Need advice

[patrickamory]

Hello all,

I'm a relative newbie and I need some help.

I just got back to my NYC apartment after 5 weeks away in midsummer. I opened my Daniel Marshall humidor and found that my Monte No. 4s had a light white powder on them, as per the pic.

The other cigars in the humi were untouched.

Anything to worry about?

Thanks!

Patrick

[Nevrknow]

Wipe them off and keep checking the others. Ta-da.

[NSXCIGAR]

2 minutes ago, patrickamory said:

Anything to worry about?

I would worry about your rH...

wipe them down gently with a moist paper towel. I like 2 oz distilled water with a drop of hydrogen peroxide. Air dry for 15 mins.

[rcarlson]

What's your rh?  

[SpecialK]

I advise you to start drinking heavily..

 

[patrickamory]

Good question about the RH, I aim for 61-63%, but it was at 68% (hot humid summer here, and while I've been away the AC has not been on).

So just wipe down with distilled water and try to bring the humidity down?

[RichG]

Maybe if you don’t wipe it off at all….hmm….you never know what might happen! 
 

[Bri Fi]

First, you can breathe easy they aren’t ruined. You can wipe them off and put them back. Check the foot for mold though. Some will say toss them if the foot is moldy. Check your humidor lining for mold as well.
 

From what the pics show, they are salvageable. But you may need to rest them for a bit longer. This was suggested to me when my wineador malfunctioned and I had whole boxes get damp. Someone made an interesting position that the cigars may go through an unintended maturation process. 

[Fezztone]

Some folks don’t bother wiping off the white powder.  I had the same on some Chiba Coro Esp and wiped em and checked on them periodically. No issues!

[patrickamory]

Trust me, I'm happy to try any hallucinogenic substance! 😋

But... whoever recommended I check the humidor lining was onto something. The lining was pristine, but then I looked at the shutter around the humidifier and it had the same stuff on it. So did the humidifier. I've only ever used the liquids that came with the humidor (distilled water and propylene glycol). See pics. 

Have removed the humidifier and the cover and put in a Boveda 62% pack for now... must have had some dodgy distilled water or something?

Thanks for all your help guys - you are the best.

 

[Timothy556]

Always use boveda. Always. 

[Mickey D]

Believe me, the situation is not sugar coated. 🤓

[SpecialK]

2 hours ago, Heels82 said:

...you better listen to him Flounder, he's in pre-med.  

 

Thank you... this was where I hoped it would go  

[rcarlson]

I've got a DM and spotted the same issue years ago.  Caught it early.  Wiped the blinds/cover with Qtips dipped in alcohol air dried for a day or two.  Chucked the humidifier, replaced with Boveda.  All has been well for years.  

[patrickamory]

On a google search I see that others have had the same problem @rcarlson!

The humidifier is gone. Cleaned the shutter thingy with a mixture of distilled water and hydrogen peroxide and am letting it dry.

Boveda 62% from now on!

[NSXCIGAR]

3 hours ago, Bri Fi said:

Some will say toss them if the foot is moldy.

I run into this occasionally and honestly I could never bring myself to toss a cigar due to foot mold. I've had good results with dipping the foot into about 2mm of 5% hydrogen peroxide/distilled water solution for about 1 second and moving it right to a paper towel and tamping the foot gently to dry. Air dry for a few hours. Pretty much had 100% success with this method.

[SCgarman]

13 hours ago, patrickamory said:

Good question about the RH, I aim for 61-63%, but it was at 68% (hot humid summer here, and while I've been away the AC has not been on).

So just wipe down with distilled water and try to bring the humidity down?

A respectful suggestion. Never leave the AC off in the summer, especially if you are not there to monitor your cigars. As the temperature rose, so did your RH, causing mold growth. Also, for a desktop style humidor, you really can't beat Boveda pack for a stable environment. The foam element units that many of these style humidors come with are simply obsolete, and only emit humidity thereby causing the possibility of an over humidified environment. 

[Silverstix]

15 hours ago, Heels82 said:

...you better listen to him Flounder, he's in pre-med.  

 

I thought you were pre-law?

What's the difference?

[Enduin]

1 hour ago, NYgarman said:

A respectful suggestion. Never leave the AC off in the summer, especially if you are not there to monitor your cigars. As the temperature rose, so did your RH, causing mold growth. Also, for a desktop style humidor, you really can't beat Boveda pack for a stable environment. The foam element units that many of these style humidors come with are simply obsolete, and only emit humidity thereby causing the possibility of an over humidified environment. 

THIS.

Not only your cigars will be happier (but be careful if the humidor is not REALLY airtight you can easily end up with too low RH) but you will avoid more dangerous mold in your house as well.

[BrightonCorgi]

Desktop humidors do not have any air flow if you don't introduce on purpose.  Very common for mold if are not regularly visiting the humidor.  Be careful on the RH and especially the temperature.  Both too high and you could have beetles hatching.

The mold pictured is no big deal wipe off and monitor.

[patrickamory]

Thanks again all, and all advice taken on board.

How did people cope before Bovedas?? 

[El Presidente]

6 minutes ago, patrickamory said:

How did people cope before Bovedas?? 

fridge butter drawer apparently 

[Glass Half Full]

The bigger concern to me would be the appearance of mold on the cedar inserts of the humidor.  

I take the opposite approach from some of what was suggested.  IF it's a real concern (as in the mold looks likely to spread to other cigars, which it would naturally do with good air flow, which is generally a positive thing, I believe) -- I would immediately remove the offenders and keep them in their own tupperware with a low RH boveda (58% if necessary).  If it's really unfortunate, I would trim the foot, if necessary, and/or wipe them with vodka first and then let them dry, and then put them in their own tupperware or ziplock.  -- As that suggests, I've had more concerns in the past than I'd cared to have had. 

In any event, if i ever saw any fuzz on my humidor, as suggested in one of your pics, I would use vodka or rubbing alcohol (depending on severity) and then allow the whole thing to air dry, ...then re-humidify the storage before putting anything back in that I cared about.  (A set of tupperware is a great help for this.)  In the end, in my opinion, it all depends on consistent temperature and humidity, which (i believe) is the crux of safe storage.  

Hope this is helpful.  In case it is helpful, I now keep my storage room at 68 F constantly, and use different bovedas in summer vs winter to account for ambient RH, striving for 63%.  It's working consistently for me and I enjoy them right out of the box, so no complaints here.  That said, I live in a place with high humidity most of the year, and your area will surely affect your storage and your enjoyment.  To each his or her own.  It seems to be a process.   

Another suggestion is to consider a few SensorPush hygrometers.  They're the best I've found, and even still I find that I get different readings in different parts of my storage area (which inspired me to increase air flow there to reduce the differentials).  I've found them to be a big help.  

All the best, 

 

ps:  I should have acknowledged my huge appreciation to FOH for all who helped me find solutions for my specific situation.  This is a wonderful resource and I hope you will later update us all about what worked best for you, for the benefit of the next person needing help. 

[Meesterjojo]

On 9/1/2021 at 8:30 PM, patrickamory said:

Thanks again all, and all advice taken on board.

How did people cope before Bovedas?? 

Live in a humid environment and try to find things to absorb the humidity. Haha at least that's what I did. More of a dehumidification effort on my part. 

I remember mostly just sticking boxes and singles in ziplocks and hoping for the best. It worked well I think.

[patrickamory]

Boveda has been in use! All looking good now - no reappearance in the humidor or on any of the sticks.