Harvesting is easily the most time-consuming and draining part of growing marijuana for commercial sale, largely because all the buds need to be separated from the stems and leaves before curing and sale. You have a choice of how to handle the process of trimming buds off: either with scissors, or with a specialized machine. Here’s how both of those routes work:

The Traditional Scissor Route

If you’re willing to spend some time, you can trim buds off simply with a pair of scissors. First, you’ll want to cut your plants into manageable pieces by trimming off side stalks. Then remove all the large leaves (called water leaves or fan leaves), since these have no value. Then, you can choose either trimming buds off alone (to dry on a mesh rack) or stems and buds to hang dry.

Using a pair of small, pointy-nosed scissors, snip off the buds, disturbing them as little as possible. Even the little hairs on buds contain THC, so you don’t want to lose any of them. Once you’ve collected all your buds, you’re ready to move on to the drying or curing process.

With a Bud Trimming Machine

If you have or are planning a large-scale growing operation, however, trimming buds by hand may simply be too inefficient to be profitable. In that case, you’ll probably want to go with a trimming machine. Some people think that these machines lead to waste, but they’re actually a good deal because you’ll be able to process a large crop much more quickly (cutting down on labor costs). So ultimately, you’re likely to see higher profits.

The best trimmers can be quite pricey (up to the $10,000 range), so marijuana equipment rentals may be the best route, especially if you’re just starting out and wanting to keep your investment modest. By renting, you can get a multi-thousand-dollar machine for just a few hundred bucks per day.

Have you used one or both of these methods? If so, do you have a preference? Discuss in the comments.