How do YOU harvest?

[Seamaiden]

Ok. I never claimed to be a big-timer. No powdery mildew growing on the buds of cut trees (I've been under the impression that PM requires living plant tissue). Only mold I found was directly associated with the caterpillar poop found inside the bud, and that gets tossed into the fireplace. I guarantee you that the buds that are stored in that area don't end up crispy dry, but really, the only person I have to please here is myself. It just so happens that I'm not the only one so pleased with my work.

I know I could do it better, but I have to work with what I have to work with. I'm also specifically not trying to get it all done in one day. That's how the market gets flooded.

Perhaps one of the differences in stance has to do with why a person is growing in the first place. I'm not marketing. If you're marketing, then you have a different angle from which you're viewing the problem. Then there's the whole thing of doing things the way I do based on my experience and abilities, priorities, etcetera.

 

[Jalisco Kid]

Im with TF

I started off wet trimming, then I moved to dry trimming, to be honest, a dry trim plants kinda vine rippen and really do put out much more crystals.

I started dry trimming so I could flip my room right away, and dry in a tent with a scubber, but all in all I thought it was easier and stuff looked better

now a days I use a machine, which for my black berries doesnt effect the finished quality, but it certainly does on other strains.

MrD are you saying dry plants put out more trics or dry plants loses more trics.

If hand trimming I prefer to let it dry,which I pray those days are gone forever. The centurion does a better job on the whole then hand trim because the machine eyes and body do not get tired. That and you have no fools to pay to know your business. JK

 

[Blaze]

We wet trim the fan leaves and then do the final trim once the buds are dried and cured. It is far to impractical to try to wet trim a good sized crop. Both wet and dry will trimming will do minimal damage to the bud but you have to do it right. Wet trimming gets extremely slow and difficult if the leaves start to get droopy. Dry trimming can cause a lot of damage if the buds get to dry. Personally I prefer to trim dry - and once you get the hang of it and provided you don't over dry your buds, it is every bit as fast as wet trimming.

The main thing is to make sure you handle your crop carefully so you don't knock trichs off. Don't ever touch the buds directly and don't let them get rattled around. Being rough on the finished product is probably one of the biggest mistakes I see people making - it makes a huge difference.

 

[DrCALIGREENTHUM]

I understand sm we are viewing this from diff angles, i just wanted to set the record straight wet trimming is not more suitable for small grows, I think the opposite n wouldnt be caught dead dry trimming.

I dont know why people are saying its harder to trim wet because of the leaves drooping down??
perfect solution, only cut down what you can trim so they are all still fresh leaves standing up. Ive had to trim 8 #s with only one helper and we still got through it in about 3 days because of the fact i kept cutting down only what we could finish quickly. if you let your plant chill there for a couple hours of course your gonna make it harder on yourself, its only natural for leaves to curl down.

Jk when it comes down to it my crew of 12 is like a machine, they go 10 hrs+ a day, n as fucked up as it sounds lol they respect my privacy and
they hop up in a uhaul to come to my spot everytime no questions asked.
So thats one thing i dont have to worry about knowing my business.

 

[tjrasta]

its just my wife and i so i check my branches for the ripest, and cut only what can be trimmed that day, water leaves go to the goat, sugar leaves to the hash can, buds to the dry room, and stumps to the table saw to make hobby wood ,and soil and roots to the mulch pile for next year.

 

[Blaze]

The machines are much less efficient than many make them out to be. I know several people who went back to hiring workers after spending tens of thousand of dollars on high end trim machines. Also, at least in my area, machine trimmed product is quite obvious to most people, and goes for less most of the time. After running the numbers we make quite a bit more profit by NOT using a machine. A small, hard working crew that know what they are doing can put any machine to shame.

 

[DrCALIGREENTHUM]

^ well said +1

 

[420bliss]

whan im doin new strains i will trim some wet some dry and see if there is a difference in end quality, if no difference i trim wet cause i think its easier

 

[St3ve]

I voted trimmer

I started off only pulling fans, then hanging to dry, then trimming off budleaves, then curing. Looked and tasted great. Took Forever and a day.. :(

Then started wet trimming all the way down and hanging to dry. Then nip them off the stem into curing jars. Looked and tasted the same, took alot less time.

Then got a little spin trimmer to try out.. nip off the buds for the trimmer and hand trim the top buds. Cut down the time by almost half. The buds off the tops taste, smell, and are as potent as all the smaller buds. They look, only slightly different. (orange hairs laying down versus standing up all prickly) The trics and everything else looks great.

With the slight visual difference, its a no brainer for the time I save. I have also never had a patient notice a difference or ask me about the tops being preferred or anything. In fact, if its all laid in front of them to choose they usually ask for fewer tops because they don't want the stem and the smaller bud looks just as tasty.

I will tell you though.. when I started using the trimmer, I wasn't prepared for how much faster they dry so I dried my first run way too fast and the smell wasn't there. The next run I made sure to keep a 50-60% rh in the drying room at all times and watched closely to start curing earlier and that help a bunch... so now I'm back to smelly goods. :)

 

[gRow70]

I trim fan leaves and leave the sugars leaves on.

 

[brownstormy]

If you have excellent vision try trimming a dry branch in a ray of sunlight, with every snip and pop of stem you can watch the shock eject showers of hundreds of gland heads into the air. I don't see that with wet-trimming, which is why i prefer that method, despite it's pitfalls.

I only noticed these showers the one time I had PM.
Don't see it anymore since I stopped accepting "gift" cuts from everyone and their mothers. No more bugs either :character0029:
Funny that. Lol.

It also may be that I don't let it dry to dust before I start at the sugar leaves.

I've tried wet-trim, dry-trim and hanging the whole untouched plant (with fan leaves) -then trim. And tested properly with the same genetics and all.
Dry-trim and whole plant, got me the best results - then I compared dry-trim to whole plant the next time and noticed no difference.

I stuck to dry trim, so I could just toss all the fans in one go and when everything is trimmed, all the trim (and any magical exploding dust, which I don't see) goes to the butter and coconut oil without having to make different piles of trim.

 

[Top Shelf]

Wet Trimming is best for me...

 

[sk2004]

U guys should have a trim-off. But then u lost me at page 2

 

[lightit]

i have done it both ways and for larger harvests am sometimes forced to do it both ways. some advantages of wet trim:

- leaves still have turgor (water pressure) making trimming go faster (you can simply run your scissors around the shape of the bud and get all the leaves sticking out, rather than having to peel leaves off the bud that have stuck and dried)

- i would think this would keep more trichome heads intact, as they are not yet brittle from being dry, and it seems like peeling stuck sugar leaves off a bud might rip off some trichomes with it. although interestingly i usually have to clean my scissors far less when doing a dry trim.

- it is easier to get a truly close trim if you are aiming to take as much sugar leaf off as possible

some advantages of dry trim:

- you dont have to manicure all of your buds at once. as easy as it is to trim buds when they are turgid, it is very difficult to trim them the day after when they are wilted and soft. if you have a larger harvest coming down it can be almost impossible to trim everything in a day. when dry trimming, as has been mentioned, it can be spaced out.

- leaving sugar leaves on during the dry allows the buds to dry more slowly, leading to a smoother and more flavorful smoke.

- the sugar leaves can protect the buds from light and air while drying that could theoretically degrade the thc in the trichome heads.

just what i have experienced. i think both methods can be useful and advantageous depending on the situation.

 

[smokey_waters]

Okay, read the whole thread. Here's my 101 question. When people refer to "dry trim" exactly what point is this, b/c once dry, aren't you supposed to put it in a paper bag and/or jar and let breathe 2-6X a day? If you are "dry trimming" are you already putting in paper bags or a jar and pulling them out, manicuring the sugar leaves and putting back? Otherwise, it DOESN'T make SENSE. If it's "DRY" then you manicure, by the time you're done, your buds have turned to dust- at least if you have a reasonably large crop.

Thx,

 

[outwest]

This is definitely one of those 'to each their own' topics! Love the perspectives. I prefer to harvest and trim, just to get it done. It works for me.

 

[Cort]

Last round I did half trim and hang, other half hang and trim.

Cant point to one nug and say this was wet trim, this was dry.

Unless harvest day comes on a weekend I will keep trimming just a hair on the wet side of what most think is time for the jar. Ill spend the extra time burping while I trim the rest.

Hardest thing I found about wet trimming, keeping that trim laid out so it dont mold on me and become useless.