Do you feel your cannabis operation loses time and money during the sorting process? We’ll show you how your cannabis sorting process can be improved by adding a cannabis sorter!
Our guide breaks down the basics of sorting cannabis, the benefits of a cannabis sorter, and more!
The Value of Sorting Cannabis
What’s the purpose of cannabis growers sorting their buds by weight and size? Hemp can produce a wide range of bud sizes, and since the larger hemp buds are typically more potent, growers can sell those at a more lucrative price.
So, it’s obviously in the cannabis grower’s best interest to sort their more profitable products into one category over another. Plus, different-sized buds are better for certain products. For instance, smaller flowers are more ideal for pre-rolls and cannabis extracts. It’s also beneficial for growers to know the size of the buds growing and learn more about their yields and where there may be room for improvement.
Improve Your Sorting Process With a Cannabis Sorter
The easiest and most effective way to improve your cannabis sorting process is with the proper equipment—a cannabis sorter. Sorting cannabis by hand is tedious, imprecise, and arduous, no matter how skilled or experienced the hand sorters may be.
A cannabis sorter uses equipment like grates or conveyors to remove the cannabis flower from the sorting line into small, medium, and large sizes by width and weight. A sorter requires little skill to operate and sorts the cannabis efficiently and accurately.
Benefits of a Cannabis Sorter
We’ve mentioned a few benefits already, but there are many advantages to a cannabis sorter. This device makes cannabis sorting much faster, more accurate, and more cost-efficient for growers.
Consistency and Accuracy
There’s no doubt that your cannabis sorting process will be much more consistent and accurate after switching from hand sorting to a bud sorter. When sorting by hand, the measurements and weights are imprecise and involve guesswork—even the most experienced eye makes mistakes. Accuracy is vital for growers, as you don’t want business-to-business partners to feel that they’re being cheated.
With a sorter, the process is much more reliable and consistent as human analysis is taken completely out of the equation. For a non-automated sorter, operators have to slide the buds across the grates, and the flowers will drop through and fall into their sorted bucket, allowing for accurate sorting every time!
Efficiency
As we’ve mentioned, sorting buds by hand is tedious and time-consuming, but a cannabis sorter can slash that sorting time by a fraction of what it once was. With a sorter, a worker can separate pounds of buds into five distinct sizes in only minutes.
Even a non-automated sorter can sort 20,000 grams of dried buds into distinct sizes and weights in just one hour. That amount of sorting would take much longer by hand and slow down the rest of the cannabis operation.
Reduce Overhead Costs
Since the cannabis sorter can do the work of multiple employees in a fraction of the time, it also means fewer overhead costs for the grower. A sorter allows cultivators to have a leaner staff that requires fewer tools and resources while sorting.
And since cannabis sorters work faster than hand sorters, it means shorter shifts and fewer hours spent sorting. This efficiency means a shorter payroll for the cannabis grower and better profit margins on crop yields.
Pro tip: Fewer workers involved in cannabis harvesting, trimming, and sorting operations also mean fewer security risks for growers.
Return on Investment
The benefits we’ve listed all add up to a sizable return on the investment in a cannabis sorter over the years. While a cannabis sorter may be a sizable initial investment, there’s no doubt about the long-term value they provide to a cannabis growing and selling operation.
Cannabis growers can more accurately and quickly sort products while incurring fewer costs. Speed and accuracy mean happier customers, faster delivery, and better profit margins for cultivators. A cannabis sorter is a no-brainer for commercial cannabis growers.
What To Consider When Investing in a Cannabis Sorter
You should consider a few things before choosing which company to buy your cannabis sorter from. First, you’ll have to decide between automated and non-automated sorters, but you should also consider how easy it is to use and maintain the sorter.
Non-Automated vs. Automated
Cannabis growers have two options for cannabis sorters—automated or non-automated. Both sorters have their advantages and work similarly. A non-automated sorter utilizes a series of grates of varying gap sizes, while an automated sorter employs conveyor belts of differing sizes.
In a non-automated sorter, an operator piles the buds onto one side of a trough with grates along the top and buckets underneath. The operator pushes the buds along the grates, with the smallest falling through the grates first and larger ones following after. Automated sorters use the same premise of sorting but with varying conveyor belts instead of grates.
Sanitation Compliance
Most cannabis operators are required by state law to comply with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to sell cannabis. GMP compliance means that the equipment the hemp comes into contact with is food-grade and sufficiently clean.
GMP equipment must stand up to industrial cleaning solvents and prevent stray material from building up in crevices, hard-to-reach areas, and breeding grounds for bacteria. Not every state requires GMP compliance, but most business-to-business cannabis buyers do, so most growers are GMP compliant anyway.
Easy To Clean
Naturally, keeping the equipment clean and compliant will require frequent washing and sanitation. The easier a sorter is to clean, the more efficient the operation is and the faster it can get back to work sorting.
Don’t forget that cannabis buds and pollen can leave sticky residue on surfaces, and cleanliness is essential when dealing with sorters that require hemp to move smoothly across grates. Look for a sorter you can disassemble and clean quickly—it’ll save a lot of time.
Compatibility With the Rest of the Process
Another thing to consider with a cannabis sorter is how quickly it operates in relation to the rest of the process. If any part of the cannabis cultivation process is too fast or too slow, it can create a bottleneck and significantly slow the operation.
A typical non-automated hemp sorter should be able to sort around 45 lb. of dried buds in roughly an hour. An automated sorter can do much more, but if you don’t have that much hemp to sort, the benefits aren’t as predominant. Consider how much bud you need to sort and how quickly you can do it to decide whether you need a non-automated or automated sorter.
Now you understand better the benefits of adding a cannabis sorter to your sorting process. If you have other questions about cannabis sorters, contact our helpful and knowledgeable staff at Easy Trim!
