Bucking Cannabis Buds Off the Stem

Quick answer: Bucking is the step where you take the buds off the stems. You can buck wet, right after harvest, or dry, after the branches have hung. Wet bucking saves space and lets buds dry on racks. Dry bucking keeps buds on the stem while they dry, but dried trichomes are brittle and shed when handled. Use your fingers or small shears for a home harvest. Farms use mechanical buckers.

What Does Bucking Cannabis Mean?

Bucking means separating buds from stems. It is a separate job from trimming. Bucking takes the buds off the branch. Trimming shapes each bud by cutting away the small leaves around it. Oregon State groups the two jobs together on hemp farms. It describes post harvest trimming as removing fan leaves, stems and roots so only the buds and their sugar leaves remain.

The University of Vermont drying trial shows the order of steps on a hemp farm. Workers cut each plant into smaller branched sections and removed the large fan leaves by hand. Smaller leaves were left on because they grow out from the flower. The remaining stems were then run through a mechanical bucker, and the buds and leaf material were collected. Only after that did the buds go through a trimmer.

The University of Arizona Extension hemp guide explains why stems come off at all. It says stem material is usually separated from the flower at harvest, because stems that produce no cannabinoids lower the value of the crop.

Harvest work as a whole, bucking included, is slow at scale. North Carolina A&T estimates that harvesting an acre of hemp, roughly 2,000 plants, takes 5 to 10 people about 8 hours. Missouri calls CBD hemp production highly labor intensive and names harvesting and drying as major bottlenecks. A home harvest is far smaller, but it still pays to plan an afternoon for it.

Our guide on how to trim cannabis flowers covers the trimming step that usually follows.

Bucking Options at a Glance

When to Buck: Wet or Dry

Both work. The choice mostly follows how you plan to dry and trim.

Wet bucking. Vermont bucked its hemp fresh, right after harvest, then trimmed and dried the loose buds on hardware cloth trays. Wet bucking saves room. The North Carolina A&T hemp program notes that an unbucked field plant takes up 3 to 5 square feet. The tradeoff is drying care. Vermont’s room temperature tray buds grew a little mold early on and had to be turned so air could cross them.

Dry bucking. Hanging whole branches lets buds dry on the stem with air on every side. University of Missouri Extension notes that CBD hemp is hung to dry in barns or sheds. The catch comes at the end. Arizona warns that during drying, trichomes become brittle and movement causes them to shed. Every handling step after the dry costs a little resin. Arizona also mentions grower talk of a 10 percent drop in CBD after each move of dried flower, but it labels that figure speculative, so read it as a warning rather than a measurement.

Vermont adds a related point. It notes that flowers dried too far lose leaves and trichomes more easily, especially when they are handled again and again. If you dry buck, do it once, gently, and as soon as buds are dry enough.

Oregon State frames the decision around the resin. When choosing how to process buds, it says to consider which method keeps the work flowing and which does the most to keep the trichomes on the flower intact. That is a useful test for any bucking plan.

Trimming follows the same choice. The Oregon State University Extension review says whether to trim before or after drying is up to the producer. Our post on wet vs dry trimming your cannabis plants compares both.

How to Buck Cannabis Buds

1. Cut the plant into branches. Vermont broke each harvested plant into smaller branched sections before bucking. The team cut plants by hand with bypass loppers or a chainsaw.
2. Strip the big fan leaves. Vermont removed fan leaves by hand and left the small leaves that grow from the flower.
3. Hold a branch by the base. Work from the base of the branch up toward the tip.
4. Snip or pinch each bud free. Small shears give a clean cut close to the bud. Oregon State notes that trimming can be done by hand with shears.
5. Drop buds into a shallow tray. A wide tray keeps buds in one layer instead of a heavy pile.
6. Handle dried buds as little as you can. Arizona says movement makes dried trichomes shed. It cites grower talk of a possible 10 percent loss in CBD after each move of dried flower, though it calls that figure speculative.
7. Move wet bucked buds to a rack right away. Spread them one layer deep and turn them while they dry, as Vermont had to do with its trays. On drying time, NC A&T points to how wet the buds are when they go in and to how big and dense they are, so small loose buds may finish before larger ones. Missouri calls harvesting and drying major bottlenecks in hemp work, since both take so much labor.

Keep the stems out of the bud pile. Arizona’s point is that stems add weight without adding value.

Tools That Make Bucking Easier

Your hands. For a few plants, fingers work fine on dry branches.

Small shears. Oregon State lists shears as the manual tool for trimming, and they work the same way for bucking. The University of Maryland Extension herb guide calls for very sharp scissors and washed tools at harvest, and the same habits suit bucking.

A tray or bin. A shallow container catches buds and keeps them from rolling.

Clean hands and a clean surface. Maryland’s herb harvest advice is to work clean: wash your hands, wash your scissors and use a washed bowl. A wiped table and a clean tray do the same job for buds.

A mechanical bucker. Vermont used a commercial bucking machine to strip buds from stems on its research farm. These machines are built for large harvests. Vermont cut the plants themselves with bypass loppers or a chainsaw, depending on how thick the trunk was.

Our list of cannabis harvesting tools every home grower needs covers shears, trays and the other gear.

Troubleshooting Bucking

Trichomes coat your fingers and the table. The buds are dry and brittle. Arizona says movement causes dried trichomes to shed. Handle less, and buck fewer times.

Wet bucked buds are molding on the rack. They need more air and turning. Vermont’s room temperature trays showed some mold, and the team turned the buds so air could reach them. NC State Extension warns that hemp which isn’t kept dry soaks up moisture and can mold.

Buds are tearing instead of coming off clean. Switch to sharp shears. Maryland’s herb guide calls for very sharp scissors when cutting herbs. Oregon State also suggests weighing which trimming method best preserves the trichome structure.

There is no room to hang whole plants. Buck wet. Whole field plants take 3 to 5 square feet each until they are bucked, according to NC A&T.

Stems keep ending up in the jars. Pick them out before storage. Arizona notes that stems lower the value of the flower. It says stems are typically separated from the flower at harvest because stems carry no cannabinoids.

Sources

• University of Vermont, 2021 Hemp Cannabidiol Drying Trial: https://www.uvm.edu/d10-files/documents/2024-08/2021_Hemp_Cannabidiol_Drying_Trial.pdf
• University of Arizona Extension, AZ1944 CBD Hemp Production in Arizona: https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/2024-08/az1944-2021-final.pdf
• North Carolina A&T, Hemp harvest and post harvest considerations: https://ncat.edu/caes/agricultural-research/industrial-hemp-program/hemp-conference/files/ivey.pdf
• Oregon State University Extension, Post harvest processing of hemp flowers: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/post-harvest-processing-hemp-flowers
• University of Maryland Extension, Harvesting and Preserving Herbs: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/harvesting-and-preserving-herbs
• NC State Extension, Hemp Harvest Timing and Drying: https://hemp.ces.ncsu.edu/hemp-harvest-timing-and-drying/
• University of Missouri Extension, MX79 Harvesting Industrial Hemp: https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/mx79