Manicuring

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FCG-Frank
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Manicuring

Post by FCG-Frank »

My understanding of automatic trimmers is that they do a good job with big colas but won't work with popcorn, correct?

Yesterday I harvested a single plant I had scrog'd and it took me an entire afternoon to manicure the whole thing. It was a single plant, too. Can't imagine doing this on any scale bigger than that. Now that I've switched to a 1000HPS am I expected to manicure my harvest for a whole week?

If I grow Sog instead of Scrog, that should give me one big colas per plant right? Therefore the entire harvest could be quickly manicured with an automated trimmer?
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Re: Manicuring

Post by GrowTutor »

Yes and no, they do work best on larger flowers but they still work OK on smaller ones too...as long as they're not so small they fall through the grates. For the smallest flowers you can either hand trim or just use it for concentrates.

With experience you'll pick up speed hand trimming but it IS time consuming which is why larger operations either hire seasonal workers to trim or use machines. Even with machines you'll have to do some hand trimming to get them ready for the machine but it'll cut your time down enough to eventually pay for the machine. You might also have to break down larger flowers into sizes suitable for sale if your buyers have a small gram limit. I once bought a single cola of Thai that was over 3/4 pound by itself. I'm lazy so that could be another factor. :D

Yes and no, again. You will get one big main cola per plant but you will get some smaller side flowers too, just not as many. Either way you'll have to prep the flowers to go through the machine, SOG will obviously be quicker, per plant, but you have more plants. You should also have less waste and trim. Pros and cons... ;)

I recommend a worm bin for dealing with waste, it turns it into nice compost that you can use around the grow, your house or you can sell it if you process that too. I like that better than dumping it in the trash.
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