The present disclosure is directed to an apparatus and related methods (i.e. utilities) for trimming plants, in particular, buds and flowers, to remove unwanted plant material. A typical application would be to process a plant to leave only trimmed buds and flowers for use in potpourri, fragrant sashes, or as a prelude to further processing of essential oils. The utilities enable faster and safer production of plant material than prior plant processing machines. The utilities employ a coaxial drum and cutting element that counter rotate. This coaxial cutting element typically includes a plurality of cutting elements, to create a plurality of cutting interface that shear unwanted plant material form plant material within the drum and then collect this debris though, for example, a vacuum system. The use of the counter-rotating cutting interfaces allows for multiplying the cutting interfaces over prior existing machines.

An organic material and plant vine chopper assembly has two plant vine chopper rotor drum assemblies that chop plant vines and other organic material. Each rotor drum assembly has a plurality of rotor rings each ring having a plurality of angled blades that effectively cooperate with each other to guard each blade and the drum against the wrapping of clogging fibrous strands and other clogging material around the drum. Each chopper rotor drum assembly incorporates a plurality of rotor rings spaced along and encircling and attached to a main drum tube and distributed in a cutting zone along and surrounding the longitudinal rotational axis of the drum tube with each rotor ring having a pair or a plurality of pairs of cutting blades attached to respective alternately angled mounting tabs that alternate to the left and to the right to the general plane of the rotor ring.

A removable motor housing for a plant material trimming device. The removable housing may include a first motor housing connectable to the plant trimming device. The first motor housing may be slidably or pivotably connectable to the plant trimming device. The first motor housing may be operable to receive an output shaft from a first motor in the first housing. The output shaft may be operable to communicate with an input shaft of the plant trimming device. A biasing device may be connectable to the first motor housing and the plant trimming device for biasing the first motor housing into a first position. When the first motor housing is in the first position a substantially constant force is applied between the input shaft of the plant trimming device and the output shaft of the first motor.

A trimming tool cleaning system (100) includes a solvent reservoir (102) containing a solvent such as vegetable oil for the plant resin, a wristband (104), and a trimming tool (106). The tool (106) is used to trim plant material with resin, e.g., trim the sugar leaves and buds of a cannabis plant. The blades (108) of the trimming tool (106) can be wiped on the band (104) so that the blades (108) are lightly coated with the solvent. The solvent in reservoir (102) is used to wet the wristband. The solvent then protects the blades (108) from gumming up and facilitates cleaning of the blades (108).

A bearing block assembly for a plant-trimming machine having a rotatable perforated tumbler, a rotatable reel and a bed bar assembly. The bearing block assembly comprises an outer bearing plate having a bearing-receiving bore for holding a reel bearing to rotatably support an end of the reel, and an inner bearing plate affixed to the outer bearing plate. The inner bearing plate has a pocket for receiving the bearing-receiving bore of the outer bearing plate, the pocket having a tolerance permitting the bearing-receiving bore to be set at a selected position within the pocket. The inner bearing plate also has a contact surface for engagement with the bed bar assembly and a bore for receiving a tumbler bearing for a rotatable tumbler support. The bearing block assembly has connectors for affixing the outer bearing plate to the inner bearing plate. The bearing block assembly sets the positions of the reel, bed knife and tumbler correctly during assembly of the plant-trimming machine, reducing the time and skill required for maintenance.

An organic material and plant vine chopper assembly has two plant vine chopper rotor drum assemblies that chop plant vines and other organic material. Each rotor drum assembly has a plurality of rotor rings each ring having a plurality of angled blades that effectively cooperate with each other to guard each blade and the drum against the wrapping of clogging fibrous strands and other clogging material around the drum. Each chopper rotor drum assembly incorporates a plurality of rotor rings spaced along and encircling and attached to a main drum tube and distributed in a cutting zone along and surrounding the longitudinal rotational axis of the drum tube with each rotor ring having a pair or a plurality of pairs of cutting blades attached to respective alternately angled mounting tabs that alternate to the left and to the right to the general plane of the rotor ring.

An apparatus for trimming plant material includes a rotatable tumbler through which the plant material is to be axially propagated while rotationally tumbling, and a plurality of cutting reel systems adjacent the tumbler. The plurality of cutting reel systems includes a first cutting reel system adjacent the tumbler, and a second cutting reel system adjacent a landing zone of the rotatable tumbler. The landing zone is an angular range about the axis of the tumbler within which plant material tends to land on the tumbler after tumbling through a central volume of the tumbler.

A plant stem separating apparatus for separating a stem from plant portions extending from the stem is provided. The plant stem separating apparatus includes a cutter, and first and second rollers. The cutter includes a blocking member and apertures defined therein. The apertures are sized for receiving the stem therethrough and the blocking member is positioned and configured for blocking a passage of the plant portions through one of the apertures. The first and second rollers define an engagement region therebetween downstream of the aperture for receiving the stem, and are drivable to rotate in opposite directions in a forward feeding mode to grab the stem at the engagement region and pull the stem through the aperture, such that the plant portions are retained upstream of the blocking member while the stem is pulled through the aperture, thereby causing disengagement of the plant portions from the stem.

A plant-trimming apparatus comprises two spaced-apart end plates, a rotatable tumbler, a rotatable reel comprising a reel shaft and reel blades, two bearing blocks, each detachably connected to a respective end plate and rotatably supporting a respective end of the reel, a motor arranged to drive the reel and the tumbler, a bed bar assembly comprising a bed bar and a bed knife, the bed knife being in operative engagement with the reel blade for cutting of plant material from the tumbler, and a manually-operated locking mechanism operable to secure the bearing blocks and the bed bar assembly to the end plates. The apparatus can be easily disassembled for cleaning and re-assembled, without using tools.

The present invention relates to a method for modifying lateral budding in a plant comprising modifying the expression or function of a protein comprising the sequence shown as SEQ ID NO: 3, 4 or 5 or a sequence which has at least 70% sequence identity thereto. The invention further relates to plants, plant propagation material, harvested leaf and processed leaf obtainable by such methods.