The Latest Updates in Cannabis Trimming Innovations
May 13, 2021 
What’s new in the world of cannabis trimming? Touchless Harvesting from Trym is a patent-pending technology that allows growers to scan, weigh, and record plant tags via a mobile device while harvesting cannabis plants.
Photo courtesy of Trym
Cannabis growers, like anyone else producing a crop in a greenhouse, are looking for ways to improve labor efficiency by automating as much of the growing process as possible. Trimming and harvesting are two areas where new technology development is happening fast.
Here’s a closer look at what some suppliers are doing.
New Touchless Harvesting System Now Available
Trym, a cannabis cultivation software company, has released Touchless Harvesting, a patent-pending technology that allows cultivators to expeditiously scan, weigh, and record plant tags via a mobile device while harvesting cannabis plants.
According to the company, Trym is the only cannabis software to feature this mobile method for effortlessly streamlining and automating the harvesting process.
Touchless Harvesting saves cultivators time by providing the most efficient method for recording each plant’s weight in accordance with state regulations without ever touching their mobile device. It is designed to help growers:
- Save hours harvesting and remain in strict compliance with groups like the California Department of Food and Agriculture
- Scan plant tags via a phone or tablet without touching the device
- Automate weight recording via bluetooth scale integrations
- Keep sticky, trichome-covered fingers off their mobile devices
“It’s a burden to harvest cannabis plants in California due to regulations that require tediously weighing each plant and reporting the weights to the state,” says Trym CEO Matt Mayberry. “Touchless Harvesting is the fastest way to harvest cannabis plants and report it.”
Trym launched Touchless Harvesting with longtime partner and customer FloraCal Farms in Santa Rosa. Using Trym, FloraCal Farms was able to harvest, weigh, and record 680 plants in less than four hours. Efficiency and compliance are top priorities for the FloraCal team, which harvests every week in its 20,000 square-foot cultivation facility.
“The Touchless Harvesting feature is a great convergence of efficiency and compliance,” says Andrew Rayl, Director of Compliance for FloraCal Farms. “It allows us to remain in full compliance with even the most conservative interpretations of harvest regulatory requirements without sacrificing any time.”
Gentle Trimming
Trimming is a complex and crucial part of cannabis and hemp production. The ability to process flowers quickly, gently, and cost effectively can be the difference between a high-performing, revenue-generating producer, and one that struggles to survive.
Being gentle on cannabis is a function of minimizing the number of times it goes around the tumbler while touching it as little as possible, according to Aaron McKellar, CEO of Mobius Trimmer.
“Cannabis should move through the trimmer efficiently with lots of blade access, cradled by a tumbler that has minimal surface area to block it or collect resin,” McKellar says.
This was the thought process behind the development of the Mobius AirThread Tension Tumbler. Because it is made of stainless-steel cable, the Mobius has very little surface to touch. Resin stays on the flower, and three independent blade cartridges offer strong cutting power.
The Mobius AirThread Tension Tumbler is gentle on cannabis by minimizing the number of times it goes around the tumbler while touching it as little as possible.
Photo courtesy of Mobius
Eteros Technologies, owner of the Mobius Trimmer, has also added to its offering by acquiring California-based Triminator, a pioneer in harvesting equipment for professional growers of cannabis and hemp.
“Just like Mobius, Triminator has built an amazing business from the ground up,” McKellar says. “Triminator’s team created machines that helped define the post-harvest process in modern cannabis and hemp agriculture. We look forward to building upon each other’s strengths to help even more farmers increase the efficiency of their harvest.”
The two product lines complement each other precisely because of their differences. Each is focused on providing full support to a specialized market. Triminator is committed to the cannabis and hemp farmer by building a community of hands-on brand ambassadors who have their own farms and can mentor other end-users on the craft of processing. The Mobius line has been focused on equipping and supporting growers who are operating in a large-scale, highly regulated environment, where management requirements drive processing operations and investing heavily in developing the training resources and technical documentation necessary to serve these end-users.
Before Cannabis Trimming Comes Topping
Topping is a fundamental tool used to train cannabis plants. It enables growers to force plants to grow horizontally instead of vertically, making the most efficient use of available lighting. Topping is a simple way to increase yields by removing the tip of the top of the plant growth, allowing plants to send vital energy out to lower nodes, encouraging growth outwards, instead of up.
Learn more in a blog post from the Growlink team at https://blog.growlink.com/topping-cannabis.
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