Trim at harvest or after drying?

At harvest I typically take off branches one by one, and immediately trim the leaves right down to the bud, so I am left with branches with no leaves, just bud. It's dry here so any more than one day or so of hanging in a dark closet dried them totally crispy, no cure, I cure but putting the branches in a paper bag(s) and open every day to air out and rearrange the branches. Works good for a slow dry, then I cut the buds from the stems and jar before they get crispy. If I don't do this, buds will dry too fast.

I read a lot here about not trimming the leaves off the bud until towards the end of the curing process. I tried this with a few branches - how in hell do you trim then? The leaves are basically cocooning the bud and can't really be trimmed away without cutting into the bud. When freshly harvested, the leaves are sticking out which (IMO) makes trimming much easier. Am I missing something here?

I agree with you. I have a hard time taking any of the smaller leaves off if i dont trim them right away. So i guess you leave them on and i heard they protect the buds or you cut them off right off the bat, which is what i do, then i hang the branches in a box with a few holes in it to contain some of the humidity a little longer.

"Trimming scissors " is one of many inside jokes in Cannabis. It's like getting an axle stretcher at an auto shop. Or making the new guy retrieve paint thinner in a styrofoam cup. Or growing "organics" to save money and get better quality. It's a joke. A sick prank. Busy work. Sabotage of your time.


You "trim" cannabis by waiting until the leaves are dry and crispy, then you rake downwards with your fingers. Like, as if you're about to bust up the nug and put in a grinder. In other words, trimming is pointless, it's easier to do on a session by session, nug by nug basis. You can actually get it all out at that point instead of hiding half the shriveled leaf. Trimmed weed is remnant of the black market, along the lines of pgrs and compressing. Trimming even went away when purple leaves were in style. Commercial grows were trimmed with liquid nitrogen and silicon brushes. Only home growers who shop at hydro stores waste their time trimming wet weed.

Cutting leaf while it's wet will sever the fatty acid double bond and release C6 alcohols/aldehydes (hay smell) instead of continuing to produce cannabis aroma precursor.

My problem is that I cannot realistically create a 60 degree environment outside of wintertime where i live, and even then i like to run the heater or have a fire so I'm just not gonna get my drying space that cold. Humidity i can boost, sure.

That said, I've found that hanging the plants as whole as possible, NO leaf trimming, and it slows things down for me quite a bit. I end up trimming in two stages, the first to get all the big fan leaves & then the 2nd to capture all the sugary trim.

I trim as it dries sort of, day before harvest I take the big fan leaves down(this is just to save time when I cut em down the next day) then every couple days for the first week I go pluck the smaller fan leaves as they start to droop(this is because I’m impatient and need to touch stuff) then I periodically check to see if the branches crack dryly when I bend them and when they do it’s time for final trim. Length depends on plant size really, I’ve grown as small as 2ft and as big as 6ft. A dozen 2 footers be done in like 10 days, as few as 4 6 footers can take up to 3 weeks.

I wet trim my harvests down to their buds, give them a wash and into the freeze dryer. Same routine before I got my machine and would hand dry them in paper bags in the basement for 3-5 days, jar for a day, paper bag for another day, jar and burp for a few weeks. Don’t worry about that shit anymore and all done within 24hrs

I think wet is easier. And I don't trim much either. We don't even use scissors barely either. I hang big branches and they pluck the leaves with their hands. Then into the closet to dry.

I gave the bud brush a go and really liked it for getting in there close to get that last bit of leaf, quite a bit easier than sitting there snipping away at tiny nubs.

GrodanLightfoot said:

"Trimming scissors " is one of many inside jokes in Cannabis. It's like getting an axle stretcher at an auto shop. Or making the new guy retrieve paint thinner in a styrofoam cup. Or growing "organics" to save money and get better quality. It's a joke. A sick prank. Busy work. Sabotage of your time.


You "trim" cannabis by waiting until the leaves are dry and crispy, then you rake downwards with your fingers. Like, as if you're about to bust up the nug and put in a grinder. In other words, trimming is pointless, it's easier to do on a session by session, nug by nug basis. You can actually get it all out at that point instead of hiding half the shriveled leaf. Trimmed weed is remnant of the black market, along the lines of pgrs and compressing. Trimming even went away when purple leaves were in style. Commercial grows were trimmed with liquid nitrogen and silicon brushes. Only home growers who shop at hydro stores waste their time trimming wet weed.

Cutting leaf while it's wet will sever the fatty acid double bond and release C6 alcohols/aldehydes (hay smell) instead of continuing to produce cannabis aroma precursor.

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You're wrong. Lots of commercial grows trim their weed wet. In fact there are crews that go around trimming weed right after it's harvested and is still wet.

Trim your weed anyway you want but to make some claim that only homegrowers that shop at hydro stores trim their weed wet is pure fiction.

I much prefer dry trimming to slow down the drying process and preserve terpenes. It also seems to trim much faster dry