer than leaving it to grow out on its own. Getting rid of the old makes more room for the new!
When do you trim marijuana?
There are two general periods of the growth cycle where you can aim to trim marijuana plants: on harvest day and up to 10 days after harvest day once the moisture has been significantly lost. There is also a process where you top and prune a marijuana plant to promote more growth by redistributing the direction a marijuana plant is growing in. Read more about how to top a marijuana plant.
How to trim marijuana
Many are hesitant to trim their marijuana plants due to lack of knowledge of how to properly trim a marijuana plant. There are a few tips and tricks that can help so you do not dread this process as much. You just need to know how to handle your buds at every growth stage to fully maximize its growth potential.
Wet trimming vs dry trimming
There are different techniques to trimming, like whether you manually trim your buds or use a machine if working at a higher scale. The two ways that are most popular are wet trimming or dry trimming, where you either trim the weed while it still has a ton of moisture or wait until it is dry and then trim.
Wet trimming is the method most growers prefer to work with since it is much easier to remove dead leaves while the buds are wet versus dry.
Here is when you should consider wet trimming:
- You have a lot of bud to dry in a tight space
- High humidity
- Want to speed up drying time
- Concerned about mold
The benefits of wet trimming:
- Trimming process is easier
- Buds dry faster after wet trimming which reduces risk of trapped moisture and mold
- Best way to retain high trichome content
What is most frustrating about wet trimming is how time consuming it is and how messy it can get. Working with wet weed is not fun and can stick to literally all parts of your hands, but you will be getting high quality buds and preserving most of its powerful trichomes that add to its quality.
Dry trimming is more so for large-scale growers that involves hanging the plant upside down for several days to work out those moisture levels. This process takes longer than the latter and trapped moisture can yield moldy buds which is never good but is always an option if you don’t have the time to trim wet cannabis. Here is when you should consider dry trimming:
- Mold isn’t a concern in your growing conditions
- You prefer denser buds
- No need for aesthetically pleasing buds
The benefits of dry trimming are:
- Better for dry climates in preventing loss of terpenes due to lack of humidity
- Use the leftover sugar leaves to make edibles
- Less messy of a process
Tips when trimming marijuana
While trimming marijuana really only requires scissors or shears, a tray and cleaning supplies to keep your space neat - it is more about technique than buying the best gadgets to make the process easier. Here are a few tips on how to trim marijuana easily!
- Remove fan leaves while buds are wet so they dry faster
- Cut buds from branches when dry trimming
- Prepare your station and fill your tray with buds to trim so you can stay organized and create a streamlined trimming process
- Cut at an angle to properly get all fan and sugar leaves
Final thoughts on trimming marijuana
You are at the finish line and almost ready to enjoy your harvest but make sure you don’t get high off your own supply while trimming! It is important to be aware of what you’re doing when trimming as it is a tedious yet very necessary step to harvesting quality buds. Take your time trimming and know that the love and care you put into this will provide a big return for you later. Be sure to check out 420 bundles to stay stocked up on the latest smoking accessories for your latest and freshest harvest.
