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Cigars had Mold ??

Hey guys

I opened up my travel humidor today and found a couple of my cigars had mold on them . I put the cigars in the Garbage .


And now I am wondering what to do with the humidor before I put in my new cigars any help would be great





Nick
 
How moldy were they? As long as there wasn't mold on the foot (which then grows into the cigar) I would have wiped them off and smoked the hell out of them.
 
Sure it wasn't plume? That would have been a good thing.

Being that it's likely he packed them for a trip (ie travel humidor) he would have seen the 'mold' (if it's not plume) before packing them. I can only assume the growth was noticed when he got to his destination?

Surely the OP can't be using a travel humidor for his every day humidor?
 
Surely the OP can't be using a travel humidor for his every day humidor?



Yes he is as he just started smoking cigars recently and wanted to see if he liked them before he bought a real humidor .


The mold was on the sides of the cigar nothing towards the ends.



Looking at the pics from Chris' (Suzukis) link it looked more like the bloom (from what I remember)




I guess i need to go find the cigars and see what it really was .


I will see if I can take some good pictures of them for more help


Nick
 
It can be hard to distinguish between Plume and Mold. Just remember mold will most certainly look fuzzy while Plume, if you look closely would be more crystaline in nature.

Thanks for posting this though. It reminds me I need to go through my cabinet and check for mold.
 
Guys cant post picks of the cigars I could not find them .


Just as a precaution I will clean out my humidor very well before I put anything new in there
 
I just re-read the posts in this thread and realized that while there are many thoughts on what the offending "stuff" may have been, no one has yet said anything on future prevention.

What causes mold? Moisture and the presence of spores. Since you can't do anything about the presence of mold spores as they're everywhere, that leaves you with something you can control: Relative Humidity.

I like to think of humidors in the same terms as you would an aquarium. The bigger, the better. The reasons being that with more volume, you've got more room for error. In the case of an aquarium, you're trying to control the levels of dissolved organic compounds (DOCs, aka, fish poop). In the humidor, relative humidity (RH, aka, moisture in the air). Since you've got a travel humidor, right off the bat, you've got a few hurdles to get over.

Nick, what are you using for a humidification device? With the smaller space, you don't need much. In fact, there probably isn't much room for one...much less a hygrometer (device that measures RH). I learned this the hard way and watched cigar after cigar become too wet, then too dry, too hot (is that a tobacco beetle?!? -turned out to be a fruit fly...:rolleyes:). With all this in mind, I would caution against using a travel humidor for long term storage. In fact, I would also recommend against using anything less than a 50ct desktop humidor for long term storage, meaning anything longer than a week or two.

My advice, if you decide that this whole cigar thing is for you, would be to go to your local big box store and buy a 30-40qt plastic cooler and a $10 electronic "weather station," which will monitor temperature and RH. Next, get online and buy 1/2 to 1lb of Cigar Humidity beads. No seasoning required, just spray 3/4 of the beads with distilled water and place in the cooler with cigars and your hygrometer. Good to go!

I've been really enjoying the various types of cigars out there for a little over a year now and it wasn't until I went the "coolerdor with beads route" that I really new what a properly stored and humidified cigar should look, feel, taste, and smoke like.

Best of luck!
 
I use a travel humidor all the time. I don't keep more than 8 to 10 sticks in it at any time as I smoke them and replace. I only do this so I am not at the smoke shop every day where I keep the my bulk stash.

Nick has the same humidor I use so this is a surprise. There is a built in bead that needs water only every 2-3 weeks and that is no more than a half shot glass.

The key as Cory mentioned is distilled water. If you are not using it, then chances are this is your problem.
 
I use a travel humidor all the time. I don't keep more than 8 to 10 sticks in it at any time as I smoke them and replace. I only do this so I am not at the smoke shop every day where I keep the my bulk stash.

Nick has the same humidor I use so this is a surprise. There is a built in bead that needs water only every 2-3 weeks and that is no more than a half shot glass.

The key as Cory mentioned is distilled water. If you are not using it, then chances are this is your problem.


I was using distilled water
 
Probably too moist. Open your humidor at least once a week to replace the air and this should also bring down the humidity.

A 1:1 ratio of Propylene Glycol (the pharmacist may need to order it for you) and distilled water will keep a RH of 70% which is recomended for cigars.

For years, I have kept well over a thousand cigars (yes I know, OCD) in their original boxes inside of the large plastic containers rfeerenced earlier. I then take one of those travel soap containers and fill it with the "WET" Oasis Sponge (a florist will sell you a block...just make sure it is the WET, not DRY form). I then saturate it with the mixture mentioned above.

No problems in 10 years.
 
can it be I added to much water?

Yes. My money's on too much moisture combined with naturally occuring mold spores that thrive in dark, cool, moist conditions. Distilled water is a must, especially when using beads as the impurities will get trapped in them and ultimately ruin them, but even distilled water is water, so no guarantees that mold won't happen.

Also worth mentioning again. Travel humidors are not meant for long term storage, hence the word travel. :thumbsup:
 
Most of my cigars dont stay in there for more then a a week or two . Usually a week . This time around I had not smoked any cigars for about 2 weeks so I did not even open the box .

I know the travel humidor is not good for long term storage but right now I am not yet ready to invest the space I need for the humidor that I want .

the Humidor I want is big . I am trying to find a good place to keep it
 
Would smoking a moldy cigar then make it unhealthy?:biggrin:

Sorry, couldn't resist. I had a friend from high school who gave up pipe smoking because he believed that the lacquer on the pipe was hazardous to his health.
 
Most of my cigars dont stay in there for more then a a week or two . Usually a week . This time around I had not smoked any cigars for about 2 weeks so I did not even open the box .

I know the travel humidor is not good for long term storage but right now I am not yet ready to invest the space I need for the humidor that I want .

the Humidor I want is big . I am trying to find a good place to keep it

Thanks for the clarification. I feel better now. :biggrin:
 
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