# Trim

> Trim is the leaf material cut away from buds after harvest, especially the small resin-coated sugar leaves, often saved for making kief, hash or other concentrates.

- Canonical: https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/trim.html
- Also written: trimmings, trim material, shake and trim, leaf trim, fan trim
- Glossary category: Processing · Evidence: Grower practice
- Status: Draft: awaiting expert review · Updated: 2026-10-31
- Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), attribute "GenetixBay cannabis glossary"

Trim is the by-product of manicuring buds: [fan leaves](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/fan-leaf.md), the small [sugar leaves](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/sugar-leaf.md) that grow out of the flower clusters, and bits of stem. Fan leaves carry few glandular [trichomes](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/trichome.md); sugar leaves can be heavily coated. Growers usually separate the two and keep the resinous trim for processing into [kief](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/kief.md), [ice water hash](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/bubble-hash.md), rosin or edible infusions.

## In practice

Trim from a well-grown, resinous cultivar can be valuable starting material; trim from low-resin plants is often discarded or composted. [Wet trim](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/wet-trim.md) (cut before drying) and [dry trim](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/dry-trim.md) (cut after drying) produce different trim: dry-trim material tends to lose more heads to handling, which collect as kief. House position: wet versus dry trimming is grower preference. The founder prefers brushing dry buds to scissoring wet ones, even at the cost of a little trichome loss, since it all gets used anyway. Store trim like flower, cool, dark and dry, or freeze it for live processing.

## Don't confuse with

- **Shake**: loose bits of flower broken off in handling, more potent than leaf trim.
- **Sugar trim**: the resin-rich subset of trim.
- **Trimming**: the act, rather than the material.

## Related terms

[Sugar trim](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/sugar-trim.md), [Kief](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/kief.md), [Bubble hash](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/bubble-hash.md), [Concentrate](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/concentrate.md), [Fresh frozen](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/fresh-frozen.md)

## Read more

- [Drying cannabis: the 60/60 method and water activity](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/harvest-cure/drying.md)
- [Curing and burping: jars, humidity and how long](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/harvest-cure/curing-burping.md)