What to Do With Weed Leaves and Trim After Harvest

Don't throw out your weed leaves: trim and leftover plant matter can be turned into dry sift hash, cannabutter, infused olive oil, cannabis tea, compost or even a homemade topical. After harvest there's always a pile of what growers call trim, meaning all the plant material you cut away: big fan leaves, small sugar leaves, popcorn buds and anything else that didn't make the jar. 

Depending on genetics, how you cared for the plant and how you pruned it, you may end up with a lot of trim or barely any, and with luck it'll be coated in resin. If you want to get real value out of your leftovers, grow high-yielding strains that pack on plenty of resin. 

There are plenty of ways to use those leftovers instead of tossing them in the trash. Here are some of the most popular:

Dry sift hash from trim

As a rough guide, every 200 g (about 7 oz) of trim can give you around 30-40 g (1-1.4 oz) of hash, though that depends heavily on how frosty your trim is. One of the easiest and most common methods is to freeze the trim for a few hours, then shake it over a sieve or metal mesh screen. 

You'll need some kind of container underneath to catch the powder. Shake for about 5 minutes, scrape up the kief with a card, then shake again. The more you shake, the more hash you'll collect, but the quality drops with every round. 

Cannabutter

Cannabutter is the go-to base for edibles like brownies, cakes and cookies. You'll need roughly 20 to 30 g (about 1 oz) of trim, depending on how good the strain is. 

First, decarb: preheat the oven to 100 °C (212 °F), spread the trim on an oven-safe tray lined with aluminum foil and bake for about 20-30 minutes. Ideally, give it a gentle stir every 10 minutes so nothing burns and everything decarboxylates evenly.

Once it's done and cooled off, put the decarbed trim in a glass container with the butter and heat it in a double boiler until the butter melts. Keep the mix under 95 °C (203 °F) and never let it boil. Pro tip: adding a bit more water helps keep the temperature down. After 2-3 hours, strain the butter and refrigerate it until it sets and the leftover water separates at the bottom of the jar. Then it's ready to use. 

 Try our full cannabutter recipe!

Cannabis-infused olive oil

This is a great way to consume cannabis without smoking it. Like cannabutter, it's best used cold, on a salad or in dishes that don't get too much heat. 

 

You'll need a good-quality olive oil. Warm it in a saucepan over medium heat until it starts to shimmer and bubble slightly, then kill the heat and add the trim. Let the trim steep in the oil for 2 or 3 hours, then strain it into a glass container. Stored somewhere cool and dark, it'll keep for up to a year.

Cannabis leaf tea

This is one of the most common and best-known uses for weed leaves. Brewing the tea only takes a few simple steps:

a- Bring a pot of water to the stove and add the leaves, letting them simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.

b- Add half a tablespoon of coconut oil or a splash of whole milk, and flavor to taste with honey, lemon or mint. Cannabinoids are fat-soluble, so the fat grabs onto them and makes the tea more potent than plain water would.

c- Strain through a sieve or fine cheesecloth to remove the plant matter

And there you have it. Leaves carry far fewer cannabinoids and terpenes than buds, but they still have some, and a homemade cannabis tea is an easy way to put them to use.

Some people also like to toss fresh weed leaves into salads or juice them. Raw leaves are very low in active THC, so they won't get you high. Fans of raw cannabis credit it with antioxidant and neuroprotective benefits, but the research on fresh leaves is still limited, so treat those claims with healthy skepticism.

Composting cannabis leaves at home

Another sustainable, eco-friendly option: add the leaves to your home compost pile and recycle their nutrients into your next grow, cutting back on synthetic fertilizers. 

Both the leaves and the stalks can go in, so nothing ends up in the trash.

Homemade compost is one of the easiest ways to run a fully organic grow. 

Making topical creams with cannabis roots 

Homemade creams can be great for your skin. For one, you know exactly what you're putting on it, and for another, there are no harsh chemicals to irritate it. 

Cannabis creams are often used for minor aches and skin complaints, and the roots left over after harvest can go into a homemade topical. Chop the roots and grind them into a fine, even powder. Then mix that cannabis root powder with a liquid or fat to make homemade creams and oils that you apply straight to the skin.

There are a thousand ways to use cannabis leftovers. All you need is the trim on hand plus whatever tools or ingredients your project calls for. These are some of the best-known and easiest to pull off.

Homemade fertilizer for cannabis

When you grow cannabis at home, there are a few DIY fertilizers you can use to feed your plants naturally. Every plant is different and may have different nutrient needs, but here's a homemade fertilizer recipe worth trying:

Homemade cannabis fertilizer recipe. Ingredients:

• Banana peels: rich in potassium and other essential nutrients.
• Eggshells: a source of calcium and other minerals.
• Used coffee grounds: add nitrogen and other useful nutrients.
• Water: the liquid base that pulls the nutrients out of everything else.

Instructions:

1. Save up banana peels and eggshells. Rinse them to remove any residue.
2. Blitz the banana peels and eggshells in a food processor or blender until fine.
3. Mix the ground peels and shells with the coffee grounds in a suitable container.
4. Add enough water to cover the mix and stir well.
5. Let it sit for several days, stirring now and then.
6. After a few days, strain out the solids to get your liquid fertilizer.
7. Dilute it with water at a ratio of 1 part homemade fertilizer to 10 parts water.

This homemade fertilizer can give your cannabis plants a natural nutrient boost. Still, keep an eye on your plants' health and growth so you can adjust the dose and type of nutrients as needed. And do your homework on what your particular plants need for a healthy, successful grow.

Weed pizza

Cannabis-infused food, like weed pizza, is a creative way to enjoy the effects of cannabis through cooking. There are plenty of cannabis recipes out there, including the legendary weed pizza.

To make a weed pizza, you'll need a few specific ingredients:

1. Pizza dough: Go homemade or grab a ready-made one at the grocery store.

2. Cannabis oil or cannabutter: To get the weed into the pizza, you'll need to make a cannabis-infused oil or butter ahead of time.

3. Toppings: Use whatever you like, from tomato sauce and cheese to veggies, meats and so on.

Here's one way to make a weed pizza:

1. Make the cannabis oil or cannabutter: There are plenty of recipes online for infusing cannabis into oil or butter. These act as the carriers for weed's psychoactive compounds.

2. Prep the dough: Follow your dough recipe or use a store-bought one, whatever you prefer.

3. Stretch the dough onto a pizza pan and add the tomato sauce or any other base you like.

4. Drizzle the cannabis oil or cannabutter over the dough. How much depends on your personal preference and how strong you want it. Spread it evenly. If you're new to edibles, go easy: start low and wait before going back for another slice.

5. Add your toppings: cheese, veggies, meats and so on.

6. Bake according to your dough recipe, until the crust is golden and the toppings are cooked through.