As I’m getting really sick of trimming… it just dawned on me. Can I make decent bubble hash with ice, water, and a 5 gal bucket with untrimmed bud? Like with the fan leaves still on them? I watched a video of some dudes making Moroccan hash by just shucking the whole plant down fan leaves and all and beating the shit out of it with sticks so I’m guessing it shouldn’t be a problem right?
I'd remove the fans, and any burnt tips or leaves. Sugar leaves are ok. I'd also watch a few videos on youtube to learn about the process. Biggest challenge is going to be drying the hash without a freeze dryer, though with smaller amounts it is doable. Pelle Polare has a free pdf download in their shop that's all about solventless hash making, I highly recommend reading through that as well. My plan was also to process a bunch of my flower into live hash to avoid trim jail, but I didn't realize how expensive food grade bubble hash setups could get, especially when you're trying to produce the highest quality live rosin and full melt bubble you can.
I too would avoid the fan leaves but water leaves are OK, on your part it would be hit and mis regard's the quality, but the finer gauze the better
As with most things in life GIGO. Garbage In = Garbage Out. By all means experiment for yourself but while I don't trim close I do whack off the "Lumber" fans and the big sugars that are not well covered in trichomes. I Dry Ice power shake my entire grow with a sawzall and 1 gallon plastic paint can. I get a cleaner more productive shake if I limit the garbage and just run Buds. I've tried shaking untrimmed and the broken fragments of leafs block enough of the 160 micron mesh that I was getting a fraction of what I knew I should have. Something with a comfy grip and a long blade is good when you want fast and your not being picky. If you trim before it has time to wilt everything is standing tall and trimming goes fast enough. BNW
I purchased the 5 gallon Bubbleguy washing machine with 5 bags. I also purchased 5 extra drying screens. It works much faster than the bag and bucket method. But, I'm still learning to use this thing. Lots of ice as it's the temperature that breaks the trichomes free, not the agitation. Either way you go it takes some trial and error to get things dialed in. I'm so sick of trimming I don't even want to run my larf and sugar trim through it. I pre-trim my plants prior to harvest so they have no leaves larger then a few inches across when I trim them.
Hmm that’s a good point. I didn’t even think of the broken leaves blocking the screen. I’ve been trying to gently yet barbarically rip the bigger fans off and then snipping or breaking the nugs off the branches and putting them into the grove bags with the sugar leaves on them just because I know they’ll get over dried if I try to do a proper trim on them all before bagging. Even with that method it’s taking me around 2.5 hours non stop to get through each plant and I haven’t even gotten to the 3 giant ones yet. I saw your post about your method and it definitely seems like a good idea. I’ve never looked into buying dry ice before though so I’ll have to ask around and see what options I have near me.
I ordered directly from the parent company. I read the amazon reviews and it seems many folks were getting the old version of the washing machine,broken ones and missing pieces. Here's a link to the parent company. https://www.bubblebagdude.co/product-page/bubble-machine-5-gallon-with-5-gallon-5-bag-kit Edit: I still needed to purchase 6-5 gallon pails. 5 pails I cut the bottoms out of and one left whole to catch the water in. I also used a 1 gallon sprayer to wash down the tricomes in each stage as I harvested the bags. I run my machine in a building that doesn't have a water line in it. HTH