What are Cannabis Sugar Leaves and Do You Cut Them or Keep Them?

Detailed Breakdown of Sugar Leaves; What They Entail And How To Utilize Them

As part of measures to make absolute use of every part of the plant, cannabis growers are usually faced with the dilemma of deciding what is useful or not. Sugar leaves fall into this confusing category as some growers prefer to cut them off while others leave them on. However, it is important to know what sugar leaves are and to what uses they could be put before making a decision.

A closer look at sugar leaves

On the cannabis plant, there are two major leaves apart from the bud itself. There are the visible fan leaves that come out from the branches of your plant and the hidden sugar leaves which only show their tips through the buds. They are developed out of the plant buds while flowering and also help in holding the buds together. The sugar leaves are so named as a result of the coating of white sweet trichomes on the leaves at the end of flowering. These trichomes are where a large concentration of cannabinoids and terpenes are stored. Although the fan leaves also have some amount of trichomes on them making them useful for edibles, they are not as concentrated or potent as the sugar leaves.

The amount of trichomes and sugar leaves concentration is dependent on the different cannabis strains available. Some sugar leaves have more amount of trichomes than others and some strains have more sugar leaves than others as their sizes also vary depending on strains and size of the bud itself. Many growers prefer leaving the sugar leaves on the plant to enhance its appeal due to an abundance of trichomes, give it extra weight and aid its drying process.

It is quite possible to smoke the sugar leaves as they contain a large number of terpenes and cannabinoids. However, despite having some amount of THC, sugar leaves have large amounts of chlorophyll and some trace elements that result in a harsher smoke and a plant-like taste. It is best to grind the sugar leaves along with the buds as smoking the sugar leaves by themselves will not be smooth on the throat nor taste very good.

Uses for Your Sugar Leaves

As previously discussed, trimming of sugar leaves or leaving them is a decision a cannabis grower has to make. Once a decision has been made regarding the usefulness of the sugar leaves or otherwise, several things could be done with it.

Cannabutter

Extracting and condensing the trichomes on your sugar leaves produces a good high effect. This extract can then be converted into cannabutter and used in several edibles ranging from salad dressings, cakes, pasta dishes, and cookies. To make this cannabutter, one only needs to get salted butter, water and of course the trimmed sugar leaves. Also, there some important equipment which needs to be included such as:

Measuring jug

Kitchen knife (or a blender)

Cheesecloth Storage container

Before making cannabutter, it is essential to activate the sugar leaves to get a psychoactive effect from it. This can be done by applying heat at 1000 C for 40 minutes (decarboxylation) to the sugar leaves after chopping or blending the leaves.

After this is done, a mixture of the leaves, water, and melted butter simmered for eight hours on low heat with a stir once in a while will achieve your desired result. All that is left is to filter the mixture, separate into containers and store them for future use.

Kief

Kief is what is left after the cannabis buds and trim have been sieved. For your sugar leaf kief, you can get this by separating the trichomes from the leaves which leaves you with a cannabinoid-rich byproduct. To make kief, you can decide to use either a three-chamber grinder or a pollen box to separate the trichomes from the leaves. After extraction, you can either sprinkle it into your bowls, blunts or line the outside of your joints.

Tea

Your sugar leaves can also be brewed into a nourishing cup of tea by adding boiled water, butter, and your decarboxylated leaves into a cup thus giving you a very nice psychoactive effect.

Therapy

Sugar leaves can also be used in a wholesome way as a tincture which can be mixed into your smoothies, vegetables, and fruits. A tincture can be made by infusing decarboxylated sugar leaves in alcohol for one month and then allowing the alcohol to evaporate by opening the container for a week.

Vaping

This is one of the easiest and most common ways of making use of sugar leaves. With enough cannabinoids and terpenes to give you a flavored high, throwing your sugar leaves into a vaporizer is the perfect means of using them without stress.

It is important to handle the sugar leaves properly while converting it into concentrates because if not handled well, there could be excessive damage or loss of the trichome thus reducing its usefulness.