Trim Jail questions

[Darran]

Hey all, Happy Monday, hopefully everyone had a great holiday weekend.

I wanted to ask you all about being in Trim Jail. Last years Spring grow meant almost all of my photoperiod plants became harvest ready in late September, early October. I had some pretty big plants so I was literally house bound for a few weeks. I’m the only one doing the harvesting and wet trimming process. I ended up with over 4 pounds of dried and cured buds that then was vacuum sealed. I still ended up throwing away about 2 pounds of wet harvest as I just could not process it fast enough before it started going bad. Even hanging a whole plant and taking branches off as it dried. So…

What do you guys and gals do? Is it just yourselves or do you have help?

When I see the sheer number of plants that @Lightbrightt2010 @T-ray @Retiredoldguy and others have, I start to develop a twitch or tick when I start thinking about having to harvest it all. Although I did end up having some accidental Autoflowers (White Truffle) and those are now harvested and drying, I still have several very large plants going that will also come due at the same time again.

Do you use a crank bowl trimmer? Or is it all by hand only? I just ordered a 16-inch one from Amazon in hopes to eliminate some of the trimming time.

Are there any tips, tricks, words of advice that you might have about trimming? Or am I just having to power through it?

I’ve had people say invite your friends and family over to help. My friends who live close are not against marijuana, but are not consumers. Asking family (to me) is like saying come on over and help me paint the house. You know they really don’t want to. It’s been suggested that I hire people but I don’t sell, and don’t really want to throw any more money at it than I need to. Never mind having strangers in my house.

I love the growing process but the rush at harvest and trim is daunting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate you all.

[Riskguy]

I was hesitant to try a bowl trimmer…now I am never going back. I do still hand trim the prime colas…everything else in the bowl.

[Budbrother]

@Darran

What do you guys and gals do? Is it just yourselves or do you have help?

I don’t trust anyone, and I do it all myself by hand. I dry trim, so different from your experiences.

@Darran

ended up throwing away about 2 pounds of wet harvest as I just could not process it fast enough before it went bad

I don’t get this statement. Sometimes I’ve had enough after a week or so and I just freeze it to process into concentrates.

@Darran

Are there any tips, tricks, words of advice that you might have about trimming?

I do it in phases with large amounts. I pop off fans and buck buds. Doesn’t have to be perfect. Once bagged up, I burp containers by dumping out on pastry mesh screen. Roll them a bit breaking off the dry sugar leaves in process. Some I stick the scissor tip and break off the crows feet to remove. Back into containers. Before the cure is even done I’m left with decently manicured buds.

[Myfriendis410]

@Darran

Do you use a crank bowl trimmer

I bought a 19" that was a game changer for wet trim. I also try to stagger my harvest.

You can also do a lollipop before harvest to reduce the amount of hand trimming when the time comes.

Something we do is hand trim fat colas and bowl trim everything else.

Also; if you need a break just put your plant material in the freezer until ready. It will make the leaves extra limp but the bowl trimmer handles it.

[T-ray]

Hey @Darran . I just grow one or two plants at a time. Just the wife and me, and a few friends who both live out of town, get any of the bud I grow. Since the yield is measured in ounces and not pounds, it’s a much easier task to accomplish.

[T-ray]

@Myfriendis410

Something we do is hand trim fat colas and bowl trim everything else

That’s what we did with one of the last plants. Gave the nice fat flowers the clippers and the rest in the bowl trimmer. That bowl trimmer made quick work of the job and the kief/larf had more potential for edibles.

[Stoner4202]

I do it multiple ways usually by hand wet trimming but this electrictrimmer saves so much time and gets it pretty close but a downside is when the blades get sticky it throws trimmings out instead of pulling them in and i have this you put on a 5 gallon bucket and it works great for dry trimming dense buds

[GrizzlyGrows]

What i do is have 4 or 5 large storage bins with liners. I harvest strip the big fan leaves, leave any little leaves, dry for 2 weeks at 60/60 then put it all in totes after i dry put hygrometers in then leave the totes in a controlled area and trim at my own pace. The buds being in the tote and with the liner keeps it from over drying. U can close the liner up with the lid to sweat it out more if needed or leave it open to dry it out more. Easies lt way for me to do it and it starts curing while in the totes

[Retiredoldguy]

morning Darran… I have learned in my grows that only the top branch buds are worth keeping… I try to trim so that I don’t have a lot of lower branch growth at harvest time… I believe the mechanical trimmers will take some of your trichomes off so I only hand trim … I only grow 3 plants at a time and so I can take the time to get the most from what I grow… when I harvest, each plant takes about 4 hours to strip down to what I want to keep…

[Storm]

I am a plucker. I dry trim and just pull the fans unless using my wedryer. Then I wet trim same way. Only thing scissors touch are stems. I find the sugar leaves break off in cure and make nice oils. The flowers self trim. After a few weeks they are hard nugs and look trimmed. As long as all fans and small sucker leaves are off right into jars they go.

[Robinson-Crusoe]

Best investment I made was the Trimzilla warrior leaf cutter Pro 18inch

I got mine for around £350 and it absolutely destroys trimming,

The finished buds are even better than I can do by hand trimming in a fraction of the time as well

Can be noisy though on the higher speed settings but I wouldn’t be without it now

[Darran]

Hey @Budbrother , [quote=“Budbrother, post:3, topic:119600”]

@Darran

ended up throwing away about 2 pounds of wet harvest as I just could not process it fast enough before it went bad

I don’t get this statement. Sometimes I’ve had enough after a week or so and I just freeze it to process into concentrates.
[/quote]

I have two refrigerators, one inside the house and one in the garage. Both freezers are absolutely full as I cook large, vacuum seal, and freeze for future meals. I could get a little bit in, but not anywhere near that much. I would probably have to buy a chest freezer at that point but don’t really have the space to put it anywhere.

BTW, I ended up getting that 16inch bowl trimmer and opened it today. I can see how that is going to help.

I am also now using Terp bags for the curing process instead of the mason jars. Last October I had over 48 32-oz mason jars full. It took me over an hour to take the jars out of the crates, undo the lids, let them air for 15 minutes, put the lids back on, put back in their crates and move them out of the main dining area again. Every day for 2-4 weeks because of when they were harvested and dried. The Terp bags over the winter grow made it so much easier. Takes about a week to get the RH to settle, but then it is on autopilot. I check the hygrometers in each bag daily and open if needed, but it’s like 10 minutes max.

I like the idea of hand trim the main colas and everything else on the bowl trimmer. I still have a pound of sugar leaves and trimmings from my last Summer and Winter grows that I have to eventually do something with. After I get the grow thing down, I’ll start looking at making gummies. That’s another whole rabbit hole to go down. I did a couple of pounds of cannabutter last time and still have some of that frozen for use. @Riskguy @Myfriendis410

Cannabutter:

Right now I have 8 plants that should be ready in Sept-Oct not including if my 3-clone thing works out… @T-ray

@Stoner4202 That’s a good looking trimmer for sure. If my new 16-inch one doesn’t cut it ($30 with coupon) I’ll keep that as a reference.

@GrizzlyGrows What kind of liners are you using? I have the 27-30 gallon Costco totes. I usually try for wet trim but did do some dry trimming last time just due to the shear volume of what I had. Might be an option if overwhelmed again this Fall.

@Retiredoldguy , for some reason I thought that you were doing more plants than that at a time. I do try for all the top bud stuff first but I do try to get anything reasonably sized if I can from the rest of the plant.

@Storm , I try to get the buds in final form by wet trimming before dry and cure. That way once they get done drying and go into the Terp bags, I know the only thing left is to portion it out, vacuum seal, label and out to the garage fridge.

@Robinson-Crusoe , 350 British pounds is about $476 in USD. Not sure about spending that kind of money on it unless I had a much larger commercial grow going. If I was doing it for money and not just for fun, I might consider it, but that is a bit steep for me as a hobby cost. I just looked it up and the 2 prices that jumped out at me from vendors were 550 English pounds or $750 USD and 500 EP which is $680 USD.

I just want to say that I appreciate everyone’s input and understanding about what a PITA that Trim Jail can be. Thanks again.

This is 39 of the 48 Mason Jars:

I had already portioned out and vacuum sealed some. Most are 1oz, a few 1/2oz:

Hanging to dry trim as it’s going bad. I had already taken a lot off of it:

What got tossed in the 96 gallon bin: