Hey guys did alot of reading around the harvesting and processing forums before I made this thread and there is debate on debate on this subject and I was hoping to get suggestions from experienced growers . Is there any actual benefits to quality with either method or does it just come down to preference? While harvesting I want to be careful to not cause any damage or lose a bunch of trichs , is either method better suited for this? Thanks for input in advance!
You want to wait until dry to trim. You can trim wet but once the moisture leave the buds they greatly swell down. So you will just end up trimming again. It's good though to cut all fan leafs off and any other bigger leafs. Then let dry once buds feel crunchy then trim and then cure. If you cure properly alot of moisture will come back into buds without mold and bring that wonderful smell and look they had before. CURING IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT an improper cure can pretty much make all that hard work growing go to waste.
The difference is all practical , nothing about having more sugars and starches and all that stuff, thats all about curing. Its not about the time that takes for a bud to dry its about the environment. Low temps mean no terpene evaporation and 50-60% humidity means little difference on dampness throughout the bud, since its all goind to be at that percentage. The thing is, fresh bud has stickier glands than dried so more of them will stick on your gloves, scissors or wherever they touch. Fresh bud is also more easily deformed when touched , pistils are way stickier especially with some hairy sativa strains with long ones. Also most of the time wet trimmed buds have to lie on a screen which makes contact with many fresh glands so they stick there...An advantage of wet trimming is you can make a more compact drying room/box. The thing that confuses many people on the flavor part is that wet trimmed bud takes less time to dry (which is a part of curing) so when they compare a totally dried wet trimmed bud (that has actually CURED for lets say 6 days) to a totally dried dry trimmed bud (that has actually cured for lets say 12 days) , the difference is that the dry trimmed has cured more than the wet trimmed, hence the difference in taste. All in all, if you practically preserve the glands, and keep the temps and humidity at the right range, theoretically it doesnt matter if you have a whole plant with fan leaves hanged, untrimmed branches, trimmed buds or even ground buds (not recommended though for obvious reasons, i said in theory). All in all, I'm all for dry trim because it keeps people from picking buds like its candy from the drying room since it takes more time to dry which makes for a smokable bud when dried. Another thing is you dont have to , as Sade mentioned above, correct the trimming if u dont like it afterwards which can be a hussle, and its easier overall to preserve more sugary glands, whereas a wet trimmed bud should be given a week at least imo since the time it has dried to be smokeable (so that it has cured for at least 2 weeks). And thats the way the cookie crumble folks. Peace