How to Pick the Best Bud Trimmer of 2022
There is a wide variety of trimmers on the market today for growers interested in taking the pruning process beyond manual pruning. All of these automatic trimmers can simplify your operation, however, the differences in design and functionality between plants and trimmers can be confusing. Below we have listed the most common types of trimmers. We’ve included descriptions and key points. They are organized from smallest to largest throughput. Find the best flower bud trimmer for your process.
Why do growers use trimmers?
1. Save time
The biggest advantage of using a bud trimmer is that it is efficient and time-saving. As mentioned, it takes one person about four to ten hours to prune a pound of flowers by hand.
If run in tandem, some bud trimmers can trim up to 172 pounds per hour! It’s not just a significant difference — it’s a game changer.
If you’re a commercial grower, these massive time savings can have a significant impact on your bottom line. You can reallocate the time your employees will spend on other essential tasks such as packaging, marketing or distribution.
2. Save money
Using a bud trimmer not only saves time, but also money. This may seem odd considering you obviously have to buy a trimmer, and it costs money, but you don’t have to hire as many workers to trim by hand.
You also don’t have to worry about product spoiling because your backbone can’t trim everything fast enough. As a bonus, it also means not dealing with the hassle of lazy workers who may or may not be there, or worse, those who steal.
Lowering your labor costs will reduce your overhead and your profits. By reducing the time it takes you to get your product out of the factory and sell it, you can even increase your productivity, which means more money in your pocket. Efficiency is probably the second biggest advantage of using a bud trimmer.
3. Ensure consistency
Another benefit of using a bud trimmer is that the buds are more even. Manual pruning, especially with large crops, involves a lot of people pruning, which means a lot of different skill and effort levels.
Unless you’re running a very strict boat under strict quality control — which can add time to the harvesting process — there’s a lot of potential for product variance.
With a bud trimmer, each bud is trimmed the same way, and the final product is overall consistent. For your end buyer — it matters.
Skill level is also a factor that makes machine pruning better than manual pruning. You don’t need to train the machine or worry about it working really bad, as long as you have a good machine, that’s it.
ECO Farm 18inch Table Automatic Leaf Trimmer Machine
Features:
This ECO Farm Bud Trimmer is a great device for trimming and shaping flowers, buds and spices. This powerful trimmer features a maintenance-free motor and sharp stainless steel (3) blades. Automatic output when finished, it comes with a clean and environmentally friendly tote bag; No litter left behind. It trims excess leaves and stems quickly, efficiently and preciously. Easily foldable design for easy transport or storage. And the speed of this bud trimmer is adjustable. High-speed blades and fans trim spin, fluff, and ultimately eject trimmed plants.
DL Wholesale 16'’ Open Top Hand Trimmer
Features:
Our metal top trimmers are 100% stainless steel. There is no plastic which makes them extremely durable. Available in a closed and open top version. The open top allows you to easily see your work and also fill it without having to remove the top. It uses slim leather fingers, which gently moves flowers across the grade which houses the razor-sharp stainless steel blades, which trim the buds. You control the speed by how hard you crank, but it doesn’t take very much! Some growers prefer less agitation of their flower. We know hand trimming is hated by many. The Trimpro Unplugged makes it much easier and less painful, though. It features the most ideal ergonomics possible, with the perfect size, weight, shape, and mechanics.
Features:
This TrimPro trimmer makes it easy to crank out harvests efficiently, whether you are a hobby grower with 1–2 plants or 10! Unlike machine trimmers, it produces no noise, keeping your operation discreet while producing a quality end product. It gives you more control over the degree of trim, while saving your hands from painful cramps and blisters. It’s easy to use, maintain, and is a great addition to any grow room. The Trimpro unplugged is completely manual, as the name suggests. This means taking the trimmer to the field is easier than ever, with no concern for finding an outlet or bringing extension cords. It was designed to get you tight trim with minimal effort and flower agitation.
Things to consider
Wet, Dry, or Both?
Consider whether you need either a wet, dry, or a 2 in 1 machine. Remember that trimmers process wet buds faster, and dry buds, while more potent and flavorful, take more time to do. Also, a 2 in 1 wet and dry trimmer consumes less space than having different trimmers, and having a dedicated dry trimmer gives you the processing efficiency of wet trimmers.
These are the most important things you need to weigh when choosing a bud trimmer. But if you have an idea of what kind of buds you will be processing, then consider next the size.
Size Matters
Trimmers come in different sizes, and to cater to various sizes of operations. You need to choose the right size while considering future-proofing your operations: do you see yourself in the next two years scaling up your harvests, or would you just be handling a small batch, and treat planting as a hobby?
Trimmer Trends
If there’s anything worth noting right now, the dry trimmers have become more powerful now. Back then, trimmers would have capacities for dry buds that are 20–25 percent of their wet capacity. Now, more manufacturers are improving the design of their trimmers. Dry-only trimmers now have larger capacities, and wet and dry trimmers are slowly becoming at par.
Conclusion
While there are many options when it comes to purchasing bud trimmers, we think that it is pretty easy to narrow down the type that you would like to have. We appreciate the Zen-like process of hand trimming, but we also understand that health issues can put a damper on that and that other people have grown operations that are too big to sustain that kind of time commitment. Bowl trimmers seem to be the best for everyday growing at home, though there are options for tumblers that are in an affordable price range.
Hopefully, after reading these reviews, you were able to determine what kind of trimmer you are looking for. Whatever your choice, we are glad to be a part of the process. Happy trimming!
