Wet or Dry Trimming?

Trimming your bud is one of those topics where everyone has an opinion. Wet? dry? which is best?

“Dry” trimming your plants is where you remove the rest of the foliage from around the buds of your cannabis plant after it has mostly dried out.

“Wet” trimming your plant Is, yes you guessed it,  the process of removing the excess foliage from your plant while it is still wet (fresh).

Wet Trimming

Advantages

You can get on with the job straight away. Wet trimming makes the removal of the leaves easier as they can be removed quicker and easier. Because most leaves are removed whilst the plant is fresh there is less moisture remaining in the plant speeding up drying.

After trimming there is less product left over to dry which is great if space is limited. Whilst plants are fresh the super sticky trichomes are also much better equipped to withstand handling and remain on the plant in larger numbers than during dry trimming.

Wet trimming gives you neater results and cannot be performed using a trimming machine. Many people prefer wet trimmed plants simply because they like the “hand finished” effect.

Disadvantages

Because the leaves are cut when the plant is still fresh, they “bleed” chlorophyl, the green chemical that gives leaves their colour. The chlorophyl can remain all over the bud giving it an over all “hay”smell, masking the natural terpenes and creating an inferior taste and smell profile.

Dry Trimming

Advantages

When dry trimmed, your bud will retain its true terpene profile as it will not have been damaged whilst still wet (fresh).

By keeping more leaves on the plant initially you will be slowing down the drying time. This is great if you are trying to prevent your plants from drying out too quickly and losing valuable terpene content. The trichomes will harden and become less sticky as the plant dries out, meaning that dry trimming is much less messy and sticky.

The biggest benefit of using the ”dry” method is that a trimming machine can be used. There are many available on the market which are very effective and able to process large amounts of material in very short spaces of time.

Disadvantages

Dry trimming is particularly laborious if done by hand and can take a long while to complete as the leaves in many cases have curled in, dried and stuck themselves to the buds making them much trickier to remove.

As the trichomes have dried out they will be more brittle and vulnerable to breaking and being detroyed. Handle with the greatest of care.

Your plants will shrink and shrivel as they dry but to start with your will need quite a large space and enough equipment to hang everything appropriately so it can dry to its best finish.

When dry trimming there is an unavoidable period of 7-14 days where you must allow your buds to dry slowly. The temptation to rush the process is not worth it. Drying your buds too quickly can leave them tasting terrible and smelling even worse. Drying your buds too fast in mildly hot temperatures, like 85°F (30°C), can burn off valuable terpenes and cannabinoids.

So, as you can see there really is no “better” way of trimming, it all comes down to what will give you the best results for your own personal circumstances, be that climate, space, or time frame. Drying, Curing and trimming makes up almost 50% of your final quality! Even the best cannabis in the world is going to be mid-quality at best! If it is not processed correctly.