Q&A for How to Trim Marijuana

You can try this, but it will decrease the health of your plant and potentially reduce the THC in your harvest. Keep the lighting schedule consistent and use a high power grow light. Trimming and drying is best done inside where humidity levels are more consistent.

Yes, your bud will become a duller shade of green, but the color shouldn’t change drastically.

Absolutely! A well-trimmed cannabis plant can continue to produce buds throughout the year.

It's best to complete uproot the first plant, to make room for the new plant and ensure the first doesn't grow back.

Trim away the large fan leaves during the flowering stage, but harvest the buds when the resin is cloudy white or amber-colored.

Your trimmings can't shouldn't be consumed directly, but you can use trimmed sugar leaves to make things like has or cannabutter.

You should trim your plant early in its life and later, just before harvest. Trim your plant when it shows signs of needing a trim. For instance, always trim dead, diseased, or damaged leaves, and trim buds that shoot out low on the main stalk.

Yes to make hash, tea, butter (which can be put on/in most types of food), topical rubs and the like.

It is relatively easy to learn it if you know all the steps, but the only way to master it is experience.

Yes, if you are using it for medical reasons. If you plan to smoke it for recreational purposes, however, you would want to remove the buds. This will give you a better smoking experience.

All harvesting is best done early in the morning.

No. Wait until they are mature. You can tell the buds are fully matured by the little brown hairs on them.

You need at least a x30 or x60 magnifying glass to see the trich's properly. These can be bought at most stores.

You should trim your plant at harvest time. You should also pluck off sick leaves whenever you see them during normal growth periods. Don't overdo the plucking until harvest time, however; the leaves are your plants lungs.

When smoked, marijuana passes its THC into the bloodstream. In some people, it may increase blood pressure. Talk to your doctor before using marijuana.

When it is growing, not trimming will result in some leaves blocking light to others. The plant may grow so tall that the lower leaves don't get enough light, and the buds will be "larfy" or light and airy, with less THC. After you have harvested, not trimming buds will mean that they will dry a bit more slowly. On average, large leaves have about 5-7% THC, buds and tiny leaves close to them can have 10-25% THC. Stems have 1-2% THC.

As long as the moisture content is not over 65% and you open the jar for a few minutes most days, you can leave your buds in a jar as long as you would like. However, THC content can decline somewhat over a period of a year. This process of allowing buds to "cure" (age), lets moisture get redistributed in the buds and lets the buds age to develop a smoother more palatable smoke. Uncured buds can be harsh and if they have too much moisture, harder to stay lit. Excellent results have been reported by many people by using a month minimum to age or cure their buds. Better flavors develop this way.

Save them, dry them and use them as you would fully matured ones.

Rubbing alcohol will remove the sticky resin from your hands and scissors. After that, wash with soap & water and dry.

Yes. If your water isn't oxygenated enough in a reservoir system or with a drip feeding or self-watering system; you can always allow a wet and dry cycle if using medium.

It depends on the moisture in the air. Generally, it takes 4-10 days for buds to dry enough to put them in jars after harvesting them, but this varies with weather conditions. You can get a 4" long moisture sensor to put in the Mason jar with the buds to make sure that the moisture in the air in the jar is 60-65%. If it is over that amount, remove the buds and dry them further. Do not use silica gel packets or direct heat and fans on the buds. Slower drying is better than faster drying, because it will allow nice-smelling aromas to develop.

Wait until they get at least 5-7 nodes before trimming anything off. Your plant needs those leaves to breathe and photosynthesize.

Kind of. Your can clone cannabis using the tops of the branches but you have to put them in a humidity dome to develop roots before you can treat them like normal plants. You can use rooting hormone to increase the odds of rooting the cutting.

Yes. If growing indoors, about 5 days before you harvest them, you will want to "flush" nutrients out of the soil your plants are growing in. This is not possible outdoors unless plants are growing in pots and you have enough water to flush them with. Watering them enough to make water run out of the bottoms of the pots for 5-10 minutes for 1-3 days will help remove nutrients from the soil so that the plants have fewer of those nutrients in them when you harvest them. The result will be a smoother, less harsh smoke. You should not be adding any nutrients to the soil other than water during the last two weeks, if possible.

You should trim these leaves in the week of the harvest. They don't contain THC, so they're useless; they serve as 'armor' for your plant.

I had some lower branches that would sag from the weight of rain. I was afraid they would touch the ground, so I used wax string to tie them to the main stalk. It worked fine, and those branches got more sun as a result and are still healthy six weeks later.

Get your plant to 12/12 (12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness). Be patient, your plant will bud.

Yes, totally. Cut those fan leaves a couple of weeks before harvest, closer to harvest time.

No, you cannot get new plants in this way. If you want to grow new plants, you can clone your plants or you can grow new ones from seed.

Yes, if you bend and cover a limb with dirt, it'll root and grow another plant, stringing them down the line must be done early, so you don't break any limbs. And you need to continually bend the cola down, trim all the leaves branches off the underside of the plant, it's a great way to grow stealthy, running them right down the garden or other flowers.