How To Clean And Maintain A Plant Trimmer

 It’s important to learn how to clean and maintain your trimming machine if you want to achieve peak productivity and extend the life of your equipment. Trimming machine care is an essential duty you’ll have as a grower.

Some growers will simply run the machine all day, working through hundreds of pounds of flowers, and then spray the machine down with a pressure washer and call it a day.

Even worse, some growers will leave their bud trimmer all gunked up overnight! If you just follow the advice we’ll outline in this article, you can get your trimming machine clean and maintained to get the life out of it you should.

Why You Need To Clean Your Trimming Machine

If you’ve yet to use your trimming machine, you might not realize how gunked up it can get. The resinous, sticky buds you’re trimming will inevitably build up on the tumbler and blades over time.

This is even more true if you are trimming wet — the fresh plant matter you trim off (Sugar leaves and fan leaves) will collect on your blades and over the course of a day, decrease the efficiency and quality of your trim.

Furthermore, not cleaning a trimming machine will cut down on the lifespan of your equipment.

You’ll end up paying for it in the long run (literally) if you don’t take the 15–30 minutes it takes to properly clean your trimmer after a long day of work.

Each trimming machine should come with its own instructions or recommendations on how to clean and maintain it.

But, for the most part, the protocol is the same.

When is a Good Time to Trim Plants?

When it comes to trimming plants, you can either do it before or after drying. Growers use both methods, so there isn’t a right or wrong way. Cultivation specialists who prefer a wet trim are dealing with high humidity, are concerned about mold, and want the buds to dry at a quicker rate. Those who use a dry trim are dealing with low humidity, want the buds to dry slower, and are looking for the buds to be denser or tighter. So it depends on the grower’s preferences. As a cannabis trimmer, your job is to be comfortable with both wet and dry trims.

Scissors: You’ll be using a pair of scissors to get the job done. There are several scissor types a plant trimmer should be familiar with, but the most common are Fiskars scissors. Fiskars' scissors are thin, sharp, and utilize a spring to open up automatically after each snip.

Gloves: As a plant trimmer, you’ll get a pair of disposable gloves or gardening gloves. Gloves will keep the resin off your hands, keeping them fresh. Additionally, they will keep hand particles off the cannabis plant.

Containers: To keep the cannabis organized, you’ll use four containers. Typically, plant trimmers will use cookie sheets to separate trimmed plants, untrimmed plants, and trim. And you can use the fourth sheet to place the leaves that contain little to no trichomes.

Oil: Oil is a necessity in cannabis trimming to keep your shears operable and efficient. When it comes to natural oil options that will benefit the scissors and your skin, grape seed oil and olive oil are ideal.

How to Trim Plants by Hand 

1. Remove the Stalk and Branches
First, you’ll take your scissors and cut the main stalk. After cutting the main stalk, you’ll cut off the branches of the plant. If the cultivation master grower is set on dry trimming, you’ll hang the plant for drying at this point. Drying the plant may take up to a week long. However, if the master grower is fine with wet trimming, you’ll continue with step 2 of this hand-trimming process.

2. Remove the Leaves
When you think of plants, you think of the legendary five-leaf plant. As a plant trimmer, you’ll be removing those famous fan leaves. The leaves of the plant do not have any trichomes. And trichomes are the hair-like parts of the plant that contain the THC that gives users a euphoric, “high” feeling. If you’re dry trimming, use your scissors. However, if you’re wet trimming, you can pull off the leaves quickly with your hands.

3. Bucking
After you’ve removed the leaves from the plant, you’ll start bucking it. Bucking is simply cutting off buds from the branch of the plant. Use a tray or bowl to place the buds on. You may also be asked to keep a separate tray or bowl for leaves, stems, and branches to compost later.

4. Trimming
Now you’re ready to trim the plants. Trim the stem cleanly at the bottom without breaking the bud–the stem should only show at the bottom. Also, you want to trim the buds to the desired size–ask a supervisor if they haven’t specified a size. Typically, you do not want plant buds to be huge, as they won’t dry properly, leaving them more receptive to mold. Snip away the branches stemming from the bottom and manicure the bud. Get rid of parts that contain no trichomes. You may leave the red pistils there for aesthetic if you’re instructed to, but they have little to no trichomes. Remember to keep your trimmed buds on a separate tray.

In this day and age, advancements in technology have made things easier for the most part. With the demand for cannabis rising, trimming with a machine has become a promising option for some large-scale growers who produce for the lower end of the market. High-end plant trimmer machines can trim up to 20lbs of plants every hour. For plant growers, this option is efficient and saves tons of time. However, plant trimmer machines can over-trim, getting rid of plenty of precious trichomes, and stems and seeds may get into the finished product. When it comes to trimming, you can’t beat the quality of a plant trimmer’s careful hands.

How Do You Clean A Bud Trimmer?

Start by reading through your manufacturer's recommendations before you do anything.

In general, though, you’ll want to disassemble the machine to get better access to the blades and tumbler.

You’ll also need to clean the vacuum hoses that apply suction and clean out the material from there. You should save the trim for producing extracts later on.

You’ll probably need to use a special resin cleaning product, as your trim will be tough to get off with just water. The longer you wait to clean it, the tougher it will be.

Many of the commercial trimming machines we carry make cleaning the machine incredibly easy and allow you to stay compliant as a GMP facility.

For further automation and productivity, you can grab the Mobius Automatic Tumbler & Brush Washer, allowing you to cut your cleaning time from an hour down to 5 minutes without sacrificing effectiveness!

While the cleaner works, you can use the Hot Swap Kit, which allows you to swap out all the parts that need to be cleaned and keep trimming while your cleaning crew sanitizes the swap-outs, preparing them for the next hot swap! This means no downtime.

Maintaining Your Trimming Machine For Longevity

Proper trimming machine care goes much further than just routine cleaning and sanitizing.

You also need to maintain the machine, which involves greasing bearings, replacing tumblers/brushes, and keeping the right tools on deck for when something goes wrong.

The last thing you want is to have an old belt snap and have to wait 7 business days for a replacement.

There are some accessories that you should keep in your arsenal for when the time comes, allowing you to maintain productivity. These include:

Tumblers
Belts
Brushes
Blades & Hubs
Motors
Bearings & Pulleys
For the most part, maintaining your trimmer is just about keeping everything clean and keeping the machine lubricated.

We recommend you mark the date for which you start running your trimmer, and log the hours and pounds you work through.