Starting your First Grow: When to Trim Your Cannabis - Twister Technologies (2024)

FAQs

When should I start trimming my buds? ›

Trimming at home begins a few weeks before harvest when the larger leaves are removed. Usually, growers trim the fan leaves weeks before harvest, which is a period that leads to senescence, a phase in the plant cycle when the larger leaves start fading away.

You'll know your buds are ripe for the picking when those little trichomes turn a milky or amber hue. Take a good look at your buds, too—they should be nice and bulky, looking their best. That's your cue to start harvesting!

Harvesting cannabis at the right time is crucial to obtaining the best quality and potency. If you harvest marijuana plants too early, your buds may lack potency and taste unpleasant.

Manually trimming buds can result in nicks and cuts, making cut-resistant gloves a necessary form of PPE for many workers. Consider wearing a thin disposable glove underneath your cut-resistant gloves for those needing waterproof protection and cut resistance.

In order to end up with the best quality buds, you need to prepare them through a process called curing. This needs to be started as soon as you harvest your plant. The process begins with slowly drying the freshly harvested buds in a controlled environment and is done for multiple reasons.

Dry trimming allows cannabis growers more control over the drying speed, as the exterior foliage retains moisture. This ensures the buds won't dry too quickly. Dry trimming typically means better quality marijuana in the end, as retaining the moisture while drying allows the buds to dry at the correct speed.

Use a magnifier to look at them; they should transition from clear to a milky white color. If they turn amber, it's a sign that the bud is overripe. Remember, the ripening stage can significantly impact the potency and flavor of the buds, so it's crucial to determine the correct harvest window.

To quickly and efficiently trim individual buds, we recommend using a bud bowl trimmer. Remove any fan leaves before placing your buds on the lining floor of the trimmer. Put on the cover and rotate the bud bowl trimmer 15-20 times, or when the buds appear well-groomed before taking them out.

Prior to the flowering stage, growers often remove around half of a plant's fan leaves to encourage bud production. Right before it is time to harvest the buds, you can remove most of the fan leaves from the plant. However, it is important to allow a few days for the plant to recover before harvesting.

Important points for topping:

can be done more than twice however doing so will increase time in vegetative phase. Test to see what is most productive. Some experienced growers will top up to 5 times (or more) to obtain 32 branches and can be well rewarded for their efforts.

What do fully mature trichomes look like? ›

When trichomes are cloudy and ready for harvest, you'll likely notice that 50-70% of the white “hairs” on your buds have turned amber. Keep in mind that if you wait too long and trichomes turn amber you will lose THC potency. The key thing to look for is milky, cloudy trichomes, as they contain the highest THC levels.

The energy stored in fan leaves helps support this transition, allowing the plant to focus on producing and maturing buds. Without an adequate energy from healthy fan leaves, bud growth can be stunted, leading to smaller and less potent flowers.

Removing the leaves can improve light penetration, allowing lower buds to develop properly and resulting in better yields. Cutting off the foliage on the lower branches will improve airflow, helping prevent mold and bugs. Removing fan leaves can redirect a plant's energy to the buds, resulting in better quality buds.

If you have optimal drying conditions with proper airflow, trimming before drying may be beneficial. However, if your drying conditions are less than ideal, trimming after drying can help protect the buds and slow down the drying process.

Prior to the flowering stage, growers often remove around half of a plant's fan leaves to encourage bud production.