Trimming Buds: How Good is Good Enough for You?

So I've been debating with my friend who I grow with about the trimming aspect. Basically I'm all about getting it over with because it's a big fucking hassle that takes hours, and while I've got 5 big buds trimmed, he's still working on his first one. I'll admit it, I'm a sloppy and fast trimmer, but my buds turn out looking pretty good. Here's how I go about it:

Ok, so obviously the fan leaves have got to go, and preferably you get them cut back to the main stem. Also, any dead sugar leaves should go, as a big brown leaf in the middle of your bud looks pretty horrible. That said, if a sugar leaf is all crystal covered, I leave it on there because it's packed with THC. Sometimes I'm a little aggressive and the occasional calyx will get snipped off, but it all goes to the trim for butter, so either way, I'm getting my THC. Also, if a bud from down low is really wispy, rather than fight it, I just cut it clean off and add it to the trimmings. I'd say that even with the wispy buds, it's only 1-2% of the calyxes that I throw into trimmings.

My buddy looks at me like I'm crazy for wasting weed and proceeds to trim back every sugar leaf he can to the stem. This of course drives me crazy, because the time he takes is agonizing. Seriously, trimming 10 hours, 2 people for less than a half pound of dried weed was enough to make me hurry up the second time around. By the end of that day I was so sick of trimming that I had nightmares about trimming vast forests of pot as a prison sentence.

I've read and talked to people who say that you should trim off every sugar leaf you can get to. I've also read that the time investment doesn't really pay dividends overall as long as you get the nasty stuff out of the way. I realize there are many ways to trim a bud, and that it's pretty subjective. My question is how do you like your buds to look when you're done with them and why? Any pictures would be greatly appreciated too!

I personally take off every one I can get.

I trim all fan leaves right to the stem, I dont like any pokies. Then trim leaves fairly close to the bud, not so close I cut the hairs though, I like to keep them all intact, and the little bit of extra leaf I leave on the outside protects the bud when handling. Its all personal pref.

trimmong is not a chore it is a reward

fugit said:

trimmong is not a chore it is a reward

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Smoking is a reward. Trimming is dull tedium.

Trimming is the fun part.

I don't have to worry about "bag appeal" because I do not sell any of my tomatoes. If there are a few stems poking out, or a small fan leaf or two -- whatever.

I trim as deep as I can without snipping bud and hairs...After I hang it and it dries, I'll snip off anything I missed, before I start curing.....

When I trim, I just ask myself if I would buy it myself...All my close trim goes into making hash or something else so it's not all wasted....

In general I nip off the fan leaves down to the stem and the largest of the frosty leaves get taken down even with the bud . It all depends on the bud, really. You can't use the same strategy on a loose Sativa bud that you would with a more compact Indica bud.

I trim when they are wet so all the leaves are sticking out anyway, it takes me depending on strain maybe 2 minutes max to trim a branch and my buds look pretty in the end. I dont trim inside the bud that's just silly in my opinion and a waste of weed actually. I just work over the outside any leaves sticking out of the bud and of course the fan leaves.

I like nice even buds..

I was so sick of trimming that I had nightmares about trimming vast forests of pot as a prison sentence.

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Yeah, that sounds horrible!

I trim all leaves off and put them in for hash. Also all wispy buds get thrown in to hash too. I take my time, smoke my scissor hash and produce nice buds.