How to trim top shelf style

Andy · Apr 10, 2020

Hi all,

I’m on a mission to raise the quality of my product to as close to top shelf as possible. One of the areas I’m looking to improve is trimming. My trimmers tend to ‘mow’ the buds with the scissors rather than carefully picking out leaf. They also handle the buds a lot, which I’m told is not good either.

They say that it would take an age to clip without doing this, but I’m learning that careful trimming is essential to getting that top shelf look.

My question is - how can you trim at top shelf level but keeping a reasonably good rate of speed? What scissors and techniques are best for this?

Growing_Garbage · Apr 10, 2020

I'd like to hear if theres a magic bullet on this... Just did 15o's myself in a day, but I hear thats not a good timeline, but my buds are pretty and still covered in untouched tall trichs everyone likes.

Andy · Apr 10, 2020

I thought that would be pretty good - my 2 guys take about 4.5 eight hour days to do 110oz. Is that slow?

growsince79 · Apr 10, 2020

A lot depends on strain. I can do an ounce in 10 minutes on some, while others might take an hour. The way it's grown is also a big factor. Removing all the bottom branches so no larf is produced makes a big difference.

Trustfall · Apr 10, 2020

Experience is what you need. No short cuts around it.
But I will give you a piece of advice, find your favorite scizzors (I like fisarks)

Then get a small jar and fill it with alcohol, once your scizzors get sticky drop them into the jar

And then grab the next pair use until sticky. And instead of wiping one pair at a time wait till you have three to wipe down then throw the forth in and continue.

Andy · Apr 11, 2020

Thanks, great advice! I’ll get some of those scissors, never seen the alcohol system - is that isopropanol?

Dirtbag · Apr 11, 2020

Trustfall said:
Experience is what you need. No short cuts around it.
But I will give you a piece of advice, find your favorite scizzors (I like fisarks) View attachment 959813
Then get a small jar and fill it with alcohol, once your scizzors get sticky drop them into the jarView attachment 959814
And then grab the next pair use until sticky. And instead of wiping one pair at a time wait till you have three to wipe down then throw the forth in and continue.

That's a good idea, I like.

It does make a big difference if the plants are pruned properly so they only grow tops and mids too. The way I do it is to strip every node from the branches except the top node, once a week in veg and a couple days before I flip to 12/12. That way I only get a foot-16" canopy of dense chunky tops and mids, no larf, no smalls.

Trustfall · Apr 11, 2020

Dirtbag said:
That's a good idea, I like.

It does make a big difference if the plants are pruned properly so they only grow tops and mids too. The way I do it is to strip every node from the branches except the top node, once a week in veg and a couple days before I flip to 12/12. That way I only get a foot-16" canopy of dense chunky tops and mids, no larf, no smalls.

I think you will like it, speeds things up a lot. Only down fall is you can’t collect the scizzors hash but i never smoked that crap anyway.

Dirtbag · Apr 11, 2020

Trustfall said:
I think you will like it, speeds things up a lot. Only down fall is you can’t collect the scizzors hash but i never smoked that crap anyway.

Haha I love scissor hash. You could filter the iso and evaporate it. Scissor hash oil.

Mikelej14 · Apr 12, 2020

I saw in a youtube vid a guy talking about using the jar of alcohol then said if you only have the one pair to just put a sponge in the jar then put alcohol to soak the sponge so u can just jab the scissors into it to quickly clean them off

havent tried that yet but sounds like itd work

Trustfall · Apr 12, 2020

Mikelej14 said:
I saw in a youtube vid a guy talking about using the jar of alcohol then said if you only have the one pair to just put a sponge in the jar then put alcohol to soak the sponge so u can just jab the scissors into it to quickly clean them off havent tried that yet but sounds like itd work

That’s going to take you longer to clean one pair then it will take me to do three or four pair. When they sit in there it’s a very fast wipe when you pull them out. If your just dunking one pair your going to have to scrub a bit.

MIMedGrower · Apr 12, 2020

I just scrape the scissor clean with another blade and collect the scissor hash in a tin. Takes a few seconds.

Of course i dry trim.

Trustfall · Apr 12, 2020

MIMedGrower said:
I just scrape the scissor clean with another blade and collect the scissor hash in a tin. Takes a few seconds.

Of course i dry trim.

If your smoking it you are most likely smoking the metal shavings that come with it.

Beachwalker · Apr 12, 2020

I scrape it off the scissors with one of the millions of plastic cards AARP sends me..

MIMedGrower · Apr 12, 2020

Trustfall said:
If your smoking it you are most likely smoking the metal shavings that come with it.

No i dont shave the blade clean down to fresh metal. The dry resin pops right off the blade with little pressure. Sometimes just with fingers. Its not like the mess wet trimming causes.

Beachwalker · Apr 12, 2020

Andy said:
I thought that would be pretty good - my 2 guys take about 4.5 eight hour days to do 110oz. Is that slow?

Yeah that sounds kinda slow.. I once did something like that amount in about 20 hours straight, not including a Final Trim I do in between drying and starting the Cure

Trustfall · Apr 12, 2020

MIMedGrower said:
No i dont shave the blade clean down to fresh metal. The dry resin pops right off the blade with little pressure. Sometimes just with fingers. Its not like the mess wet trimming causes.

I do dry trimming as well. And I have done it your way before but it’s slow and the scizzors get gunned up way too fast especially if your trimming something like gg#4.
For small grows that is fine but when you have ten lb.s to trim you want to be as efficient as possible if you are trimming by yourself.

Cattapilla · Apr 12, 2020

I have only trimmed 3 plants so far, and I wet trimmed them, as recommended for a new grower. What is the advantage of the dry trim?

MIMedGrower · Apr 12, 2020

Trustfall said:
I do dry trimming as well. And I have done it your way before but it’s slow and the scizzors get gunned up way too fast especially if your trimming something like gg#4.
For small grows that is fine but when you have ten lb.s to trim you want to be as efficient as possible if you are trimming by yourself.

Sure I get that. I have trimmed big crops before. We did it wet with a pile of cheap dollar store scissors and cups of alcohol like you describe.

Now i only have a plant or two at a time every couple weeks or so.

MIMedGrower · Apr 12, 2020

Cattapilla said:
I have only trimmed 3 plants so far, and I wet trimmed them, as recommended for a new grower. What is the advantage of the dry trim?

Well if you have a dry environment it slows down the drying. But even in our more humid environment flavor seems to be better off the branch even. Also preserves the trichomes. You can kind of pop the leaves right off the bud.

How to trim top shelf style

Andy

Growing_Garbage

Andy

growsince79

Trustfall

Andy

Dirtbag

Trustfall

Dirtbag

Mikelej14

Trustfall

MIMedGrower

Trustfall

Beachwalker

MIMedGrower

Beachwalker

Trustfall

Cattapilla

MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

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