Why you should keep an eye on your humidor

[Deano]

Refreshed the humidifier and it fell onto this stick...

[Eddie]

Just the one stick? That sucks, is it mold? If so it should brush of as its not at the foot. I'd smoke it.

[Deano]

Yeah somehow it avoided the others.

Definite mold, definite bin!

[Eddie]

As long as its not the foot it is safe isn't it?

[AdamK]

As long as its not the foot it is safe isn't it?

It looks soggy as hell. Pretty grim, even if it is safe, I think seeing it would have put me off sticking it in my mouth!

[smokin_e2011]

It sucks when thing's like that happen, i manage to drop cigars on a regular basis,and end up damaging them sometimes...that just pisses me off...

[monkey66]

Having smokes a few of them probably no loss

But seriously ....I inspect all my sticks every month or two so if any mould appears it can be addresses before any real damage is done.

[Nightwingvyse]

It's a good thing that only the one stick was as badly affected. I am always paranoid of that exact thing happening, which is why after refilling the humidifiers i leave them at least twenty minutes to be absorbed and then turn them open side down to make absolutely sure the beads have absorbed everything.

I've been paying even more attention to my humis lately since for the last couple of months I've had an infestation of wood mites. I noticed one late night on my before-bed-checks that a selection of my sticks in my Cuban humi (particularly a Monte 5) had little groups of them just hanging, kicking their heels.
After relocating my sticks and hoovering and reseasoning my humi, i still found they haven't completely gone. I have my regular checks and brush off any of the stragglers. I'm not too bothered though since they seem to have no interest in the cigars. They don't even seem to be doing any damage to the humi.

[Moon Dancer]

Refreshed the humidifier and it fell onto this stick...

Deano- Looks like you have been invaded by 'The Other Side'
Never mind, a little mould always adds to the taste, and good for a chest infection

[tippexx]

Deano- Looks like you have been invaded by 'The Other Side'

The 'Other Side' gets it's share of mould problems too Mr Dancer. But be assured we have too much regard for the content of BOTL humidors to pass it on.

An observation. Mould rarely starts or occurs at the foot of cigars. Could it be that what we experience is not 'cigar mould' at all but 'glue mould', the fungus begins always where vestige (vegetable I think) glue is in the highest concentration .... and double bands on short cigars don't help.

[Simon Bolivar]

An interesting thought Arf, but the stick looked really wet, at that amount of humidity mould will be very likely whatever the souce.
Deano, I hate to waste stix but I'd have binned this one as well, lucky it wasn't touching another couple of sticks as it would have easiy spread. I'd have a clean out of the humi to try & reduce the spores.

[tippexx]

An interesting thought Arf, but the stick looked really wet, at that amount of humidity mould will be very likely whatever the souce.
Deano, I hate to waste stix but I'd have binned this one as well, lucky it wasn't touching another couple of sticks as it would have easiy spread. I'd have a clean out of the humi to try & reduce the spores.

Psychologically that creates a sense of clean satisfaction Si, and I would do the same. Unfortunately we might just as well count sand grains on a beach. Mould spores are air born, millions of them per cubic metre of air, all floating about waiting for the right medium and environment on which to multiply and grow.

Bit unusual to have one super-saturated cigar in a humi, but it can happen if it's directly beneath or by the humidification device. As a precaution, I've taken to placing a cedar box divider beneath my humidifiers. It seems to help.

[Deano]

The humi device fell onto it directly, and that was the top stick, kinda balanced on it. One or two were quite spongy but I'm hoping they'll get back to fitness after a while.

[Simon Bolivar]

I always wondered about hte humi devices that stick to the top of the inside of the lid, I althought thought there were likely to drip down onto your smokes at some stage. Never used them myslef. Use tubes or contianers with pearced lids to hold beads/crystals.

[LukeBird]

Ewwww not nice!
Very unlucky. I've never had it happen to me, but I've wondered if I'll ever find something not so nice at the bottom of the humidor!