A continuous feed machine for trimming and separating plant material, the machine having one or more augers or conveyors for feeding plant material into a trommel barrel covered with mesh netting, adapted to include baffles between longitudinal sections of the trommel barrel, and sized for rotational speeds to so as to process the plant material as components of the plant material progress longitudinally through successive sections of the trommel barrel. The mesh netting trims plant material as it moves through the trommel barrel, with the trim falling through the mesh netting. One or more augers or conveyors may be used to remove trimmed plant material exiting an output end of the trommel barrel, and one or more augers or conveyors may be used to remove trim material from below one or more sections of the trommel barrel.

A Concentric Blade Trimming System with Adjustable Blades. The System includes at least one pair of rotating drums within which are rotating cutting blade assemblies. The system allows the user to load untrimmed buds continuously, and to generate an efficient, continuous flow of trimmed buds as output. The cutting blade assemblies rotate within the rotating drums independently. The cutting blade assemblies also include apparatus that will automatically adjust the blade position relative to the interior walls of the drums so that the trimming process can continue without the need to shut down for blade adjustment. In an alternate version, the blades are flexible and their adjustment is conducted manually with only a short intermission in operation of the system.

Embodiments of the present invention pertain to a plant trimming device having a removable cutting cartridge. A direct-drive motor is magnetically coupled to the cutting cartridge. The cutting cartridge houses a blade and a set of rotating blades. Plant parts are cut by the rotating blades across the razor. The cartridge is mounted on rails and has a handle to facilitate the ease of inserting and removing the cutting cartridge. Thereby, an old cutting cartridge is readily removed and replaced by a new cutting cartridge. Furthermore, the cutting cartridge can easily be removed for cleaning and later re-inserted back into the plant trimming device.

Embodiments of the present invention pertain to a modular plant trimming system. A number of plant trimming machines are placed side by side. These plant trimming machines trim leaves from a plant. A sensor detects when one or more of the plant trimming machines are added or removed from the system. A processor then balances a load of plants to be trimmed to be split between the currently available number of plant trimming machines.

Embodiments of the present invention pertain to a tiltable tumbler for use in a plant trimming machine. Plants are placed in a tumbler. As the tumbler rotates, leaves extending through slots in the tumbler by a vacuum are trimmed off. A mechanism is used to adjust the tilt of the tumbler. Thereby, the rate by which the plant material in the tumbler is processed is faster with a higher tilt or slower with a lower tilt. The degree of tilt is adjustable either manually or automatically via a computer.

A self-guided blossom picker uses a vision system to identify and locate blossoms or inflorescence growing on a plant. The device can be towed by a tractor or it can be self-propelled. Image data captured by the vision system is sent to an machine vision module, which interprets the data and identifies a location of blossom. A controller uses the location data to command a picker to the proper location. A cutter on the picker is actuated to remove the blossom.

Embodiments are directed to a plant trimmer. The plant trimmer may separate leaves or other peripheral plant matter from a body portion of a plant. In one aspect, an embodiment includes a rotatable basket having a set of ribs separated by openings in a basket sidewall and a cutting assembly having at least one blade. The rotatable basket may be configured to spin in a first direction. The cutting assembly may be configured to spin parallel to the rotatable basket and in a second direction, opposite the first direction. Plant matter extending through one of the openings in the sidewall of the rotatable basket maybe sheared by a cutting face of the blade and a rib of the rotatable basket.

A debucking machine, for use with processing industrial hemp or cannabis, is provided. Embodiments of the debucking machine include counter-rotating rollers equipped with rubberized combs for gently removing flowers, or “buds,” from harvested industrial hemp or cannabis. Embodiments of the debucking machine are portable and may be moved from location to location within a drying shed.

A system for removing biomass from a stem includes a frame, a conveyor mechanism which moves the stem in a horizontal conveying direction, a pair of rollers which exert a rubbing force between each other for removing the biomass from the stem, and a tensioning system arranged to exert a force which holds the stem to the conveyor mechanism. A first axial end of each roller is connected to an inlet end side of the conveyor mechanism, and a second axial end of each roller is connected to a transmission such that the rollers are angled downward from the first axial ends to the second axial ends. The conveyor mechanism moves the stem so as to pass between the rollers such that the rubbing force removes the biomass from the stem, and such that the rubbing force moves downward along the stem as the stem moves in the conveying direction.

The present concept is a plant trimming assembly for trimming materials from plants and includes a frame, and a cylindrical slotted drum rotationally mounted to the frame along a longitudinal axis. The slotted drum includes an exterior surface and a longitudinally oriented internal passageway for receiving plant material there through. It further includes a longitudinally oriented cutting assembly retainer which is also rotationally mounted to the frame about the longitudinal axis such that it rotates concentrically around the outside of the exterior surface and along the length of the slotted drum. A longitudinally oriented blade is mounted to a cutting assembly which in turn is mounted to the cutting assembly retainer. The cutting assembly rotates in unison with the retainer around the outside of the exterior surface of the slotted drum. The cutting assembly is configured to maintain a pre-selected stand-off gap between a cutting edge of the blade and a circumferential contour of the exterior surface of the drum such that plant material projecting through a slot and beyond the stand-off gap will be trimmed off by the rotating blade cutting edge.