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WET VS DRY Trimming

N

NorC@liGrower

My understanding is the reason why it doesn't have a smell if you trim first is because there is no where for the chlorophyll to escape.

When you keep the leaves on the chlorophyll goes from the bud to the leaves, I assume because the plant is still alive and wants to put the chlorophyll into the leaves over the bud.

At least that's my idea of it.
Chlorophyll does not move within the plant. It does not go from the bud to the leaves. You do not want chlorophyll degradation. Your buds would go from green to brown.

If you want to try something different trim your buds wet and leave some stem then put the buds/stems in a glass of water like flowers and change the water regularly for about a week then finish drying. Very smooth smoke.
 

medicalmj

Active member
Veteran
Chlorophyll does not move within the plant. It does not go from the bud to the leaves. You do not want chlorophyll degradation. Your buds would go from green to brown.

If you want to try something different trim your buds wet and leave some stem then put the buds/stems in a glass of water like flowers and change the water regularly for about a week then finish drying. Very smooth smoke.

Yeah, and to add there's chlorophyll a, b and other pigments called carotenoids. Each absorb light of diff wavelengths with diff efficiencies.

But I have always trimmed wet. I'd say the loss of trichs with dry trimming is reason enough not to dry trim. Plus I find it easier when the leaves are turgid and perpendicular to the bud. Never encountered or heard of loss of s,mell w wet trim. Interesting though, will double check but really can't imagine any increase w dry trim.
 

Biosynthesis

Member
Veteran
You kidding me. What a mess to trim whet. Smears everywhere and the wet trim wont cut right. Gotta dry it first for a proper trim. Trimming wet smokes a pain in the ass. Takes away from the overall quality triming wet as well.
 

Jbomber79

Active member
Veteran
that's why you can cure the way you do, again folks its has a lot to do with environment.. If i wet trim I would loose all the smell.
Dry arid climate bud dries way to quick so you almost are foced to dry trim..imo


Northwest Washington, so a bit.
 

Greenheart

Active member
Veteran
Thread has definitely been rolling a bit now and many points have been brought up on both sides. I can agree on the senescence thing and the following quote but for the rest of it I believe it is mostly in the curing stage.
When you harm most plant's they produce cis-3-hexenal. This VOC gives cut grass it's smell, it has a very low odor threshold of about 0.25 parts per billion.

Slowing the release of moisture and cannabiniod profile changing has been the key in my experience. Personally I remove all plant matter without trichomes on the day of harvest. Cut into about 12 inch segments and hand trim with microtips at the base of the petiole on any unwanted leaf material over a 18 hour window and rehang until most branches have a slight snap at around 59-64% on the hygrometer. I then clip the buds off the stalk into glass jars with rubber seal snap lock lids. I then burb the containers several times daily and sometimes transfer gingerly into larger or smaller glass containers until it achieves a steady 58-60% on the hygrometer. At this point I am comfortable leaving it in jars until it is ready for my consumption. I have never really had issues personally with the taste or smoothness and I have smoked alot of bud so far in my decades of toking. Some of it kind and some of it brick and once upon a time a 1 hit quit. Out of all of it I feel mine is at least close to the top 25%.

I have dry trimmed and to me the end product quality is on par with either method so long as curing is done properly. In either method I do not notice any enhanced flavor, smell, or smoothness until at least 11 days of curing. After that it is further enhancement of the three. All in all the trimming process seems to have a better bag appeal, and less "dry sift" with a wet trim. I really have never had issues with smearing or mess. I am very ginger when I trim holding the plant matter by the stem and using a razor to keep the scissors clean every about every 5-10 minutes depending on the strain using microtips to nip each leaf at the base of the petiole.

When I have dry trimmed I tended to end up with a product like DHF where I bucked the nontrich matter hung the plant and jarred it when the snap came. The second stage of trimming came about when I went to load a pipe and I cleaned up the sweet mostly by crumbling it off with my fingers. Flavor, smell, and smoothness were still there. For me the wet trim is easier, provides in my opinion a better looking end product, gives me a gram or so of fine grade scissor concentrate, and the pure trichome covered sweetleaf from the second trim is still fresh for a watercuring process that will lead to some of the most excellent hardly taste the plant material brownies I have ever consumed.

*My environmental RH outside the jars is not controlled. Hangtime varies upon the season and the room mostly hovers between 48-60% RH.
** In theory a curing room at 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit with a 59-60% RH should yield some awesome bud.
***Length of cure time also plays a big role. 30 days, 90 days, and even 7 years can make a difference. (the 7 year was a morrocan hashplant from a buddy/mentor that puts my ocd charactaristics to shame)
****Flushing can play a large role. I am water only and ROLS soil for my whole cycle but even then if I take a plant from soil wash the roots clean and bubble it in a 5 gallon bucket changing the water every 12 hours for the final 10 days it makes a difference in smoothness and consequently flavor. Though Smell is often the same.
 

medicalmj

Active member
Veteran
You kidding me. What a mess to trim whet. Smears everywhere and the wet trim wont cut right. Gotta dry it first for a proper trim. Trimming wet smokes a pain in the ass. Takes away from the overall quality triming wet as well.

You need better scissors, lol. I use two sets of fiskers and keep them in alcohol and switch out once and a while. You can also lick the blade, I know what ur thinking but it works, if the blades wont spring back.
 

MildeStoner

Well-known member
Veteran
Okay, okay, I've been trying to avoid it, but I have to say this:
Last month I saw something that both amazed and disgusted me, the most innovative abomination in the trimming world I have yet seen.
Let me elaborate; a friend of mine had a few pounds of some exodus cheese (Perhaps a little drier than it should have been because of the dehuey), room was co2 enriched and the solidity and structure of the nugs reflected that, I noticed they were all too well trimmed to be true (and a good few less trichomes were visible on the exposed portions of the herb than on the insides where all remained unspoiled), and enquired how he had accomplished this.
He went on to sheepishly tell me that the gentleman who owned the property where it all went down had involved himself in the "trimming", and after about an hour of slow progress he had disappeared. Shortly after, he returned armed with a normal, hard bristle toothbrush, convinced that it would do a better job than the scissors he had been provided with. My friends were quick to scorn this idea, and returned to trimming, leaving him to his own devices.
An hour or so later, they noticed that this man and his toothbrush were removing leaves a lot faster than 2 seasoned trimmers combined. Shock, horror, disarray in the workplace!
It ended up with everyone using the toothbrush method, the bristles get into all the little gaps and gently break off all the tiny leaves, end product looks literally leafless, work was completed in drastically shorter than usual, and my mate was left with a great deal of high quality trim to process into extracts.

Definitely not the way to approach your personal stash, but felt that I should share the story for the sake of oddity (and as mentioned above, the sheer innovative abominableness of it all).
 

growhi

Member
its got to be dry trim !!!!


wet trim is amateurish !!

plus i hate it when they trim the ass out of a bud ................ hello i dont give a shit if it looks pretty , i want all the sugar leaf aswell as the bud !!!
 

MildeStoner

Well-known member
Veteran
I disagree, the flavour imparted by the chlorophyll in the leaves means they can only detract from the smoking experience. Sugar leaf is for hash, calyxes and trichomes are for smoking, but hey, each to his own..
A lot of the older crowd around me gets upset when I tightly trim buds that had a lot of sugary leaf, but I don't care I'm right:moon::laughing:
 

growhi

Member
I disagree, the flavour imparted by the chlorophyll in the leaves means they can only detract from the smoking experience. Sugar leaf is for hash, calyxes and trichomes are for smoking, but hey, each to his own..
A lot of the older crowd around me gets upset when I tightly trim buds that had a lot of sugary leaf, but I don't care I'm right:moon::laughing:

eeeeeeeeeeeeeee you kids .................................. you will never learn :biggrin:
 

FlowerFarmer

Well-known member
Veteran
Okay, okay, I've been trying to avoid it, but I have to say this:
Last month I saw something that both amazed and disgusted me, the most innovative abomination in the trimming world I have yet seen.
Let me elaborate; a friend of mine had a few pounds of some exodus cheese (Perhaps a little drier than it should have been because of the dehuey), room was co2 enriched and the solidity and structure of the nugs reflected that, I noticed they were all too well trimmed to be true (and a good few less trichomes were visible on the exposed portions of the herb than on the insides where all remained unspoiled), and enquired how he had accomplished this.
He went on to sheepishly tell me that the gentleman who owned the property where it all went down had involved himself in the "trimming", and after about an hour of slow progress he had disappeared. Shortly after, he returned armed with a normal, hard bristle toothbrush, convinced that it would do a better job than the scissors he had been provided with. My friends were quick to scorn this idea, and returned to trimming, leaving him to his own devices.
An hour or so later, they noticed that this man and his toothbrush were removing leaves a lot faster than 2 seasoned trimmers combined. Shock, horror, disarray in the workplace!
It ended up with everyone using the toothbrush method, the bristles get into all the little gaps and gently break off all the tiny leaves, end product looks literally leafless, work was completed in drastically shorter than usual, and my mate was left with a great deal of high quality trim to process into extracts.

Definitely not the way to approach your personal stash, but felt that I should share the story for the sake of oddity (and as mentioned above, the sheer innovative abominableness of it all).


Interesting stuff.

I recently read over in bobbles thread or somewhere that a friend of someone would de-stem after the dry period and throw the buds into a empty beer box/case. Couple shakes with the right variety and the brittle frosted tip would break off - leaving with a seemingly trimmed/finished bud.

Again..likely frowned upon and maybe not for the personal stash. Put it works, and in my experience is still nicer then our tight wet trimmed stuff. Don't have our whole lives to trim cannabis.

A mixture of all the methods is what makes it in the final bag. A lot of dry hand done tops, trimpro rotor lowers done wet, and some dry mids that have had their frosted tips easily broken off via various methods..

No complaints over here.

:)
 

St3ve

Member
Okay, okay, I've been trying to avoid it, but I have to say this:
Last month I saw something that both amazed and disgusted me, the most innovative abomination in the trimming world I have yet seen.
Let me elaborate; a friend of mine had a few pounds of some exodus cheese (Perhaps a little drier than it should have been because of the dehuey), room was co2 enriched and the solidity and structure of the nugs reflected that, I noticed they were all too well trimmed to be true (and a good few less trichomes were visible on the exposed portions of the herb than on the insides where all remained unspoiled), and enquired how he had accomplished this.
He went on to sheepishly tell me that the gentleman who owned the property where it all went down had involved himself in the "trimming", and after about an hour of slow progress he had disappeared. Shortly after, he returned armed with a normal, hard bristle toothbrush, convinced that it would do a better job than the scissors he had been provided with. My friends were quick to scorn this idea, and returned to trimming, leaving him to his own devices.
An hour or so later, they noticed that this man and his toothbrush were removing leaves a lot faster than 2 seasoned trimmers combined. Shock, horror, disarray in the workplace!
It ended up with everyone using the toothbrush method, the bristles get into all the little gaps and gently break off all the tiny leaves, end product looks literally leafless, work was completed in drastically shorter than usual, and my mate was left with a great deal of high quality trim to process into extracts.

Definitely not the way to approach your personal stash, but felt that I should share the story for the sake of oddity (and as mentioned above, the sheer innovative abominableness of it all).


Interesting method. So to be clear, the plants where slightly overdried as a whole, then dry scrubbed to a good shape with a toothbrush? I'm not sure this story has a place in THIS discussion, but I do find it very interesting and thanks for sharing.
 
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