humidity packs yay or nay

[im not a robot]

i am curious: i am new to humidity packs (i bought some integra boost 55), and they seem a neat idea? but then i stumbled across people on the internet claiming boveda packs stripped their buds of either taste or smell or both or worse. since i am not sure whether to trust the internet or my own senses i am asking the internet.
it seems a lot of people here are using them. but then who knows how many are not.

in which camp do you fall?
have you noticed humidity packs affecting your herbs in any category other than humidity?
are you sure?

 

[DamnGentleman]

I've never done double-blind tests or anything, but in my experience Boveda packs do diminish flavor and smell. Some claim that Integra Boost doesn't have the same problem because, unlike Boveda, they're salt-free. I'm waiting on an order of those right now - hope they're right!

 

[Farid]

Ideally bud should be kept at the correct humidity then sealed in an airtight container.

If bud drops its humidity then a humidity pack can restore it, but usually some of the terps will be lost if you allow it to get too dry.

So the way I see it, they are a patch for a problem that should be avoided in the first place. Also, if you are opening and closing a container often they can be useful. But I wouldn't use them for long term storage.

 

[shredder]

i am curious: i am new to humidity packs (i bought some integra boost 55), and they seem a neat idea? but then i stumbled across people on the internet claiming boveda packs stripped their buds of either taste or smell or both or worse. since i am not sure whether to trust the internet or my own senses i am asking the internet.
it seems a lot of people here are using them. but then who knows how many are not.

in which camp do you fall?
have you noticed humidity packs affecting your herbs in any category other than humidity?
are you sure?

If your going to store long term they're worth it. By long I mean longer than a month.

As far as degrading over time imo they actually improve quality rather than take away from quality.

Buds will turn brown, lose terpenes, and dry out over time.
Using the humidity packs slows this down. They probably double the length, if not more, of time the buds retain high quality.

I keep spare packs in a Ziploc bag and keep them hydrated with a damp paper towel in the bag.

Years ago we used apple peels, and green fan leaves. Humidity packs work much better.

 

[howie105]

The joy of not having standards, I seldom notice a drop in taste or effects. When I do, it's time to gift the old jar and break out a new one.

 

[FlyingLow]

Yay for buds that are going to be pressed, nay for all other scenarios.

 

[Shrike]

I've never done double-blind tests or anything, but in my experience Boveda packs do diminish flavor and smell. Some claim that Integra Boost doesn't have the same problem because, unlike Boveda, they're salt-free. I'm waiting on an order of those right now - hope they're right!

This is only my own experience, but I've found that true about the Boveda packs. Switched to Integra a number of years ago, and I've never found them to diminish flavor and smell.

I still have some Ice Cream Cake in mason jars for over a year now, and opening the jar releases very nice smells. Other than age causing the nugs to slowly change color, they are just about as efficacious as they were last year. I'd never switch back to Boveda. Worked great for cigars (when I used to smoke them), but Entegra for cannabis.

Again...this is my experience...YMMV.

 

[howie105]

This is only my own experience, but I've found that true about the Boveda packs. Switched to Integra a number of years ago, and I've never found them to diminish flavor and smell.

I still have some Ice Cream Cake in mason jars for over a year now, and opening the jar releases very nice smells. Other than age causing the nugs to slowly change color, they are just about as efficacious as they were last year. I'd never switch back to Boveda. Worked great for cigars (when I used to smoke them), but Entegra for cannabis.

Again...this is my experience...YMMV.

Ar you still the Sausage King of Chicago?

 

[shredder]

I've never actually bought weed from a dispensary, ever. Kinda spoiled I guess. I've grown my own for years and for the last 9 years ive been a caregiver grower for medical marijuana patients. Before I became a caregiver because of a move I went a year without growing until I built grow rooms. Knowing it would be a while, my grow area was a bare, empty pole barn, I supplied up using glass canning jars that I vacuumed sealed with a seal a meal attachment, I didn't know about humidity packs back then. Those buds slowly declined over a year. One jar got misplaced and went for 16 months. The vacuum held, but the buds were just so so in strength, they were naturally decarbed though, so that was kinda cool. The taste was fine, maybe a little muted, but smooth. I smoked back then, silly me.

I also stored buds outdoors, in vacuum sealed jars, then promptly forgot about them after a fall and winter outside. Those buds badly molded and were tossed. So the temps and environmental conditions matter.

Now days, gear moves much faster with patients, but I have some 6+ month old buds stored in glass jars with humidity packs. And my patients generally prefer buds aged 3 months or more. I let them smell the jars and they always pick the older gear. I don't even offer buds for at least a month after harvest. Drying and curing takes time.

Just curious, do dispensaries use humidity packs? How is the typical bud humidity from store bought buds? Do they store well? Locally ive heard people complain about the strength, price, and quality, but never if the buds were dry or properly hydrated.

 

[Sour Dream]

I stopped using boveda since they muted the taste and smell and made all my stuff smell the same.
Integra works much better but I’ve moved to only using humidity packs for long term

 

[Shrike]

Ar you still the Sausage King of Chicago?

Abe Froman...

You got my Maitre D' reference in my sig. One of the creators of the movie loved the Shakey's restaurants...hence the fancy name.

 

[LesPlenty]

Long term = Mason jar+vac seal+Boveda+Oxy absorbers+cool+dark
These guys get the last bit of O2 out of the jar,

Just Better 100 - 300cc Oxygen Absorbers for 1 gallon Mylar Bags (2 Packs of 50) | eBay

How many oxygen absorbers should I use?. 100-200cc per 1 quart bag. 300-600cc per 1 gallon bag. 600-1200cc per 2 gallon bag. 2000-4000cc per 5 gallon bag. Storing in consistently cool, dry, oxygen and light-free conditions will provide the best results.

www.ebay.com.au

Friends cannot tell the difference between 2 months or 2 years of age (same Mumma plant and hydo grow)
Boveda were invented for high-end cigar connoisseurs, there is no way they would put up with something adulterating their stogies (some cost more than my car).
Google,
Are Boveda packs good for cigars?
Another question is whether it's safe to lay a Boveda pack directly on top of your cigars. The answer is yes. Since each pack emits only clean, purified water, and will only emit the precise amount of water-vapor, the packs can be placed directly in contact with your cigars without ever becoming over-humidified.30 Apr 2021
Boveda is completely safe and FDA compliant. ... Boveda is trusted by the most reputable companies across several industries, including tobacco and cannabis. The FDA-approved ingredients contained in Boveda DO NOT contain dangerous levels of acetone or any other harmful ingredients.

 

[Shit Snacks]

Just curious, do dispensaries use humidity packs? How is the typical bud humidity from store bought buds? Do they store well? Locally ive heard people complain about the strength, price, and quality, but never if the buds were dry or properly hydrated.

It really depends, because usually it's not the dispensary, it's the brands packaging the weed, in California at least... Sometimes you can find the old school dispensaries with their own stash, but often prepackaged nowadays everything legal... And yeah a lot of times I get shitty very dry weed that way, so try to find the old style spots, however in the pandemic I switched to delivery and it was more reliably fresh despite being prepackaged, one brand etc. Anyway over the summer they started using humidity packs, I thought it was a good thing ensuring that the buds would always be fresh but it's still not necessarily a given, although I have been feeling like flavor has been muted lately for me? Maybe that is why? Because I am using them when I put the weed into my own jars but it's still not long-term storage per se... Quite a bit of variety but not like insane I don't know, they are even using Integra now though at least? I need to grow!

 

[RustyOldNail]

Long term = Mason jar+vac seal+Boveda+Oxy absorbers+cool+dark
These guys get the last bit of O2 out of the jar,

Just Better 100 - 300cc Oxygen Absorbers for 1 gallon Mylar Bags (2 Packs of 50) | eBay

How many oxygen absorbers should I use?. 100-200cc per 1 quart bag. 300-600cc per 1 gallon bag. 600-1200cc per 2 gallon bag. 2000-4000cc per 5 gallon bag. Storing in consistently cool, dry, oxygen and light-free conditions will provide the best results.

www.ebay.com.au

Friends cannot tell the difference between 2 months or 2 years of age (same Mumma plant and hydo grow)
Boveda were invented for high-end cigar connoisseurs, there is no way they would put up with something adulterating their stogies (some cost more than my car).
Google,
Are Boveda packs good for cigars?
Another question is whether it's safe to lay a Boveda pack directly on top of your cigars. The answer is yes. Since each pack emits only clean, purified water, and will only emit the precise amount of water-vapor, the packs can be placed directly in contact with your cigars without ever becoming over-humidified.30 Apr 2021
Boveda is completely safe and FDA compliant. ... Boveda is trusted by the most reputable companies across several industries, including tobacco and cannabis. The FDA-approved ingredients contained in Boveda DO NOT contain dangerous levels of acetone or any other harmful ingredients.

There you go spouting facts again.....

 

[im not a robot]

so many replies to wake up to, cheers guys, and it seems less of a divisive topic than i thought.
i found a great place for cbd here in the EU, and thats where this query has come from. until things get legalised here (fingers crossed) the quality of regular thc cannabis is very hit or miss. but the quality of this cbd has me really impressed, i have never seen such gorgeous buds in my life. so now i worry for their well being. i have a bunch of different strains in smaller ziploc bags (thats how they were sent) and these get opened a lot, so will probably throw some packs in there & see. could do some side by side comparisons.

 

[Polarbearboy]

With dope legal in Canada where I am now, though the nearest dispensary is 250 miles away, and dope legal in the two states next to my primary home state, I often feel like I am living in the Golden Age, though sometimes feeling like I'm too old to fully enjoy all the riches. Nonetheless, I often have multiple varieties open. For instance, right now I've got two sativas, an indica, and a hybrid going and five different concentrates open. Most of the quantities are smallish, all are delicious and wrecky. But it can take two, three, even four months to finish one, even though I vape two or three times a day or more just about every day. I have and use both Boveda and Integra and can't really tell the difference. I too notice that increasingly when I buy flower it comes with a Boveda or Integra inside the pack. At least at the moment, with my multiple ailments all in remission or toned down, life is really good.

 

[WildWillie]

My only reason for using Boveda packs is for a better grind. I noticed in the dry winter my bud would practically turn to dust when ground in my medium plate Brilliant Cut; in more humid seasons I had no problems. So I started storing my nugs with Boveda 58% packs, and now I get a consistent grind all year round.

I haven’t ever done a vapor quality comparison, so I can’t speak to that.

 

[Hippie]

I've tried both ...... literally lol
And prefer the flavour and aroma with the Integra boost packs

Not sure exactly what it means for sales but I just received some more boosts which came with a note saying that Boveda won't allow the seller to sell directly to the public from Amazon and ebay soon.

 

[BrianTL]

I pretty much store everything in C-Vaults with 62% Boveda packs... I've got some stuff for well over a year (I've also barely opened it, as its not my favorite...but it is holding up well) and no issues. I'll store smaller amounts in Jyarz so I'm not opening the vaults often, which definitely helps. Basically the container, provided its airtight, will reach an equilibrium between the flower, the open air space, and the B-Pack. In theory, as long as its sealed, and in a relatively stable temp-zone, it should sit very stable and fresh for as long as you want it to.

I've heard/read some thoughts that long term bud stored with Boveda/Integra will look and appear fresh when they're opened after a long period of time, but it's possible that that bud would deteriorate a lot faster once exposed to fresh air, in comparison to say, 6 months prior to that. Not sure if there is any truth to that, I haven't noticed it myself, but I suppose it might make sense. I believe that concept applies to certain wines....a given bottle of wine may last for 2 days once opened, but take that same bottle and let it set for a few more years, once its opened, it needs to be consumed that same day.

To me, I really dont see a reason NOT to use a pack if you're storing flower for anything longer than say, a month.

Edit: the other thing is too, I dont think humidity packs are effective at all for restoring dried out flower. It might normalize the touch, density, and grind, but the terps and whatever else degrades when its been dried out will never return. So the whole goal is to get it to proper humidity as soon as possible once its been cured.

I truly believe a good portion of dispensary flower is already too dry by the time it gets to the end user, which is also why people may not think B-Packs are doing anything... their flower was already too far gone to "revive."

 

[Shit Snacks]

I will say I had received buds that I was able to revive once before! When my place started including the packs, they had forgotten a few times, so I was able to use previous really good packs that have maintained quality (I actually got some really nice larger ones from one of the CBD places I ordered way back when) and was pleasantly surprised that it actually did revive the herbs quite well, brought back some moisture and flavor even! But that was probably a rare case, have not repeated it lol

 

[Polarbearboy]

Brian above hit the nail on the head: If you're going to store flower for more than a month, the humidity packs help. When most of us here say "store", we mean kept in a sealed container, like small mason jars, Jarz, cvault, skunk bags, etc. Or kept in the original container if it seals well. Sealed does not mean in a zip baggy at room temp. Warmth, air, and sunlight degrade good weed quite quickly.

 

[Sour Dream]

Brian above hit the nail on the head: If you're going to store flower for more than a month, the humidity packs help. When most of us here say "store", we mean kept in a sealed container, like small mason jars, Jarz, cvault, skunk bags, etc. Or kept in the original container if it seals well. Sealed does not mean in a zip baggy at room temp. Warmth, air, and sunlight degrade good weed quite quickly.

That is important to note, the packs are useless if you aren’t storing your bud correctly. Keep them in a airtight container

 

[seriousTone]

https://imgur.com/a/moLVBNZ

I've been storing my bud in these little corked jars inside a gallon wide mouth mason jar for close to 5 years now. Holes in the cork ensure humidity gets in each jar. The large boveda pack keeps it all perfectly moist.

I've had the same bud stored this way for close to a year or more and was always perfectly fine. Usually it's all stored very minimum 6 months before a new stock is added.

The smell of each strain do tend to start to smell similar but each one still always keeps it's distinct taste; whether the flavors slightly meld together though, maybe, probably.

I usually have an ounce or a few eighths more in there at a time.


One of these damn years I'm going to build a perfectly sized humidor.

 

[im not a robot]

i love those little jars..

 

[seriousTone]

Ha, yeah same. My cousin was handing them out at her baby shower reveal with mm's in them.

As soon as I saw them I knew what they'd be for lmao.