How many flowers does it take to produce one gram of resin?

You see these CBD resins side by side and wonder why one costs twice as much as the other. Part of the answer lies in the amount of flowers needed to produce the resin. Let me explain what happens between the flower and that little gram.

Things to remember

• It generally takes several grams of dried flowers to produce 1 g of resin.
• Yield varies greatly depending on the method, genetics, and trichome content.
• The less useful material an extraction process recovers, the more the production cost can affect the final price.

A flower does not directly yield one gram of resin

One gram of resin is not the same as one gram of flower.

Let me explain. Resin comes mainly from trichomes—those small structures on the surface of hemp flowers that contain high concentrations of cannabinoids and terpenes. The rest of the flower consists of plant material that does not directly turn into resin.

So imagine a flower that contains a lot of plant material and a smaller amount of trichomes. To recover enough of this resinous fraction, you need to process several grams of flowers.

This is where the concept of yield comes into play. If a method recovers 10% resinous material from dried CBD flowers, theoretically it takes about 10 g of raw material to obtain 1 g of recovered product.

The Ice-o-Lator separates trichomes using cold water

The Ice-o-Lator, also known as ice extraction, uses cold water to separate the trichomes from the plant material. The recovered material is then separated from the water and dried before being used as the base for resin.

In this case as well, the yield varies greatly. With raw material rich in trichomes, yields can range from 10 to 20 percent. This roughly corresponds to 5 to 10 grams of dried flowers per 1 gram of recovered material.

A flower with few trichomes will yield less; a particularly resinous variety may yield more. The quality of the raw material, its condition after drying, and the selection criteria for the recovered fraction also affect the ratio.

Two producers can therefore use the same method and still achieve very different yields.

Pressing to compact the resin

Pressing generally takes place after a trichome-rich material has been obtained, although some products can be made from different raw materials.

Pressure helps compact this material and promotes the formation of a more uniform resin.

If you start directly with flowers, the yield therefore always depends on the amount of resinous material available at the outset.

Here, we're talking about a yield of approximately 5 to 15 percent, or about 7 to 20 grams of flowers per 1 gram of recovered product. Actual figures may vary significantly depending on the material and the process.

It is also important to distinguish between gross yield and the quantity of product that is ultimately marketable. Losses occur at various stages of processing, filtration, drying, or packaging.

Why do these ratios affect the price of a resin?

Now you have a better understanding of why the price per gram can vary. Imagine two products: the first requires about 7 g of flowers to yield 1 g of resinous material. The second requires 15 g.

Even if the price per flower is the same, the raw materials already account for a larger portion of the cost for the second product. The final price must also include:

• The cost of raw materials;
• The workforce;
• Equipment;
• Energy;
• Production losses;
• Laboratory tests;
• Packaging;
• Storage;
• Transportation;
• Marketing costs.

A resin made from an expensive raw material with a low yield may therefore cost significantly more per gram than a resin that requires fewer flowers.