Wet trim vs. dry trim!!
After growing crops with the intent to maximize the genetic expression of trichomes and resin production, we must continue to care for the crop’s most precious and delicate floral components during harvesting. The only way to minimize damage to a mature crop of trichomes is, to allow them to dessicate fully before any trimming or manicuring is done. Fresh trichomes are just too soft and like water-balloons they will rupture if knocked or sheared off the plant.
Furthermore when cannabis crops are manicured fresh or machine trimmed while still “green”, the watery, green cytoplasm of cut leaf cells and floral parts will exude and mix with resins and oils derived from broken trichomes. This leads to the oxidation and degradation of the mixed cytoplasm fluids and trichome resins.
Manicuring fresh buds is therefore never a best practice, as it will immediately degrade the trichome content and make the crop more vulnerable to continuous oxidative damage as the buds dry. Although the damage from trimming freshly cut buds may seem tolerable, it will yield a final product that is slightly degraded, both in terms of potency and shelf-life. Buds that are trimmed fresh become brown coloured when dry, and the aroma or “nose” of the product will be noticeably different. This is like pre-maturely aging the buds; it isn’t a good starting point.
The only way to avoid and minimize damaging trichomes on mature cannabis plants is to dry whole plants to 20-25% of fresh weight before any machine-leaf-trimming or manicuring occurs. This level of dryness is when trichomes start to fall off intact; the round “head” of the trichomes break off the “stalk” cells. At 20-25% moisture content the plant’s green cells have desiccated to the point where, no chlorophyll laden cytoplasm will leak out of leaf cells when trimmed. The trimmings are also covered in trichomes, so even this fraction of the crop requires delicate handling.
After growing crops with the intent to maximize the genetic expression of trichomes and resin production, we must continue to care for the crop’s most precious and delicate floral components during harvesting. The only way to minimize damage to a mature crop of trichomes is, to allow them to dessicate fully before any trimming or manicuring is done. Fresh trichomes are just too soft and like water-balloons they will rupture if knocked or sheared off the plant.
Furthermore when cannabis crops are manicured fresh or machine trimmed while still “green”, the watery, green cytoplasm of cut leaf cells and floral parts will exude and mix with resins and oils derived from broken trichomes. This leads to the oxidation and degradation of the mixed cytoplasm fluids and trichome resins.
Manicuring fresh buds is therefore never a best practice, as it will immediately degrade the trichome content and make the crop more vulnerable to continuous oxidative damage as the buds dry. Although the damage from trimming freshly cut buds may seem tolerable, it will yield a final product that is slightly degraded, both in terms of potency and shelf-life. Buds that are trimmed fresh become brown coloured when dry, and the aroma or “nose” of the product will be noticeably different. This is like pre-maturely aging the buds; it isn’t a good starting point.
The only way to avoid and minimize damaging trichomes on mature cannabis plants is to dry whole plants to 20-25% of fresh weight before any machine-leaf-trimming or manicuring occurs. This level of dryness is when trichomes start to fall off intact; the round “head” of the trichomes break off the “stalk” cells. At 20-25% moisture content the plant’s green cells have desiccated to the point where, no chlorophyll laden cytoplasm will leak out of leaf cells when trimmed. The trimmings are also covered in trichomes, so even this fraction of the crop requires delicate handling.
But I still hate dry trimming........lol!
