New to dry trimming - have a question

[AloeRuss]

Hello

After investigating this forum and basing on my goals I decided to trim my girls after some period of drying.
Since I have several dozens, I can't just cut them all, let them dry and continue trimming as the last plant will probably vanish in dust by the time I get to it.
I have never handled such a large amount before. That's why I need some advice. So far my plan of action is:

Take first 5 plants. Cut the brunches with the buds on it. Remove the fan leaves. Cut branches into smaller portions and put them onto the nets to dry for 4 or 5 days.
Five days later star the trimming process and cut another five and start drying in the same fashion
I am allowing such a breakup because I don't know how fast I will be trimming, so I will handle the time intervals as I go.

What do you guys think of this.
I am sure that many of you here have handled large amount of plants before. Please advice if you can.

Thank you. Happy Holidays!

 

[Snype]

Hello

After investigating this forum and basing on my goals I decided to trim my girls after some period of drying.
Since I have several dozens, I can't just cut them all, let them dry and continue trimming as the last plant will probably vanish in dust by the time I get to it.
I have never handled such a large amount before. That's why I need some advice. So far my plan of action is:

Take first 5 plants. Cut the brunches with the buds on it. Remove the fan leaves. Cut branches into smaller portions and put them onto the nets to dry for 4 or 5 days.
Five days later star the trimming process and cut another five and start drying in the same fashion
I am allowing such a breakup because I don't know how fast I will be trimming, so I will handle the time intervals as I go.

What do you guys think of this.
I am sure that many of you here have handled large amount of plants before. Please advice if you can.

Thank you. Happy Holidays!

If you cant trim a pound or more a day for each trimmer, you need to put in more focus. Not sure about you weights but 2 people can easily trim 2 pounds per day if your not smoking and not talking. No talking allowed, lol. Listen to some upbeat music and trim the day away. You have to learn to enjoy it or the hours will go much slower.

 

[Mate Dave]

I can hand manicure fresh plants myself to excellent standard in a matter of minutes, it is all about preparation, I don't know the logistics of your set-up so can't comment on how my situation would apply to yourself.

I try to only have 1 light need harvesting per day/week when busy but I have multiple light grows going which take a few days.

Generally like you stated - Cut into workable sections removing fan leafs and place prepared stems onto wire hangers on a clothes trolley with wheels which can be moved in and out the grow rooms, once you have a few Kilos on it you can place the clean prepared marital into a drying environment like a well ventilated tent.

At this stage you can prepare the Grow-Rooms for another round of flowering.

Trimming within 24 hours after the initial preparation of the plants in my method is the key to getting the best trim IMHO. (Some I don't trim)

"I plan to try and clean down, change round then flip the rooms in a day"

"At times whole tents of plants in pots are moved to a dying/trim room so a new crop can be planted"

In the first method the plants are losing turgidity at an equal rate when harvested in this way, you may have difficulty’s trimming wilted buds compared to those cut fresh from the plants so to eliminate this problem with wilted buds l I limit myself to 1 light areas which I can trim fast before you have such difficulty’s.

I can place trimmed plants back onto the dry rack and into a drying area after working on them after the clean down and change round.

I trim in the dry area.

I plant on a timetable to allow me to plan my harvests around moons and time that I have free to trim.

Step 1 - Analyse the equipment and methods needed to harvest, prepare for sale and grade crops.

Step 2 - Storage requirements of specific crops.

 

[mack 10]

My elbow's fu@@ked from trimming non stop for years. I can't take it any more, lol..
If I wasn't such an OCD freak I would get someone else to do it.


if you dry trim you can absolutely blast through the #'s, You should just be able to gently rub your hand down the stems and the leafs will turn to dust, if they don't break away freely you need to dry more.

Good luck.

 

[AloeRuss]

Thank you for your input.
I think I should be able to trim a pound per person per day a easy.
By the way my ladies look in their week 5, there will be enough work for 2 trimmers for 4 days.
So, my question is, do I cut and start drying all of my plants at the same time and have trimmers come 3 days later and start their work. Or should I cut maybe 10 at a time and then continue as trimmers progress?

 

[Snype]

Thank you for your input.
I think I should be able to trim a pound per person per day a easy.
By the way my ladies look in their week 5, there will be enough work for 2 trimmers for 4 days.
So, my question is, do I cut and start drying all of my plants at the same time and have trimmers come 3 days later and start their work. Or should I cut maybe 10 at a time and then continue as trimmers progress?

I trim wet. I cut only branches that will take an hour or 2. Maybe one plant at a time. If you cut all of your plants down at once, it will take it a while to dry it all before you can trim. Over 5 days easy. Once some strains sit around for a couple hours after chopping, the leaves can become much harder to cut.

 

[AloeRuss]

See. For my purpose, smell and taste are very important. I have to trim dry.

 

[AloeRuss]

At the Same time, since the top colas usually rippens and ready to harvest faster then the lower buds, it would make sense for me to cut the colas first. Dry for 3 days and only then cut the lower parts.
Ant thoughts on that?

 

[RonSmooth]

I think that cutting the branches down defeats some of the purpose of dry trimming. IME, allowing the whole plant to slowly and evenly dry produces the best smells.

While I have heard about harvesting branches at different times, I have never seen any substantial gain and to me, its not worth it. .

I remove large fan leaves through the plants life and remove the remainder at harvest. Then hang the whole plant to dry. It should take at least a week. If it is taking 3 days, youre drying them too fast.

If you leave the plants hanging in a good space with temps and humidity in check, you could leave them hanging longer without having them dry out too much. Once they reach a state of equilibrium with the surrounding environment, they will not lose or gain and moisture. I would be shooting for temps and humidity around 60. You will have more time to work with them if the environment does not promote over drying or under drying dur to high humidity.

Dry trimming is actually quicker for me. The leaves become brittle and break off with the touch of the scissor tips.

 

[AloeRuss]

Thank you Ron. Very informative.
I am staying on the dry site. Can't stand to smell a clean manicured bud and smell nothing..

 

[St3ve]

If it was me, I would cut all of the plants down the same day. For dry trimming, I like to use hangers to hang the plants. If they are small then two plants per hanger, one on each end. If its larger, I will split the plant in half and put one half on each side of the hanger.

Once they get dry enough, I would take them down, trim the plants into single branches, and then put them in 18gal rubbermaid bins with a lid to slow any additional evaporation/drying. Then I can just take my time trimming. Then as they are trimmed up I put them in their tupperware bins, that I put back into the larger rubbermaid bins so they all stay the same % RH.

Make sure to use hygrometers to know where your RH is at all times.

 

[Mate Dave]

Thank you Ron. Very informative.
I am staying on the dry site. Can't stand to smell a clean manicured bud and smell nothing..

If you can't smell nothing squeeze the buds or shake them, if they still don't smell the strain is a throw-away.

You couldn't walk around safely where I live carrying a 1/2 gram of clean manicured bud as it would smell very loud!

Usually the skunk what is grown over here is so pungent that bagging it up amplifys the smell into a more intense and head turning violent stink like there is shit on your shoes.

Leaving the fans on and not trimming makes skunk look bad and smell more like hay, it will increase the final harvest weight but increases dust and promotes lower quality.

At the end of the day when they are manicured fresh and cured they are ready to smoke, no preparation is required and your not smoking chaff or having to clean chaff.

Drying whole plants is ideal for making Hash! - Hand Preparation isn't required for sale, only storage until the resin processing is required.

The method is centuries old tried and tested in the most arid of conditions.

Manicuring fresh has the buds prepared ready for sale.

We generally don't grade using goat skin for long-term storage of flower-heads, rubber-maids or glass is preferable to dead animal carcasses.

Step 1 - Analyse the equipment and methods needed to harvest, prepare for sale and grade crops.

Step 2 - Storage requirements of specific crops.

 

[Easy7]

I enjoy the natural look of the bud leaves wrapping around the bud. Hanging upside down after the big ugly leaves are trimmed. Saving the finer manicuring when the buds are curing, good for making dry sift.