If you grow your own cannabis, you know that trimming your plant is important for a few different reasons.
Early in the growing stage, trimming can help encourage more bountiful yields and can help keep your plant healthy.
Later, after harvest, trimming the remaining leaves helps to ensure only the strongest, most potent part of the plant – the cannabis buds – are left.
So – is trim just waste, or can you actually use it?
Great news – it’s perfect for making edibles and topicals!
What Is Cannabis Trim?
Cannabis trim is the leaves that you intentionally prune from the cannabis plant before, during, or after your cannabis harvest.
There are two types of leaves, each based on where they are taken from the plant: fan leaves and cannabis sugar leaves.
The first type is called fan leaves which are the larger leaves that you prune off the large branches of the cannabis plant.
Fan leaves are not the best choice for edibles if you’re hoping to enjoy an intoxicating experience, and some may even consider them one of the most unnecessary parts of the plant.
That’s because larger fan leaves have very few trichomes, cannabinoids, and terpenes and a lot of chlorophyll.
The good news? They are extremely nutritious and can be juiced, used in salads, and more.
That leaves us with the second type of trim leaves, the sugar leaves. These leaves are quite small, and you can find them growing on the buds of your cannabis plants.
Sugar leaves have more trichomes than fan leaves and, therefore, more cannabinoids and terpenes.
Many of these trichomes can be seen with the naked eye and are the reason for the name ‘sugar’ leaves, as they look like tiny sugar crystals.
This means you will be getting more medicinal compounds and a more intoxicating experience if working with THC.
So, yes, some trim does have value – but not all trim is created equal. Sugar leaf trim is better than fan leaf trim.
Note About Shake
Shake isn’t the same thing as trim, although the terms are often used interchangeably.
Shake is the collection of stems, leaves, and popcorn buds that naturally fall off your dried cannabis in a closed container.
Shake may actually have a higher cannabinoid and THC concentration than traditional trim due to the accumulation of trichomes.
How to Make Edibles with Trim
Now, for the part you’ve been waiting for, how to make edibles with trim.
Overall, you really can use trim just as you would cannabis flower, but there are a few subtle differences to be aware of.
Fresh vs. Dried
The first step is to check in and see if you are using fresh or dried leaves from the trimming process.
Edibles are easy to make with trim, but it’s important to know that you may end up with a more green-colored and pungent-tasting end product.
This is because the trim contains more chlorophyll, or green color, than dried flower buds.
This will be even more prominent if you use fresh trim rather than dried, and how much plant material you actually use.
While you can use fresh, wet trim, many people prefer to dry it first so the moisture from the plant doesn’t end up in your final product.
To Decarb or Not?
The next step is to decide if you want to or need to decarboxylate the marijuana leaves.
If you want the activated effects of THC or CBD, the trim still needs to undergo the decarboxylation process.
Whether you want to do it in the oven or Instant Pot, the choice is up to you.
The process is simple: bake your weed trimmings at a low heat, 240°F for 40 minutes for THC-dominant plants or 90 minutes for CBD-dominant plants.
Higher temperatures may destroy the cannabinoids found in raw cannabis, so stick with lower temperatures when possible.
If you do not want intoxicating effects and instead want the effects of acids like CBDA or THCA, you can skip the decarb process.
How Much to Use?
One of the most common questions I get is, how much trim should I use to make weed butter?
It is important to note that trim generally contains fewer trichomes than flowers, so may have to use more to achieve your potency goal.
As a general rule of thumb, if you’re using sugar leaf trim, it is recommended to double up on the amount of weed leaves used for best results.
For example, in my cannabis flower-to-oil ratio guide, I recommend using one ounce of flower to two cups of butter.
In this situation, you would use two ounces of trim to two cups of butter to double the amount called for when.
However, the only drawback is that you may not have enough oil or butter to cover all the plant matter. In this case, add more oil or butter as needed.
If you’re using fan leaf trim, you should be focusing on the nutrition benefits rather than the intoxicating benefits.
Try adding them to a smoothie, like a lavender blueberry or peach raspberry smoothie.
You can infuse your trim into various types of butter or oil or make different tinctures
