Hand Trimmed Versus Tumbled: What Method Is Better For Maintaining Medicinal Potency?

This has got to be one of the biggest controversial cannabis preparation debates among growers and end-users who know a thing or two about how cannabis plant medicine works.

I'm in the process of writing an article specifically about making fully extracted cannabis essential oil (which is considered a concentrate). 

I'm writing this article as a precursor to the article which is coming, so that I can explain and show you where the active ingredients in the plant are made and stored. (It's these "active ingredients" that I will be explain how to extract.)

The first 3 pictures, are pictures that I took using 60 x magnification through a microscope.

(Yeah, I've bought 2 microscopes (so far) for looking at trichomes on cannabis buds...because I'm a discerning freak and I was super curious to see how the plant works in high definition.) I've learned quite a bit so far and want to share.

These photos are all from the same bud and I grew it from seed, in organic soil. The plant was fed with organic nutrients. 

Once the buds were harvested and dried, I trimmed them by hand and then cured them. 

What we are studying in these photos is the anatomy of the cannabis flower's trichomes.

The trichomes are all the white, translucent tube-like structures with the white spheres that you can see. Some of the spheres are dripping with an amber resin.

Every part of a trichome has a scientific name. What we are really concerned about is the spherical structure sitting on top of each tube.

The sphere is called a gland head and it contains the plant's medicinal compounds

The gland head makes all the cannabinoids (including both THC and CBD) and all the terpenes. When the trichomes are mature the gland heads become heavily laden with a sticky resin which is saturated with cannabinoids and terpenes. It is the medicinal resinous oil, found directly in and on the gland heads that are highly prized for their ability to balance deficiencies within the human body.

(Just to re-cap, the first 3 photos are photos of a bud that I grew.)

The next 3 photos are photos of a bud that I bought from one of Canada's Licensed Producers. (LPs, as they are called, are government sanctioned growers.)

This bud was grown organically, but beyond that I don't know whether it was grown in soil or hydroponically.

 

Where are the gland heads?

 

When the trichomes mature and the gland heads become saturated with resin, it becomes very easy for the gland heads to break off.

This photo shows some gland heads still intact but as you can see this particular bud had lost most of its gland heads.

The reason for this (in my humble opinion) is because of how the bud was prepared for sale.

Larger growers will use electric tumblers to separate the sugar leaves from the buds. The sugar leaves also contain trichomes, but just not in as high a concentration, as the buds.

Trim is less expensive to buy and is often used to make infusions and edibles. A larger grower will make the effort to harvest the sugar leaves because they still have some value and it makes the final appearance of the buds they want to charge top dollar for, look better. 

This is a commercial grade, bud tumbler. Basically the buds tumble in this machine until all their sugar leaves are knocked off. 

This produces an exceptionally manicured looking bud and requires a fraction of the labour costs compared to  trimming each bud by hand.

In this photo, you can see an electrically tumbled bud and a bud that's been trimmed by hand.

Now that I have physically seen the difference in the quality of trichomes between a tumbled bud and a bud that was trimmed by my own hand, I would personally only buy buds that have been trimmed by hand.

Another kicker in this examination, is that all the people who are buying "tumbled" cannabis from LPs in Canada are using it to treat medical conditions. They NEED potent medicine, not damaged plant material with half of its gland heads missing.

I welcome your comments and I invite you to follow me on my journey....occasionally there will be microscopes and examinations and maybe a small rant. ;D

~ Rebecca Ryan