Scissors or hand?

Hi all,

I am starting my 1st harvest, and would really appreciate some insight from all season growers here.

1) For those small leaves right beside the buds, do we need to remove them as well, or can I just leave them there and dry/cure them together with the buds?
2) I use scissors for the fan leaves, but if I do need to remove the leaves right beside the buds, should I use scissors too? I find them easier to remove by picking them off, but I end up getting lots of resin on my finger which I find that a waste.
3) how to remove the stickiness from the resin on fingers? Seems like even soap has problem cleansing them off.
4) Does the stickiness means I have wasted some of the THC?
5) should I try to save the resin in finger, and can I just mix them to the dried buds and leaves for smoking, or collect them and make hash with them?

Thanks in advance for the replies!

1.You dont need to do anything....for best taste take as much leaf off as possible
2. Yes, picking them off would take forever.
3. Use an abrasive hand cleaner like gojo or fast orange, or rub fingers together till you get a ball of finger hash.
4. Yes you wasted thc by getting your fingers sticky
5. "should I try to save the resin in finger, and can I just mix them to the dried buds and leaves for smoking, or collect them and make hash with them?"
Makes no sense, save a leaves that have trichomes on it.

I heard trimming with latex gloves works, when you're done, take them off, put them in the freezer, and all the yummy stickyness peels off and you can get it all.... I have no clue, I'm in the middle of my first grow. I think I'm gonna give it a try, I've trimmed before, and it seems like it would work.

how do ppl harvest without getting resin on finger n scissors seems impossible

i have trimmed with glives quite a bit in the past, only downside is about every hour i have to change gloves cause they get so sticky the finger tips just rip holes in themselves with everything i touch lol. i use hand sanitizer to get resin off my hands, works great. i still wear gloves but i change them more often and i clean them with some hand sanitizer every few buds to reduce the buildup on the fingertips

DiggityDank4me said:

how do ppl harvest without getting resin on finger n scissors seems impossible

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it is impossible lol, most collect the resin off the scissors, called scissor hash. you can collect off the gloves but only if they havnt torn and are clean before hand. if they have tears near the resin its really easy for pieces of the glove to get in your resin and no one would want that

thanks for the info +rep I'm still gonna try it, but I'll be really careful

I scrub my hands and tools with cooking oil which breaks down ll the resin , then just use soap on the oil. Works like a charm and keeps your scissors lubed.

razor blade scissors 2 make hash?

yeah scrape the scissors clean with a blade for some lovely tastey hash.
if using latex gloves put them in the freezer after use to make it easier to remove the resin

For best flavor, leave all the leaves on including sunleaves until the buds are almost dry, but not to the point of snapping stems. Leaves slow the drying process which seals in more smell, taste and maybe even weight. Too many people cut off leaves while the plant is still wet, which greatly comprimises the finished product. All it takes is one experiment to convert someone and it's a done deal, they never go back.

As far as the finished bud and how much leaf to trim out, that has been changing as of late. The old way of very close trimming is gradually being replaced with leaving various amounts of 'sugar leaves' in there, especially with very resiny 'sativas' and haze types. Those very resiny inter-floral leaflets are too tasty to cut out of some plants and the finished product will suffer if they are. Now days, when I see a very close cropped manicuring job, I'm suspicious that the quality is low and the close manicure is necessary to improve potency. Some people (DJ Short I think?) claim that the medicinal effects are not as good with close manicuring as. I can definitely say that with some genetics, flavor and smell are improved by leaving more leaves in. Point being that it's better to cut the petiol than slice the leaves in half to match the profile of the nug.

About the method of cutting those inter floral leaflets. Best thing is to leave them on and let the consumer cut them right before medicating. Heck, leave the sticks intact too and tell them to bring that back with the next bag to be weighed for credit. The interfloral leaflets protect the bud against damage in handling. If you want to cut them yourself, use a small pointed scissors and reach in with the tip under the base of the leaf and snip. With a little practice, you can do this 'blind' even if the nug is dense and you can't see the petiol at the base.

Cernunnos said:

1) For those small leaves right beside the buds, do we need to remove them as well, or can I just leave them there and dry/cure them together with the buds?
2) I use scissors for the fan leaves, but if I do need to remove the leaves right beside the buds, should I use scissors too? I find them easier to remove by picking them off, but I end up getting lots of resin on my finger which I find that a waste.

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You can remove as many or as few of the leaves as you want. Personally I remove as many as I can get, but I use all the trim for making oil, so it's not like I am losing weight. Some people like the flavor of the leaves once cured. It's really up to you. You might try taking a plant with 2 colas and trim as much leaf as you can from one, and as little as you'd like from the other. Dry/cure, and see which you like more

I use scissors for all trimming. You can rip off fan leaves and such, but I like the precision of scissors, and it prevents mistakes like ripping a whole node off with the leaf. They make trimming tools that work very well for this, and are spring loaded to reduce strain. I use cuticle scissors myself (I don't do more than a plant or two at once), and I like them. Nice and sharp, great for detailed work, and the curve makes it easier to get in at the base of leaves (I can trim nearly 100% of the leaves using them without too much trouble). They would start to hurt after more than an hour or two though, for a large crop get something spring loaded (I have seen good looking trim scissors from fiskars).

Cernunnos said:

3) how to remove the stickiness from the resin on fingers? Seems like even soap has problem cleansing them off.

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Any solvent works. I use isopropyl alcohol, but white gas, turpentine, acetone, ethyl alcohol, etc, will all work. Most pharmacies sell non-powedered latex and non-latex gloves (I like the latex because they fit better, but they make vinal and some other neoprene looking kind as well if you don't like latex), as well as 99% isopropyl alcohol. These are great for trimming! I wear gloves and put a little isporopyl into a shot glass (it doesn't take much!) to dip my scissors in when they get too sticky (you can evaporate away the isopropyl to get the hash back out of it, but try to get 91-99% isopropyl if you plan on doing this).

Cernunnos said:

4) Does the stickiness means I have wasted some of the THC?

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Yes. the stickiness is resin, which typically contains a great deal of cannabinoids.

Cernunnos said:

5) should I try to save the resin in finger, and can I just mix them to the dried buds and leaves for smoking, or collect them and make hash with them?

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This is actually a method of making hash. You can still find places in nepal, pakistan, etc, where they make hash by rolling semi-dry bud with their feet, and scraping the hash off. There are a lot of different methods of making hash though, and this is less common to find in developed areas (a lot of what you see is probably bubble hash or keif). I have always been a little disgusted by the idea of smoking someone else's skin particles. I am only slightly less disgusted at the thought of smoking my own . I personally would stick with the gloves and wash the resin off with alcohol then evaporate it. There are a lot of ways of making hash though, too many to list. If you aren't using your trim and stuff for making hash, oil, or at least butter, you are wasting a lot of your product.