Leaf Storage Solution

[adamziegler]

I have started to accumulate both home grown and online purchased leaf that has been stored in various plastic bags in cardboard boxes in the most stable climate my house has to offer... which is not very stable. I can go from mold range to desert dry. Yesterday I learned about storage totes with a gasket. I found the sizes I wanted at a local big box store, and added some cheap humidity meters. If you have a Menards in your region they carry a brand that I like better than what is on amazon. I put a large 2-way humidifier pack in one, and a home made humidifier in the other, and they are certainly keeping things better than ambient.

I don't know that I would recommend the homemade humidifier without some sort of 2-way control like the humidifier packs offer. But I am hopeful to keep leaf in better shape moving forward.

 

[burge]

I just leave mine in the bags

 

[DaleB]

I have found that once I open the bags, nothing will keep them sealed up well enough that the leaf doesn't dry to a crumbly crisp. I have one gasketed Sterilite container that holds my home grown leaf, and I'm going to buy a matching one for the leaf I have from WLT. I was shopping for big Boveda packs but then realized I have a quart of PG here, so I'll roll my own 2-way humidifiers for each tub.

 

[burge]

Here it's okay to let them dry till ready to use the leaf still ages in the bags.

 

[adamziegler]

Glad its working out for you Burge. For leaf I am blending for pipe or snus, I could probably be content with the thick bags WLT ships in. Cigar rolling required me to take a different approach due to my climate.

 

[burge]

Glad its working out for you Burge. For leaf I am blending for pipe or snus, I could probably be content with the thick bags WLT ships in. Cigar rolling required me to take a different approach due to my climate.

Explain. Mold can only happen to my knowledge if air gets in

 

[JukkaPekka]

I have started to accumulate both home grown and online purchased leaf that has been stored in various plastic bags in cardboard boxes in the most stable climate my house has to offer... which is not very stable. I can go from mold range to desert dry. Yesterday I learned about storage totes with a gasket. I found the sizes I wanted at a local big box store, and added some cheap humidity meters. If you have a Menards in your region they carry a brand that I like better than what is on amazon. I put a large 2-way humidifier pack in one, and a home made humidifier in the other, and they are certainly keeping things better than ambient.

I don't know that I would recommend the homemade humidifier without some sort of 2-way control like the humidifier packs offer. But I am hopeful to keep leaf in better shape moving forward.

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I have used plastic container + Boveda for many years. I mainly store cuban and non cuban cigars. I also have Bovedas in my large wooden humidors.

 

[stonefly]

I just today salted the bulk of my crop away in the sort of vacuum bags that you store blankets with and use a vacuum cleaner to evacuate.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CG9GBS4?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

There is some question whether it will continue to age properly this way but with 4 full size tubs full and all of the rafter space in my garage that didn't house fishing rods jammed I had to do something.

Maybe not ideal but it may help someone, the mass was compressed greatly and under the bed it all went.

 

[adamziegler]

Explain. Mold can only happen to my knowledge if air gets in

Air is in. Air is in sealed from WLT. It will mold in a sealed back of temp and RH go up.

I am storing at a temp and RH to help limit microbial growth (~65F and ~65% RH) AND I am storing cigar leaf in a way to keep case up enough to keep it pliable.

Pipe and snus leaf, I have no problem keeping in significantly drier conditions.

 

[burge]

I have never had any with mold when it is sealed. Not once in the bags. I have some sealed from 2016 no issues keeping it in the bags.

 

[deluxestogie]

Whether or not tobacco will mold in a vapor-proof bag is dependent on the water content within the bag, the ambient temperature, and the variability in temperature where it was initially packed, as well as where it has both travelled and has been ultimately stored. There may also be an issue if one surface or end of the bag rests at a different temperature than the opposite surface or end. Lots of variables here. But oxygen is always in there (unless you replace it with another gas), as are mold spores.

Bob

 

[burge]

Whether or not tobacco will mold in a vapor-proof bag is dependent on the water content within the bag, the ambient temperature, and the variability in temperature where it was initially packed, as well as where it has both travelled and has been ultimately stored. There may also be an issue if one surface or end of the bag rests at a different temperature than the opposite surface or end. Lots of variables here. But oxygen is always in there (unless you replace it with another gas), as are mold spores.

Bob

Never an issue yet. I have ordered both summer and winter in the past. What deems to be a factor is open air. You can't get mold when the tobacco is dry.

 

[Sergey Ukraine]

Have you checked the hygrometers for accuracy? These models sometimes have a higher margin of error than stated...

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

Whether or not tobacco will mold in a vapor-proof bag is dependent on the water content within the bag, the ambient temperature, and the variability in temperature where it was initially packed, as well as where it has both travelled and has been ultimately stored. There may also be an issue if one surface or end of the bag rests at a different temperature than the opposite surface or end. Lots of variables here. But oxygen is always in there (unless you replace it with another gas), as are mold spores.

Bob

Any water in the bag is gonna mold and rot. Water in the tobacco is another story. So, does the case of the tobacco change with variations in environment?

It really seems as though Don is doing a proper reordering of the tobacco before packaging. I just put 8 lb of tobacco in the kiln, still in the poly bags. Now we watch and wait......

 

[deluxestogie]

So, does the case of the tobacco change with variations in environment?

You may already know this. The risk of vegetative mold growth is dependent on the relative humidity. It's called "relative", because it is relative to the ambient temperature. As an example, in a closed container, if the RH is, say, 80% at a particular temperature, the RH will drop by 50% (to 40% RH) if the temp increases by 20°F. On the other hand, if a bag is sealed with a low RH in a warehouse in which the ambient temp is a comfy 70°F, but the bag then travels during the winter, and is exposed to winter-like temperatures, visible water may condense on the coolest interior surface of the bag.

Bob

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

You may already know this. The risk of vegetative mold growth is dependent on the relative humidity. It's called "relative", because it is relative to the ambient temperature. As an example, in a closed container, if the RH is, say, 80% at a particular temperature, the RH will drop by 50% (to 40% RH) if the temp increases by 20°F. On the other hand, if a bag is sealed with a low RH in a warehouse in which the ambient temp is a comfy 70°F, but the bag then travels during the winter, and is exposed to winter-like temperatures, visible water may condense on the coolest interior surface of the bag.

Bob

Thank you Bob, that makes sense.

 

[DaleB]

For a graphic illustration of the relationship between temperature and relative humidity, here's a screenshot of the sensor data from one of my storage tubs. Temperature is in Celsius; I can't seem to get the application to use proper freedom units.

 

[StoneCarver]

freedom units? Or do you mean British Imperial Standard units like inch, foot, yard, etc?

A bit of history: Thomas Jefferson was keen on learning about the metric system and invited some guy from Europe to come over to the US to teach him about it. However, (short story) the ship he was on sank. He died and Thomas Jefferson never got the chance to learn about it. And so, the USA never freed itself from using British standard measurements.
(not trying to get this thread locked just asking for clarification and sharing a bit of history)

 

[stonefly]

When I was in school we were told that the US was going to be transitioning to the metric system.
As it turned out our goods and products sold just as well with the buyer making what ever conversion they deemed necessary.
Just good business sense in a return on investment sort of way.

Metric, schmetric.