Mold or not mold?

[hepyadda]

Hi guys,

 

I’m just starting in this beautiful world of habanos, I’ve been enjoying them for a few months now and I’m in the learning process of taking care of them. I’ve been storing my sticks in a small 20+ cigars wood humidor, which has been served me well, my problem is that I live in the desert, temperatures above 40 degrees and very low RH so I decided to wipe off the dust of a some circuits and sensors I had and modified a thermoelectric cooling device into a prototype humidor, it’s very small it can hold like 30 cigars probably so I set temperature at 21 degrees and put a 65% boveda (60 grams) in, but my RH keeps rising, sometimes even reach 80%, so I decided to set temperature at 25 degrees and added some cedar sheets and RH has been keeping at 70-72% which still high... anyways my question is after that it seems that one cigar started to develop mold at the foot I cut the spot and if it was mold it was just that very little spot, but now some of my sticks looks very dark in some areas, some of them probably are too humid for my little experiment but I’m worry if those black areas could be mold, I’m attaching a picture of them hope it helps, some of them on the top row and bottom row are very dark, it feels to me that they’re darker than before but probably is just me...

 

 

TL;DR: are the darker leaves in the cigars probably mold?

 

P.S.: Any tip on controlling RH is welcome!

 

Thanks!!!

 

 

 

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[Monterey]

Darker leaves would be the ligero leaf.  Light mold doesn't "stain" leaf to a darker color.  Though if they are wet, the cigar would appear darker.  Are they squishy?

Sounds like you have a serious storage issue.  You are going to need to invest into A/C if you want start collecting cigars! 

To control high RH, I would buy lower RH boveda packs.  They will suck up the moisture.   But in the end, you need a/c and something closer to 65% boveda packs.

[mikeyjb]

You need to speak to PigFish. He's our resident humidor expert. Also check out the humidor forum. That should give you enough info to set up a decent humidor.

 

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[hepyadda]

Darker leaves would be the ligero leaf.  Light mold doesn't "stain" leaf to a darker color.  Though if they are wet, the cigar would appear darker.  Are they squishy?
Sounds like you have a serious storage issue.  You are going to need to invest into A/C if you want start collecting cigars! 
To control high RH, I would buy lower RH boveda packs.  They will suck up the moisture.   But in the end, you need a/c and something closer to 65% boveda packs.

They’re more soft than they should for sure. For some reason I thought that it was going to be easy to just set up the right temperature and RH will take care of itself... how wrong I was. I was looking into some newair humidor with a/c, I’ve read they’re good, doesn’t seem to be a lot of options beside them anyway.


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[hepyadda]

You need to speak to PigFish. He's our resident humidor expert. Also check out the humidor forum. That should give you enough info to set up a decent humidor.

 
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I’ll check it out, thanks!!!


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[Monterey]

Sounds like your cigars are wet.  Mold will take over those cigars from the inside out.

The new air's are okay.  I have the CC-300's.   The problem is that they are not well built.  Online they have positive and negative news.  The positive news is from people who just bought and they work great.  The bad reviews are people writing a year later "Well, they were good until they stopped working".   If you are dealing with extreme heat, those units are going to run and run.  They will have a short life.  Sounds like you have some technical ability.   Learn to repair them   Make sure to plug the drain hole with electrical tape.

[hepyadda]

Sounds like your cigars are wet.  Mold will take over those cigars from the inside out.
The new air's are okay.  I have the CC-300's.   The problem is that they are not well built.  Online they have positive and negative news.  The positive news is from people who just bought and they work great.  The bad reviews are people writing a year later "Well, they were good until they stopped working".   If you are dealing with extreme heat, those units are going to run and run.  They will have a short life.  Sounds like you have some technical ability.   Learn to repair them   Make sure to plug the drain hole with electrical tape.

That’s what I’m afraid of, mold growing from the inside out and I’m smoking them without noticing it. I think so long for my little experiment. Would you recommend me to get ride of those sticks? Or wait and see if they show any mold growth in the next few days maybe?


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[Monterey]

I would not be smoking them.  Best advice I can give here is get them in a good environment asap.  Let them sit for 6 months.  If no mold has grown, you are fine.  Not sure how the taste will be.  I've never had mold (aside from light mold on Montecristo, I swear even in perfect condition mold grows on them).  If you see mold on the foot of the cigar, the cigar is a goner.

[hepyadda]

I would not be smoking them.  Best advice I can give here is get them in a good environment asap.  Let them sit for 6 months.  If no mold has grown, you are fine.  Not sure how the taste will be.  I've never had mold (aside from light mold on Montecristo, I swear even in perfect condition mold grows on them).  If you see mold on the foot of the cigar, the cigar is a goner.

Will do, I’ll take them out of there. Thanks for sharing, I think that’s lesson learned for me : \.


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[Monterey]

One more thing.  If heat and humidity are going to be an issue you can't deal with right now, try putting them in your freezer.  I don't know much about long term freezer storage, but it may be your only option.  Bring them out when the weather gets below 70 in the fall.   Hopefully after that you have a solution to your temp issue.  If you go this route, make sure to bag them securely in freezer bags and get them in the fridge for 24 hours prior to putting them in the freezers.  Others may have other solutions.

I used to live in the dessert as well.  I had a small collection back then.  I used to store my cigars at work in my desk.  Free A/C

[hepyadda]

What a great idea!!! I’ll take my cigars to work, wonder if they’ll get mad if I start taking cigar breaks he he ...


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[luckme10]

Another problem for @PigFish

[ponfed]

I'm no @PigFish, but I can't figure out for the life of me how you can get rising RH by adding cooling, when you got a Boveda 65 in and 40%rh out.

I'd say your hydrometer is screwed up, but your cigars are obviously wet. Is there a leak somewhere? Is there water that's maybe leftover somewhere in the unit?

 

Is there an air leak in the box that might be near your boveda, that dries the air around it, but blows the humidified air to the hygro and the cigar? Like the boveda keeps discharging humidity?

I would try buying lower rated boveda. Also you should have more. Buy 10 little 10g bovenda 62, throw them liberally int the box. Under the cigars, over ,in between. See what happens to the rh.

It certainly boggles the mind.

[99call]

1 hour ago, luckme10 said:

Another problem for @PigFish

This^^^^^^^^^

[PapaDisco]

Keep changing the Boveda.  It won't go over 65% forever.  If you've saturated the first one, then put in 5 more 65% Bovedas and see if they absorb the excess moisture.  Now if you happen to live in a high humidity environment and keep opening the lid on that thing, you're screwed; but if it's anything like a normal environment the Bovedas will even things out to some sort of stasis right at 65%.  

[kalibratecuba]

The only time I had issues with RH is when I got my Newair Wineador.

 

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[hepyadda]

I'm no [mention=79]PigFish[/mention], but I can't figure out for the life of me how you can get rising RH by adding cooling, when you got a Boveda 65 in and 40%rh out.
I'd say your hydrometer is screwed up, but your cigars are obviously wet. Is there a leak somewhere? Is there water that's maybe leftover somewhere in the unit?
 
Is there an air leak in the box that might be near your boveda, that dries the air around it, but blows the humidified air to the hygro and the cigar? Like the boveda keeps discharging humidity?
I would try buying lower rated boveda. Also you should have more. Buy 10 little 10g bovenda 62, throw them liberally int the box. Under the cigars, over ,in between. See what happens to the rh.
It certainly boggles the mind.

My first thought was hygrometer issue, but I’m using an electronic humidity sensor that’s suppose to be +/- 1 % RH accurate, which is bundled in the temperature sensor I’m using to read temperature and turn on and off cooling, then I put inside the hygrometer I’ve been using in my wood humidor which I calibrated and readings match. There is no water involved or left over at all. The boveda is sitting on top of the cigars, doesn’t seems to start getting dry but I don’t know how much it has discharged it’s been inside for like 3 weeks but now that you mentioned it, air leak sounds like the cause of this mess, I’ll try to figure out if there is an air leak near it...


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[Derboesekoenig]

I don't understand how, if you're using 65% bovedas, it's going over that. I've used Bovedas for 3 years, and they have never gone more than +/- 1%. They have always been spot on for me. I'm thinking it has to be the result of a different variable.

[dicko]

Do you have any more photos? It LOOKS
pretty normal to me. As someone has mentiond above the different types of leaves have different colours and in some cases this can be rather pronounced.

I cannot assist on the humidity issue. I've read dozens of brilliant posts by Ray and others and I simply cannot work out how relative humidity works!

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[Ritch]

Boveda's could be saturated?

I have recently had an issue with high humidity. First I tried taking out the sponge things. No joy. Then leaving the doors open. No joy.

 

Finally got some dessicient pouches and it's sitting approx 60rh now. Background humidity here is currently 80hr...

[Cayman17]

I would leave the lid open for a night with the cigars and the boveda pack resting  inside the humidor in open air. Then in the morning simply close the lid and wait 24 hours and re-check the humidity reading. 

I would get rid of the thermoelectric cooling device and perhaps recalibrate the hygrometer to be thorough. 

[ponfed]

1 hour ago, Ritch said:

Boveda's could be saturated?

Finally got some dessicient pouches and it's sitting approx 60rh now. Background humidity here is currently 80hr...

Yeah, but he specifically says the ambient rh is in the 40s... 

I hope OP gets back to us with a conclusion, cause I'm really curious.

[Fuzz]

If there is no change in the water vapor content in the air, then as the temperature falls, relative humidity rises (and vice versa).

[hepyadda]

Do you have any more photos? It LOOKS
pretty normal to me. As someone has mentiond above the different types of leaves have different colours and in some cases this can be rather pronounced.

I cannot assist on the humidity issue. I've read dozens of brilliant posts by Ray and others and I simply cannot work out how relative humidity works!

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That makes two of us that don’t get how the freaking RH works he he he...

It’s very hard to make camera focus on cigars and enabling flash is not helping at all, but I’m attaching the best focused one, what I was worried about is mold growing from the inside out, is that even possible?, or is it always from the outside in?, probably I just panicked when the RH was above 75 for a week : \




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[hepyadda]

Yeah, but he specifically says the ambient rh is in the 40s... 
I hope OP gets back to us with a conclusion, cause I'm really curious.

I’ve started to log reading from sensor, columns are 1- if cooling is on/off; 2- temperature in centigrade; 3- relative humidity; 4- date time


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