Overall trimming and drying your crop is rather self explanatory and on face value quite simple, but is by no means any less a crucial and important time as any other throughout the growing process, this is the time for perfecting the crop the finishing touch as it were and can play a very large role in the final outcome of your finished products flavour, strength, and smoke. Sadly I have seen many a beautiful well grown plant be ruined by an incorrect attitude to trimming and drying, that being said every grower will have their own tricks and ways to go about drying but the growers with the tastiest buds will always tell you to take your time and not rush.

Most commercially grown bud I have seen recently has usually gone from plant to baggy within 4-7 days and achieved by having fans heaters and dehumidifiers forcefully removing the water quickly from the plant, this practice may be more financially beneficial allowing quicker turnovers ect, but on a smoking level it leads to a harsher taste and chlorophyll from the plant being trapped where it has not had a chance to break down and be removed naturally in the drying process, this is why some dry buds have a “green” flavour to them which in my mind is an awful shame considering the time and effort put into growing the crop in the first place. If dried slowly over a period of time without forcing the process the outer layer of the buds will dry slowly and the moisture from the core of the buds will slowly transfer out, gentle circulation of the air at a stable temperature and 5-10 minutes of extraction every couple of hours will remove the built up humidity from the drying process.

Air is a very important factor of drying to much and they will dry too quickly, to little and you run the chance of mould which can destroy a drying crop in a very short amount of time. Your crop will go through several stages of feeling dry to the touch but actually still being very moist inside you can judge this by breaking apart a small bud if this is the case you may need to slow the circulation down a touch so the outer layer doesn’t dry completely I find if it dry s before the last of the water has wicked out of the stem then it will act as a barrier and not allow even drying which is crucial to a decent burn and a smooth smoke. The entire drying process should take from about 7-14 days depending on your conditions and also the density and size of your buds and then you would move on to the curing or “fermenting” stage which allows the breakdown of any traces of chlorophyll and various other compounds leaving you with the full unadulterated flavour of just your buds with no leafy or green flavours interfering.

We have jumped ahead of the process slightly purely as I feel the environment for drying has to be well thought out so I would plan it well before getting the scissors out, if you are drying in the same area you have grown in make sure to remove all moist substrate and water-butts as it may prolong things and the extra moisture in the air increases the chances of mould. Once you have your environment figured out its time to tackle the plants hands on.

Leaving your plants and extra day or two more than you usually would to dry out after their final flush is definitely benificial, your plants should not be at the wilting stage but by now you should know your plants habits and drinking rates better than they do. Doing this will naturally drop a day or two off of the drying cycle without rushing things in any way.

So with the drying area set up and ready its time to start cutting down and trimming your crop, plan this out and do things in stages I have caused myself problems by chopping more plants than I had time to trim in that sitting and then ended up having a nightmare removing the wilted leaves instead of nice perky fresh ones, I have found it better to do it plant by plant just in case you do need to take a break. There are various ways of trimming and manicuring your buds I have tried various different methods from kitchen scissors and a bread-knife for the stems to thousands of pounds worth of machine trimmers and all of them have their pros and cons.

The mechanical methods are fantastic labour saving devices and cuts down the time it takes to trim a large crop by over half and leave the buds looking picture perfect but the major downside I have found in the mechanical methods is they all involve some form of rubbing. From the hand operated trimmers to the large motor driven they all in some way roll the buds using rubber fingers or rub them over a grate, in my mind rubbing a live plant creates charas by smooshing the glands under friction and I have found this changes the flavour of the strain considerably I have had many a lovely potent smelling flower have its flavour reduced by 40% by the rubbing action of the machines also as the buds have been removed from the stalk for trimming in some machines you have to dry in multi tiered nets instead of hanging the buds still on the branch.

The drop in flavour problem I proved to myself by hand trimming half a plant and machine trimming the other, when dry I found the hand trimmed and branch hung side had an amazing full rich flavour and covered in THC how it should be whereas the other seemed to have dried a little faster due to being off the branch and in nets looked amazingly manicured and had a lot of smell but a lack of flavour and not as glistening in THC as the other. if you are growing on a larger scale and do not have the ability to manage harvesting on your own and cant have a few friends over for a trimming party, or are growing for medical use and find hand scissors difficult or uncomfortable to use then they are the perfect way to help manage your harvesting plus the trim they collect is amazingly good for BHO production and the rubber fingered versions physically collect a stunning hash for you to scrape of and enjoy, its probably the closest thing to true hand rubbed charas hash you can find without getting very very sticky.

Personally the method I prefer to stick to is the simple old fashioned way of going about a crop harvest by careful hand trimming and manicuring to maintain the flavours and strength that the strain intended. There are many variations of trimming and manicuring scissors available personally I prefer the slightly curved blade ones with a fine point the few pairs I have had for years are still very sharp unlike some others it is definitely worth spending the extra money on a decent set to last you, but most importantly make sure they are comfortable in your hand, it is surprising how quickly painful blisters can appear if you have a bad pair of scissors.