Intensive Care

[8-5-8]

So here's the deal. The A/C died in my building about 3 weeks before I found a new place. Temps averaged 95+ during the day and 85+ in the wee hours of the morning (got to love those wall-to-wall windows... ). As you can imagine, this played hell with the enviroment inside my humidor. By the time I got relocated and unpacked, humidity was at or about 50% and had been for at least a week. Thankfully, I seem to have escaped a plague of tobacco beatles, but after a week and a half of intensive care, the highest humidity I have seen is 61% and as of this writing, it is at 58% and 70F. Temp has been stable since I moved. I pulled out my standard humidifier two days ago and put in a Breveda seasoning packet (84%) to see if that would help them recover. Average humidty has increased 10% since then, but has remained stable for the past 24 hours.

Any suggestions as to how to save my stash? I assumed that it might take a couple weeks to get things smoothed out, but I'm still a bit nervous. The box has about 80 or so cigars crammed into it, so there's not alot of open space. What should I do?

[bigpoppapuff]

my preference is 62-65% rh......i would NEVER go higher.....YMMV....

[basil]

If it were me, I'd gently rearrange them - top on bottom, etc. I'd be real careful to not re-humidify too fast - it could cause a wrapper to split, even going from 50 to 65 or 70, if it's too fast.

I don't think a week at 50% was too long - water leaves relatively fast, but it takes longer for "oils" to leave. They should still be ok, as long as you begin returning them to better conditions fairly soon (and you already have) and over a period of time. A 2-3 week re-acclimation sounds ok.

[nhcigarfan]

rotate and relax, sounds like you will be fine.

[digger5280]

The only time I have ever had a problem with wrappers splitting is when the cigar is really dry, as in dried out. I don't think you are going to have any problems since your smokes were already living in a nice humid home, it would take some serious time in really low humidity for things to really dry out.

[WOXOF]

The only time I have ever had a problem with wrappers splitting is when the cigar is really dry, as in dried out. I don't think you are going to have any problems since your smokes were already living in a nice humid home, it would take some serious time in really low humidity for things to really dry out.

I think Basil was refering to the splitting that occurs when the filler or binder tobacco expands faster than the wrapper due to rapid increase in humidity. I have had this happen to me with cigars that were a little dry and thrown directly into the humi.

[basil]

I think Basil was refering to the splitting that occurs when the filler or binder tobacco expands faster than the wrapper due to rapid increase in humidity. I have had this happen to me with cigars that were a little dry and thrown directly into the humi.

Yep, me too - that's what I was talking about.

[8-5-8]

Thanks guys... I'm not quite so worried now.
Humidity seems to fluctuate from about 60% in the morning to 55% in the afternoon when I get home. With luck, it'll creep a bit higher and all will be well. Fingers are crossed.