Watch this machine sort 440 pounds of grass per hour

America grows nearly 30 million pounds of weed every year, New Frontier estimates, but who separates the sexy colas from the snicklefritz?

For most cannabis growers, the harvest is still medieval. The tedious trimming, cutting, formatting and packing are done by human eyes and hands. But as the $ 18.3 billion legal cannabis industry expands and industrial agriculture picks up, operators are deploying huge, expensive machinery to ease the load, save time, and thus save consumers money.

As an example, Leafly shows this video (above) of an industrial cannabis sorting machine valued at $ 21,500.

Like it or not, size matters. Large, dense cannabis buds are sold for more than tiny, small, frizzy balls.

The 2021 Mobius M9 Sorter weighs 450 pounds and can reportedly sort and sort 440 pounds of weeds per hour – allowing six to eight human workers on the farm to have a little more fun.

In contrast to a human trimmer, the Mobius M9 sorting machine is odorless, food-safe and can be set up in five minutes without special tools. (Courtesy of Möbius)

“Sorters are a quick, no-work way to sort flowers for retail shelves. Brands primarily involved in large-scale flower processing can leverage this technology to increase the speed and efficiency of their operations and reduce labor costs, ”Eteros Technologies, parent company of Mobius, told Leafly in an email. “Ultimately, quality and consistency are crucial.”

In the video above, captured at fourth generation Ladybug Farms in Watsonville, Calif., In May, two sorting machines face each other – each a 13-pound mango biche and wedding cake. The M9 did it in about 140 seconds. The process is simple:

1. Workers load the M9’s feed hopper, which holds buds of varying sizes from shake to more than 3 inches.
2. Nine rotating sorting belts gradually expand in spacing as they stretch across a 78-inch sorting table.
3. As the tape space increases, the buds fall onto the sorting table, where adjustable dispensing dividers direct the buds into the correct container for inspection and packaging.

The flower sorted by the machines in this video was sold in low-cost brand Old Pal bags that are sold in over 400 pharmacies in California.

As more machines get the job done, weed prices continue to drop from ban highs. The average cost of a legal, tested eighth-ounce ounce in California is now $ 48 pre-tax, Leafly data finds. (We just smoked half an ounce of Cali Plug branded peanut butter breath, valued at $ 100. Old Pal quarter ounces are $ 40.)

“Cannabis growers and processors are constantly struggling to increase yields, reduce losses and maintain high quality during the trimming process,” said Aaron McKellar, CEO of Mobius Trimmer. “When sorting can process more products in less time while increasing sizing accuracy, much of the battle is won.”

Five-year-old Vancouver, British Columbia-based Eteros Technologies is the parent company of Mobius and Triminator and specializes in post-harvest machinery. Mobius M9s are in service in the U.S. and Canada and are sold out while they’re being built, Eteros said.

Eteros claims its M9 is 1.5 times faster than its closest competitor, but you’ll need to check it out for yourself. (GreenBroz is also a good sorter.)

Eteros is hosting its third “Demo in the Desert” event in its Las Vegas store in October.

David Downs

David Downs heads Leafly.com’s news and lifestyle coverage as California Bureau Chief. He has written for WIRED, Rolling Stone and Billboard and is the former cannabis editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and author of several cannabis books, including “Marijuana Harvest” by Ed Rosenthal and David Downs. He is the co-host of The Hash podcast. TW: @davidrdowns | IG @daviddowns

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