The Best Gloves for Growing, Harvesting, and Trimming Cannabis
Every good grower understands the importance of cleanliness and prevention of contamination within a grower's garden. Ensuring the proper measures are in place will reduce the risk of running into problems. Nothing is more heart breaking then finding out your grow has been contaminated after all those months of hard work. Using the right gloves is not only important for protecting your precious plants, but they are also helpful in protecting the grower. In this blog I discuss how to choose the right gloves for your grow and why I recommend Hand Safety, LLC as my go to for quality gloves. They do not sponsor me, and did not pay me to write this blog, which should attest to how great they are!
Considerations for Choosing the Right Gloves
Thickness: The thicker the glove is, the more durable they are. So it would make sense to say that thicker is better, but when it comes to growing cannabis, that is definitely not the case. Often times manufacturers that only care about profit will use cheap fillers to increase the thickness of their gloves. These fillers can cause your precious plants and buds to become contaminated. The most commonly used glove thickness, and the one I recommend is 4 mil.
Glove Grades: The glove's grade is another important factor to consider when choosing the right gloves. These grades are known as industrial, medical, and food-grade. Industrial graded gloves provide extra protection for the user when handling dangerous or messy products. On the other hand, and a better choice, medical graded gloves must be FDA approved to ensure safety. Food grade gloves are gloves that have been approved for the safe handling of food. Food grade and medical grade gloves can both be used for handling cannabis, but I prefer to use medical graded gloves for extra peace of mind.
Size: This one is a no-brainer. Obviously you want to ensure you have the proper size glove. Gloves that are too tight will rip much easier resulting in wasted money and time. Gloves too big can make handling your plants more difficult. Be sure the company you choose carries the size that you need and stays in stock for those sizes. This is a simple task for grows with just one or two people managing them, but for commercial grows that need multiple sizes, choosing the right company becomes more important.
Glove Type: Glove type is another factor to consider. Rather than go into unnecessary detail about the numerous glove types, I'll keep it simple. Nitrile gloves are the standard in commercial and home grows. They are not made from latex and come in powder free varieties, which is important in preventing reactions to anyone who may be allergic or sensitive to latex.
Caution: There are many companies to choose from for sourcing your gloves. Availability and price are the most common factors people think of when choosing a company. Its important to understand that cheaper is not always better. There are many instances where cannabis companies have had to recall their products because of contamination by harmful pathogens caused by using counterfeit or second-hand gloves. They ended up not only losing money they thought they were saving, but it also affected their reputation as a cannabis provider. They found these problems through testing which is mandatory for commercial grows. This is even scarier if you are a home grower. You could be using or sharing contaminated cannabis and never even know it.
My Recommendation: The company I use and recommend is Hand Safety, LLC. Why do I recommend this company? They are American-based. They meet all the considerations a grower should look for when choosing the right glove for their grow. Their nitrile gloves are medical grade, come in 3, 4, 5, and 6 mil thickness, they are FDA approved, have micro textured tips for extra grip, are latex and powder-free, come in a variety of sizes, and because they are used in so many commercial grows, they can provide their gloves at a low-cost.
