Our bud inventory has gotten where I am looking at some long term storage solutions and am curious about the de-oxygen food saver packs on the market.
Lots of experts we’ve interviewed talk about how cannabis oxidizes over time so why not try these as they are food safe. I put one pack in each of 3 jars a week ago. The moisture levels were all between 59 and 61% when these were added. 5 days later the mason jar lids were sucked down tight, it’s working, but the humidity had jumped to 67%. I’m drying out those jars again with burping but am curious as to why the humidity spiked? Does anyone have any experience with these and maybe could explain why that happened? These packs were cheap so no big loss if this doesn’t work out.
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monkeydo Topic starter
January 3, 2023 1:28 pm
The measurement is done with the same hygrometer that showed the buds at 59% before adding the oxygen absorber
Mix January 4, 2023 11:24 am
You can buy small hydrometers that you can put in a jar Dave.
going by what monkey said so far I’d put my money on it being in the jar.
@monkeydo If the jar was sealed then there are 2 possibilities i can think of. 1) The temperature dropped, resulting in higher relative humidity. Or 2) the O2 eater packs gave off some water.
The lid popping down would result un a small decrease in volume & increase in RH, but not as much as you had.
I haven't used these per say but i do use the boveda packs and store in 15L plastic buckets, i will decant as needed into jars so I don't have to open the buckets often keeping the seal and conditions in check. The bovedas keep the RH at a steady 62% in the tubs and last for ages especially if you keep it shut. However they are 2 way sachets so will bring the humidity up when too dry and down when too high, the oxygen packs could be doing the same thing but to a higher rh value possibly. could always throw one into an empty container along with a small hygrometer and see if it raises the humidity up past a point, at least then you will know if its doing that by design or if its somehow increasing the rh. The only thing i can see potentially being the case though is that its trying to dry out the container and drawing any residual moisture out of the buds and spiking the rh because its drawing it out of the buds and into the air? I know your cure method is pretty much dialled in so its the only explanation that makes sense in my mind. I have been smoking heavily today so I hope my stoner science is understandable hahahaha
I feel like a, like a slice of butter... melting on top of a big-ol' pile of flapjacks... yeah.
monkeydo Topic starter
January 3, 2023 1:30 pm
@bubblehok that’s not a bad idea. I’ll set this up today and check the humidity in a couple of days. I did leave one in the jar at higher humidity to see how it reacts. I’ll risk an ounce to see how this all works out.
Mix January 4, 2023 11:17 am
@bubblehok I’ve been wary of them packs after reading they can split & ruin your bud ; sounds like that was a rare thing & there worth giving a spin
BubbleHok January 4, 2023 8:44 pm
The boveda packs are made with saline so even if it does split its just salt water anyway. Not sure about the integra boost packs though. But I am not exactly gentle and have never had a boveda pack split yet so for me they are brilliant. I don't have them in my glass mason jars I decant into, just in the long term storage buckets.
Last night I ran the test suggested by Woodi. 2 brand new jars and lids were used. The jars were warmed to 170f (76c) in the oven. Since I was concerned the hygrometer might be damaged by the hot jar, I attached them to the inside of the lid. One jar got one 500cc oxygen eater, the other got nothing. This morning I took the readings.
First the control with no absorber, 58% humidity
Next the jar with the packet inside, 92% humidity
So that definitely says it’s something in the pack. I did a search on these packets and found these to be type D packets that Davetg mentioned. Upon opening up one I found a mix of 2 powders. One was obviously iron filings, I had to search for the other. Turns out it’s salt! It’s used as a catalyst to start the reaction and as we know, salt also contains moisture. After I used a magnet to separate some of the iron, the lighter color salt was apparent.
So my task now is to locate some type B packets and try this again. According to the internet, I shouldn’t need anything larger than a 100cc packet in a quart (or liter) jar. The ones I have are 500cc packs because they were the least expensive ones. Gotta find the other ones now. The experiment continues….
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@monkeydo The type B packets might not work with properly dried weed. The moisture makes the oxidation reaction go. I'd be inclined to use one of the boveda humidity packs with the type D O2 absorber as @bubblehok suggested.
monkeydo Topic starter
January 7, 2023 1:41 am
I got ya man. It’s all an experiment so we’ve gotta start somewhere. It might take a combination of packs and it might be a total waste of time. The new absorbers arrive next week.
There is a chemical reaction with the oxygen eaters that can create heat as it does it’s thing, this can cause condensation depending on the temp diff within the sealed environment.
Honor is simply the morality of superior men.
Since you have enough to share, I mean— experiment with 
have you compared long term storage in mason jars verses vacuum sealed turkey bags ?
Listening to some other podcast, they seem to be in favor with some of the larger OG growers. One grower in particular swears his stuff smells better stored in turkey bags compared to jars. And then he packs the turkey bags in storage totes.
I have no experience in this department, but food for thought!!
Honor is simply the morality of superior men.
monkeydo Topic starter
January 4, 2023 7:07 pm
@sevans1965 hmmm, how do you go about vaccu-sealing a turkey bag? Thought those are heat resistant. I do the regular ones all the time. All I can think of is put the turkey bag inside a regular one then seal the outside one.
Why not just use a Mason Jar vacuum sealer. You can get a manual one from Amazon for less than 20usd.
Works for food preservation why not Bud preservation, seems better to me than adding a chemical pack.
Sativa to change the things I can, Indica to accept the things I can’t.
If you start will a warm jar and slap a lid on it as it cools it will seal. It works in my world.
monkeydo Topic starter
January 4, 2023 3:42 pm
@woodi2 Yep, that would vacu-seal them some but I was more interested in eliminating oxygen to limit oxidizing long term. I've got a little time this morning so Ill set up an experiment with a hot jar. One with the absorber and one without. Should have info in a few days. BTW, thanks for the input. Completely forgot about that... stoner moment again.
LMAO….. started asking a question about oxygen absorbers and now I’m looking at nitrogen 😂. I understand it could work but the purpose of this experiment was to find a cheap and easy way to store bud long term. Freezing is always an option but am just experimenting with a different process. The purpose of the oxygen absorbers was simply to remove oxygen. Vacuum that formed was a bonus but not the intention.
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@woodi2 The lids formed a mild vacuum seal on both jars. I didn’t heat the lids because I was concerned putting plastic and electronics in hot surfaces might do bad stuff. The results were so radically different that I’m confident of this failure.
The new type B absorbers were ordered just now, so in a few days we’ll run this test again. If the new packs are better then I’ll try them in jars with buds. No use risking anything.
BTW, thanks @davetg01for that research. Very helpful 👊
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what about spraying an inert gas inside?
@woodi2 Tis what beer brewers do. Attach a pressurized CO2 line to a keg and vent the air before letting it sit. I would be inclined to use Nitrogen if at all. The gas in the jar would also be dry and would pull more moisture from the buds, so that would need to be accounted for.
WoodI2 January 4, 2023 11:06 pm
yeah, Nitrogen is used for storing certain commercial solvent based paints and finishes, all kinds of stuff.
BubbleHok January 5, 2023 7:51 am
@woodi2 This is the method they use to vaccum seal the medicinal buds here in aus, its either that or the irradiation of them prior to being packaged but something causes terpene degradation in a big way. Could also be that they use commercial freeze driers rather than the traditional dry and cure too. Either way it smells like someone wiped a shit on the inside lip of the container when you first open it... not the most pleasant experience....unless that's your thing I guess 🤣
Just exploring options here folks. 🤣 Have you seen the Marble Machine!! 🤣 🤣
"There are two types of oxygen absorbers used for the storage of Food, "B" absorbers and "D" absorbers. The "B" absorbers require moisture from the food they are packed with to perform their action. A good example would be beef jerky or dehydrated fruit that hasn't been dried until it is brittle. The "D" absorbers contain their own moisture and are better suited for dry pack canning because there isn't enough moisture in correctly dried food to activate the "D" absorbers."
Found on foodassets dot com
Dave the Grower
How did the lids seal with the warm jars? Did you heat the lids to?
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