Cannabis and hemp are cultivated for their prized cannabinoids and terpenes, which synergize to provide the plant’s therapeutic effects. Generally, the higher the crop’s cannabinoid and terpene content the higher the price. The most well-known cannabinoids, THC and CBD, are often isolated for medical use, with the price of CBD isolate higher than the price of gold – at $75 a gram. Most of these precious compounds are stored in the plant’s resin glands, known as trichomes.
Trichomes coat both flowers and their sugar leaves, the latter of which are often trimmed to deliver a close cut. Every time a plant is touched, the delicate trichomes are at risk of damage and breaking off. As plants receive the greatest handling during the harvesting process, this is where cultivators lose the most trichomes and money. To maximize profits, growers need to protect the treasured trichomes throughout the harvesting process and create income from any that detach.
When detached, trichomes and the connected biomatter form kief, which can be sold on its own or processed to produce extracts. With the global extract market expected to be worth $28.5 Billion by 2027, kief could provide growers with a lucrative additional source of revenue. However, for growers to profit they must be able collect as much kief as possible.
The more kief a grower can collect, the more extract they can produce and consequently the more revenue they can generate. Collecting the most kief requires ensuring the most trichomes reach trimming. CenturionPro’s buckers have been specially designed to de-stem cannabis and hemp plants gently, to preserve flowers. The bucking machines have a range of speeds and infeed sizes, to strip stems carefully and comprehensively, which keeps flowers and trichomes intact to maintain appearance and potency.
CenturionPro’s trimmers benefit from diverters that control airflow, so growers can refine trim length and preserve sugar leaves. However, the convention is to trim flowers closely and clip sugar leaves right back to enhance taste. To provide peace of mind that even when delivering the tightest trim all trichomes are collected, our standard trimmers feature the innovative triple-bag kief and trim collection system. Everything that is cut from the flower is stored within the first bag, which has a fine mesh to let kief pass through and retain excess plant material. The kief that passes through this mesh is held in an inner bag, with an even finer filter screen. This filter enables only the purest of kief, with the highest trichome density, to permeate its surface into a sealed container. Once the trimmer has been switched off, both grades of kief and the trim can be collected and processed into extracts.
The triple-bag kief and trim collection system provides growers the opportunity to develop new products, expand their portfolio and reach untapped audiences. Cannabinoids and terpenes in trichomes are precious commodities, which need to be kept on flowers or processed for an additional source of revenue. Understanding the importance of cannabinoids and terpenes to a crop’s value, CenturionPro has developed its elite harvesting solutions to prevent trichome damage and collect any that detach. From buckers that delicately de-stem flowers, to non-stick trimmer coatings and kief collection systems, the industry leading machines empower growers of all sizes to maximize their harvests.