I’m about to flip to flower on my very first grow and I’m staring down the oncoming train of trimming. My hands cramp up within a minute or two of certain hand motions, so hand trimming or silicone brushes are not going to be possible for me.
I’d imagine there might be other folks who have had to solve a similar problem, and I’d like your thoughts!
This is not meant to be a discussion about whether hand trimming is the best option: for the purposes of this topic, hand trimming is not an option at all.
What are your non hand trimmer / non silicone brush methods for trimming?
Do you have some super secret approach that isn’t common knowledge?
Do you use a bowl trimmer? That seems to be the main option I’ve seen.
For folks who have / have tried / have tried multiple bowl trimmers:
Is there actually a difference in quality / result between them?
Is it better to just pick the cheapest one that has replacement blades available?
Are the ones that are the vertical-sided circle with a flat top better?
Have you tried both wet and dry trim with whatever ones you’ve tried?
Are there specific models that you think work better than others?
Ive used those silicone brush things on dry buds trimming they work, havent had experience with larger machines or even bowl trimmers. Although ive always wanted one. Many people say they have a tendancy to rip buds up if they arent dry enough.
I though I read about a bag, your put the buds in and you shake it, to remove the leaf. Well hell why dont I search that out, BRB!
Ok https://trimbag.com/ for dry trimming.
Some folks were talking these up, about how much they like them, on another site I go to.
I have never used or seen one, just offering info, nor do I have a dog in this fight.
I tried both blades the wet one worked best for me. I think its a 16 inch vivosun. I think the only difference in quality could be the gearbox the rest of it is pretty standard. I have only used two different ones. Don’t remember the brand of the first one but this vivosun is much better and it wasn’t expensive.
At 65% humidity i run a bowl trimmer with the wet blade. Then finish dry/cure. Works well and doesn’t beat them up too much.
My.02 because hand trimming isn’t an option for me either.
Ah yes, while my hands do not work super well, I do want to keep them. I also actively hope to never have so much to process at one time that I would need one of these.
I hope you’ll get some good info from this thread too! I’ve seen some folks say they work better wet, some say they work better dry, some folks say they don’t work for either, some folks say they don’t work for either after using the wrong blade for the condition of the bud. This is why I’m asking!
My personal concern with this would be cleaning it out. I want to be able to reclaim as much as I can, and that seems much more difficult with this sort of device. Edited to add: HeadyMcDank gave great info below about this based on actual experience and not speculation.
Thank you for such a detailed answer. Sounds like there is at least one step in quality with the ones that look similar. The humidity and blade info is greatly appreciated! That’ll get me off to a good start if I end up with one (which seems likely).
For the folks with the giant outdoor plants, I could see it being a great option.
I just used my trim bowl for the first time on my last run. I’ll never hand trim again. Dry trim with the dry trim blade. Cranked my way through 3 1/2 lbs and ended up with about 4 OZs of trim material that we use for baking.
I need a new bowl trimmer, got the cheap Amazon one and the handle broke. But it worked awesome on the dense buds. The hairy buds kinda just get shredded up.
Quality really belong to the feeding while in plain bloom and on the drying. A bowl trimmer will not change much anything at this level.
But it’s totally diffferent that a hand trimmed or a machine trimmed bud. They are like “rolled” with a quite homogenous form. Well, if you have already used one these stuff, you directly recognize the type of bud.
The trimming is ofc a bit more destructive that hand trimmed, work better with indoor plants with good leaf/flower ratio imho. With leafy outdoor plants it can become messy and hard to gauge when to stop.
As fuck. And i advise you to directly unmount them brand new and to sharpening them yourself rightly with a good angle of cut. Mine was tearing a bit the leaves when received, after a sharpening it became much faster to trim batches.
I only tried the spinner; any link ?
You’re kidding ? ^^ Pass dry buds inside this stuff and you will cry.
To make hash after maybe, why not, but better to directly sift or to pass in bags.
Just find the cheaper, it’s a cheap mechanical concept not enough specific to offer a wide range of grades.
I returned quite fast to hand trimming, but i liked this little toy. Practical, no noise, quite fast, “meat-ball nugs” (it’s funny ^^) … let’s say it’s a good intermediary before taking a little trimming table (that need a lot more of cares and maintenance ^^).
I have hand problems and cannot deal with scissors either.
I use a trim bag. Shake for 30 count with each sessions and I repeat until no more trim falls out.
How it comes out of the bag depends on the flower.
Drier and flakier leaves come right off.
Leathery will stick a bit as an example.
The flower will still have some leaf. It is usaully pretty sugar leaf.
Sometimes after a day or 2 more drying or a week in the jar I will do another session.
If anything is left, with a trim bin in my lap and gloves on my hand I just use my fingers to pull anything off and it does not take long while I watch tv.
If I am testing something new, this is usually when my gf says that is stinky! Haha…
Can also get a nice piece of glove hash going.
Here is a pic of strawberry banana x blueberry cross I did with bud trimbagged and nothing else…
I’ve seen them mentioned as working better, I do not know. The vevor one has a different grate the buds spin on, more like the Risentek that is more expensive and I’ve seen good comments about.
@HeadyMcDank I’m so glad someone who has a trim bag stopped by! I’ve only ever seen people hyping them up on videos and people speculating (like I did above ). That’s good to know that it does work pretty well!
How’s cleaning it? I want to be able to reclaim as much as I can from whatever tool I use, and the “official” cleaning video from trimbag was “use a vacuum” (essentially). So for my purposes I was assuming that wipeable stainless steel and silicone might be preferable. If not that much is left / sticks to the inside of the bag, then maybe it is in contention (and other people who encounter this thread might have different requirements than my own!)
I also actively hope to never have so much to process at one time that I would need one of these.
Edited to add: HeadyMcDank gave great info below about this based on actual experience and not speculation.
). That’s good to know that it does work pretty well!