Hi Everyone, my blog post for today will be focused on knowing when your flower is ready to use a trimming machine. There is trying to trim too early and too late. Knowing the perfect time to use that specialized trimmer you have is important. It can save you a of time on quality control afterwards as well as literally saving your product from annihilation if it is too dry when you try and trim it. Also, depending on the type of machine you have access to will determine when you should start trimming those precious flowers you worked so hard to grow.
First, it is imperative you buy a moisture meter. There are some out there now calibrated for cannabis that are rather expensive. I have found my cheap pin-type hardware store model calibrated for pine works just as well. Simply check multiple samples in your bin or sack by pushing the pins into the flower and getting a percentage moisture reading. Remember, that is not a relative humidity reading you are taking. If you’ve got nicely dried and cured flower around 10% ready to be trimmed that you are seeing on the meter, it doesn’t mean they humidity in your bin or sack is that as well. That is different kind of moisture and measurement.
Next, let’s talk about what kind of machine you will be using. If you are using a hybrid machine like Gladiator from CenturionPro or a T4 from Twister, you don’t want your flower going below 10% as by then the small sugar leaves have already curled tightly around the flower and no amount of tumbling around or vacuum from the trimmer will be able to pull them back out to get trimmed. The idea when using hybrid trimmers to trim dry is to “catch” the flower right after it dries enough so that it won’t be so sticky and resinous the trimmer is ineffective, yet the leaves have not fully turned in and are accessible to the vacuum and blades. The timing of this varies depending on things like your drying/curing parameters and strain. Beware that if you try to trim using a hybrid trimmer sub-9%, you run the risk of turning your flower into kief. But typically, when your flower is reading 11-13%, hybrid trimmers tend to be the most effective for trimming dry.
If you have a mechanical dry tumbler to help you trim, 9-10% on your meter is when you should start to use the machine. Anything dryer will tumble over itself and run the risk of crushing the flower in trim essentially because there is no moisture left to hold the bud together. Running anything moister than that and the tumbler itself will not work. Dry tumblers use the action of the flower rolling over itself and their leaves through the tumbler slots to make clean cuts or breaks during the session. Dry tumblers like the Triminator Dry are great because they are quiet and keeping all of your trim and kief is usually easier. But again, as I have said in past blogs, your process and situation should dictate what machine you pick and when you trim. Thanks for reading and I hope this helped. Happy Trimming!
This is a question that I get all the time. And it is usually the first question someone asks me when looking at piece of trimming equipment. I won’t even make you scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answer: It is neither. Or Both. What really matters is what type of variables you have in your own personal process or grow that determines the type of machine to use for cannabis trimming. Factors like how much help you have during harvest, your intended market/product types you wish to focus on and drying/curing space size all get taken into account when answering what type of mechanical trimming (wet vs dry) is best for your grow.
Do you have a large temperature and humidity controlled environment to hang dry whole plants in? No? Then you may want to look at trimming your plants wet since the footprint of trimmed flower spread out to cure and dry is much less than that up hanging them up whole first. Not to mention, once that has happened—you are done! You can then bag, label, go to market or process from there. Most wet trimmers either have constructed large stackable screens in a humidity and temperature controlled area or have an industrial dryer after the trimming process to accelerate the drying stage.
Do you have a reliable 5+ person crew for harvest to help support the machines or is it just you and someone else? Small crew? Then trimming dry is really your best option. During harvest, your biggest task will be getting the plants harvested and hung. You will get the benefit of being able to trim at your own pace, maybe even just to order. The machines in this category are typically less expensive as they have less parts to them. They are also much quieter to operate, making the working environment easier on the ears of the operators. Trimming machines that are wet biased, have large blowers that are generally very loud when turned on.
On the other hand, if you have a team that can focus on harvest and supporting the bucker and trimmer, I’ll usually recommend that growers then trim wet. Buckers go hand in hand with machine trimmers during harvest. Trimming wet can be much faster and being able to reduce the time and footprint of the curing/drying process gives you an advantage getting to market earlier than those who choose to trim dry without sacrificing quality. Yes, I know that there are those that swear by only trimming dry because they feel trimming wet sacrifices flavor quality. I do believe my friends that say that they can tell the difference, but I cannot.
Some of the leaders in the wet trimming sector are CenturionPro and Twister. Both have been in the business since the beginning of the mechanical cannabis trimming era and both make fantastic machines.
If you choose to look into dry trimmers for your process, Triminator makes a great volume dry trimmer for the money. Hope this helped answer some questions and thanks for reading!
