The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

[FatherEarth]

They can never duplicate the delicate work of human hands. At least not with anything even remotely economical. Hand trim on all top notch FTW. Machined Trim for the bulk that would be otherwise wasted.

IMO everyone should trim ONLY AA++ and the rest of it get dried and sold wholesale, untrimmed. Who would buy such a product?? The droves of concentrate makers popping up everywhere. Oilers, bubble spinners, Dry Sifters ....

 

[Sir D]

I've actually seen it do a great job on some blue dream and a not so great on others. I guess if you don't like the 4lbs in 20 mins then you can stick to 4lbs in 4 days. Me I prefer my time and money any day of the week. It degrades a bit but still gets me high as so it's not degrading too much! Plus not having to worry about a group of unappreciative trimmers for months at a time and only for a week just is a no brainier for me. I know people who would have had trimmers at their spot till damn near April getting everything done but now they have everything put away already looking forward to the next one. It is what it is. True though hands are the finest way to go but I don't need platinum I'll settle with gold lol. Definetly good for the popcorn that takes way too long by hand.

 

[OrganicBuds]

I've actually seen it do a great job on some blue dream and a not so great on others. I guess if you don't like the 4lbs in 20 mins then you can stick to 4lbs in 4 days.

I wish I could trim 4 lbs in 4 days, I suck at trimming, possibly the worst ever. Not that I space out and day dream, I just wasn't blessed with the ability to trim quickly.

Also, I don't knock the speed of the trimmer, 4 lbs in 20 min is amazing. If you think about it though, each and every nug in that entire 4 lbs has been rolled around for 20 min. That is way more abuse that a hand trimmer, or even a spinner pro trimmer would cause.

Whatever floats your boat, different strokes for different folks. Either way, thanks for showing us what looks to be a very good trimmer.

 

[furrywall11]

I ran a decent amount through one of those dry trimmers and it just knocks the smell right out of the bud. definitely only for c buds.

 

[Bud Green]

Gonna change my name....
From now on, please call me Edward Scissorhands.....

 

[Sir D]

Lol Trimming sux don't it OB.
I think when you actually trim the bud pertaining to amount of moisture left is possibly one of the bigger factors. I've seen it hack the hell out of dryer nugs for sure and then seen it not able to take anything off when it was more moist. I think if done when more dry it may also affect smell more as furry had issues with.
Furry how dry was your run? 1-10? 10 being dryer then a desert fart.
Anyways the blue dream that was done was just phenomenol and still has all smell in tacked and damn near looks like hand trimmed job. It was ran at about a five maybe 4 1/2 moisture content. For me it seemed a tid bit of moisture really made a nice job. But who knows

Yes g degrades a bit but then again just touching the air does that. I have to say I didn't get any higher off the hand trimmed nugs.

 

[Backyard Farmer]

Seems like this gets brought up every harvest.

I chop it all and hang it, I don't big leaf it I don't handle it any more than cutting a branch off and putting it in a tote then hanging it up.

I serve it to trimmers fairly dry and finish drying it out all the way for long term storage after they clean up the units. I get it market ready with a Hydro Fogger and some drying racks.

I owned a twister and sold it because I need to pay to have it run and running it is a pain.

if there was a machine that took all the nugs off the stem for you and ran it through the machine and put it on the drying rack I would use it...

The cheapest way I have found so far is to have the trimmers make their own meals, harvest it all myself with the help of the fewest number hourly workers as possible to get it done in a timely fashion.

I would be interested in checking out some of the dry trimmers to see what they do to the work. At todays market rates, no one should be bending over backwards. Just get them the damn produce.

 

[anonymousgrow]

At todays market rates, no one should be bending over backwards. Just get them the damn produce.

Agreed! And the Market is flooded with subpar stuff. Seems like the clubs this year haven't been too picky about trim and little buds and shake and stuff. The first pounds I brought down to the bay, I went through them and picked out any little or ugly buds and shook out all the shake through a screen and made the pounds just as appealing as I could, now I don't do any of that and no one has said anything. Seems like if the product is better than most they aren't as picky cuz the patients still buy the meds quickly.

Backyard Farmer, I have pretty much the exact same process as you from chop to market and am actually thinking about a twister and would love your thoughts as well as anyone else's.

I have seen a twister run before but my experience is very limited, only a few hours, and I have no experience cleaning the machine. This year I trimmed about a hp wet and dried it and cured it the way I would if I did a whole crop wet with a machine and am happy with the wet trim and dry/cure.

I am thinking a regular spinpro or two to deleaf and then cut buds off and feed into the twister. I feel like the benefits would be the speed of trimming and it would require less room to dry trimmed buds on screens than hanging branches with all the leaves.

I think I will need a crew of people helping out either way but machines make it so they are here for a long weekend instead of weeks and my partner was getting pretty sick of the trimmers by the time the last ones left.

Downside would be that it only works well on certain bud structures and it will be slightly lower quality than hand trimmed across the board. But I don't think the market cares.

What are other folks' thoughts?

 

[FatherEarth]

AG,

spraying pam (or anything for that matter )to keep the blades oiled gets oil on your material. No way around it. That is a big issue in my book. As well as making the herb darker and look like rolled up buds that have been handled by a gorilla with scissors. Other than that its a win, lol...

 

[anonymousgrow]

Oily buds, yuck! That is a big issue. Isn't it possible to run in it without oiling it at all and cleaning it frequently? Maybe I should just build a big enough shed to hang it all in. Space is a factor, this year had to sacrifice flowering rooms to dry and sacrifice living room of the house to dry. Having a climate controlled room for curing after trim is a must in my book and I am thinking a twister can allow me to not need so much room for hanging before trim. deleafing before hanging would help with room but then they dried out too quick. Thanks for any thoughts and opinions. I am sure we will always be tweaking something trying to get better and more efficient.

 

[FatherEarth]

i know a few tricks for getting around that problem usually dark weed is dark weed regardless of how it is trimmed lol but it is pretty easy to push em over the edge with a rough machine trim.

Cutting the herb wet allows chlorophyll to get onto buds. Chlorophyll breaks down when exposed to UV light and turns brown. Hand trimmed
from the same garden was much lighter color. Id love to hear some tips & tricks to avoid this problem, Im all ears. Thanks for sharing.


Respectfully,

FE

 

[Backyard Farmer]

I have a friend who uses a trim reaper then runs it through a twister,,,they do it with a few people and it takes a long time still. Trimming takes time period any way you do it unless you go like they do in mendo with multiple trim pro for deleafing and twisters stacked up and lots of hippies and then you're 50k deep in machines that do one thing kind of good..and still paying 15hr...drying on racks is a pain ...harvesting is the least fun part of farming..

The key is infrastructure where you can get your stuff dried and more importantly hold it at a good consistency and have space so your workers aren't in your house and space and have their own place to work and sleep and cook

Cubans still get rolled by hand, high grade still get cleaned by hand, commie prices on the produce now is all.

Regarding oiling the twister...Where you spray the Pam and the centrifuge created by the barrel keep the oil off the buds...the oil isn't going to creep up when the tumbler is spinning and the fan is sucking...

 

[Madjag]

Downside would be that it only works well on certain bud structures and it will be slightly lower quality than hand trimmed across the board. But I don't think the market cares.

What are other folks' thoughts?

Untrimmed, less-handled herb, except for the removal of large, easily-plucked fan leaves, then cured in bottles for 60-120 days, followed by careful scissor trimming, yields the finest end product I've seen so far. But so what, is the difference truly noticeable? One more toke makes up for any trim method's deficiency and that's what the consumer market has moved toward. Visually wonderful, sensory-sweet weed is the grower's stash variety and won't be the standard ever.

 

[furrywall11]

I still get a few extra points for my meticulously trimmed herb than I would for a quick trim job... I have lots of buddies that do it fast and loose and they always have a harder time getting rid of their stuff unless they go with the current market value which as you know can be awful... I remember in nov '11 getting offered $600 for a lb of outdoor... It's all about finding your market- some people do still give a crap that their buds have received so many good vibes..or to be able to bust out a newly bought bag and show it off to their friends. There is room for all types...I wish more people would take it upon themselves to be stand up middle men, though...I'm getting tired of being a full time grower and having to make sales trips and maintain contacts all year. But, it is what it is, embrace it!! yeah!!

 

[GreenHands13]

basically i try to lock up the chlorophyll b4 chop and not overdose the plant with N. the best tweek ive found so far for improving the output quality on a twister is sorting the nugs by size and not overloading the barrel

Chlorophyll and carotene are attached to cell membranes anthocyanins are dissolved in plant sap its the carbs and nutrients in the sap that causes color and smell loss

 

[FatherEarth]

Chlorophyll and carotene are attached to cell membranes anthocyanins are dissolved in plant sap its the carbs and nutrients in the sap that causes color and smell loss

Ahaaa.... Thanks for that ++

Sent me on a research paper hunt....


FE

 

[GreenHands13]

Welcome FE always willing to share info when I can

Exactly right BB those are caretenoids showing threw when plants are deficing from being flushed they show more so you know there will be less overall nutrients in the sap and overall cleaner final product

 

[milkyjoe]

Chlorophyll and carotene are attached to cell membranes anthocyanins are dissolved in plant sap its the carbs and nutrients in the sap that causes color and smell loss

Not saying you are wrong, I don't know...but do you have a citation for that. The trend in veggie farming is to get cobalt in the soil to prevent senescence (by blocking ethylene production) and finish the plants green vs dying. This assures a higher mineral content and higher test weight (denser buds in our case). Taste improves and shelf life goes up when you do this. It may be different for us but I wonder.

They do tend to use far less N than your avg weed farmer though...that may be important also.

 

[Backyard Farmer]

Increasing the Cobalt is where it is at. I did it in 2012 and had great results.

I had my soil sprayed with JH biotech's amino cobalt at mixing to do it.

Milkyjoe , its all produce. Veggie plot gets the same treatment and has relative results to what's growing be it 12' tall corn with multiple ears/stalks per plant or habanero pepper bushes that are more pepper than bush.

 

[anonymousgrow]

I was just poking around the JH Biotech website the other day. It looks like they have a few things I could use. Have you used more than the cobalt? Do other have experience with this company?