Wet trimming is when you trim your flowers right after you harvest them, before the drying process starts. The advantages of a wet trim are that it is faster to do since the plant is much larger and easier to cut when wet, but more importantly it helps prevent mold that can easily appear during the drying process due to the fan leaves. If you live somewhere with relative humidity 60% or higher, wet trimming is crucial for you.

The disadvantages of a wet trim are that some terpenes can be lost during the drying cycle, thus affecting the smell and the smokability of the flower later on. It can also dry your flowers too fast, making them crunchy and overdried.

Dry-trimming is when you trim your flowers after the drying process has finished, which is usually 7 to 10 days after harvesting. The advantage of a dry trim is that it preserves more terpenes by trapping them in between the sugar leaves on the flower. If you live somewhere with an RH 55% or lower, dry trimming is ideal as it allows your flower to dry out slower, without becoming crunchy.

The disadvantages of a dry trim are that it takes longer than a wet trim since the flowers are now smaller (7 to 10 days instead of 4 to 7 days). It also requires more space for drying your buds since the leaves occupy more space.

In a nutshell, if you live somewhere really dry, a dry-trim will be better, but if you live somewhere really humid, you are better off with a wet-trim. 

However, at BudTrainer® we recommend doing a bit of both: a pre-harvest defoliation, which is a partial wet trim, and then a dry-trim later on to finish your buds off. You can learn how to do a pre-harvest defoliation in Lesson #5: How to Defoliate Cannabis.

Ideally, you want to trim your cannabis to the same standards you would like to buy it from the store, and your own visual cue will be your guide. We are very picky about our trimming, so we always make sure our flowers look amazing. Make sure to wear disposable gloves every time you are going to work with your sticky buds. The plant used in this lesson is dried, but the same technique can be used on a wet plant.

If you harvested your plant whole, now is the time to cut it up into branches. For this, we usually like to set aside a tray where we can chop all branches into. If you harvested your plant branch-by-branch, just place the branches into a similar tray.

After you finish cutting your branches into a tray, it’s time to cut each bud at the base of the branch and separate them into another tray, or pile. We like to further divide them between a “small buds” pile and a “large buds” pile to save the best for last.

Please note: if you are wet trimming and drying your plant branch-by-branch, you can skip this step. However, if you are drying your buds on a drying rack or a net, then you can perform this step as instructed.

Once your buds are all cut away from the branches, trim all larger dry fan leaves by touching the tip of your scissors on the stem of the leaf, sliding the blade all the way to the main stalk, and then cutting the leaf at the very base. Make sure to do this on top of a tray to catch all of the trimmings.

Once you are done cutting all the fan leaves on a branch, it is time to start manicuring (AKA trimming at a precise scale) the sugar leaves that are sticking out of the bud. When cutting sugar leaves, place your trimmers in a position that you can easily open and close at a fast speed, almost like a hair buzzer operating, and cut away.

After you check off Steps 1, 2, 3, and 4, it means your buds are trimmed, manicured, and looking finished - whatever that happens to be for you. However, this is not all. After trimming, it just means your plant is officially ready for drying (if you are doing a wet trim) or curing (if you are doing a dry trim).