I just ran into a problem with my Grove bags. It seems that they cannot maintain RH of 58-60% in a room with low humidity.
I harvested 4 plants in the summer, dried the buds in a room that was about 65% RH, and packed them in Grove bags to cure. I heat-sealed some of the bags, but left a few unsealed (just closed the zipper on the Grove bags).
At first, I had hygrometers in some of the bags, but after the RH inside the bags stabilized at about 60%, I removed most of the hygrometers and heat-sealed the bags. I stored them in the basement, where the RH was initially >60% (in summer), but it has now fallen to 35-40% most of the time.
Yesterday, I opened one bag (zipped but not heat sealed) and the flower inside was VERY dry and crumbly. I checked the hygrometer, which was in another bag, and the RH in the Grove bag was down to 50%. ** So the Grove failed to maintain the RH** at 58-60% when the room RH dropped to 35-40%.
I have now set up a humidifier in a small room to raise the RH to ~60-65%, and I am thinking of opening all the bags to let the buds inside re-equilibrate in that room, then re-seal them. Or, I could leave the bags closed and see if enough moisture can get through the bag to re-hydrate the buds.
If this fails, I’ll move all the buds into jars and use Boveda packs.
I’ve come across this myself. Surrounding environment needs to be relatively close to target. Recently the new area I use for storage climbed in both temps and humidity, and I saw a drop off in quality in relatively fresh bags during a months time. I’m talking several 1LB bags.
Re-hydrating is possible, using green leaf or fresh bud.
Cant answer if it was a seal or room problem.
3-4 months cure, then jar may work best.
I often mix, fresh with old to enhance either.
Ugh this is disappointing to hear. I had hoped they would preserve humidity without letting it get over 62%. Just ordered legit grove bags not the knockoffs and now it seems like jars might be my best bet, again. Or I suppose tossing in some larger bovida packs.
Starting to think these are really only useful if you have a dedicated cure room or humidor.
I have had pretty good luck with them. I have bud 15 mos in grove bags and come out very smokable. I do store all my grove bags in a tote with lid on. Perhaps that keeps things in check, not sure?
One tip, don’t close the bags if any bud parts are in the seal’s path. You will feel a bump as you run your fingers over it. I think I broke one that way.
Ill grove bag fresh bud for a few months and then transfer to jars with broveda packs. I agree with the above comments also. I still have some in grove bags that are stored in a rubbermaid container and they seem to keep rh relatively well.
I’m thinking the same thing. I ordered many different sizes to try them all but now it’s winter in Minnesota so it’s drier than a popcorn fart here. Maybe 3-4 weeks in the bags to avoid the burping?
Mine just got here. Bought 5 1/2lb and 1/4lb window pouches, 10 1oz window pouches, and 15 1/2oz Glassless jar pouches. Going to do a test in 40% room rH and see how it holds up.
Update: I think I jumped to conclusions based on two bags that had NOT been heat sealed, just zipped closed. After being stored at RH 35-40, these 2 bags stabilized at RH about 50-52% when I opened them and put a hygrometer inside.
But I then took 3 different Grove bags that had been heat-sealed before the humidity dropped, opened them to insert a hygrometer, and quickly zipped them closed. These three bags quickly stabilized at 59 - 61.5%.
Grove recommends heat-sealing for long term storage, and my observations show that they are correct. In the future, I will feel ok storing heat-sealed bags at low ambient RH, but any bags NOT heat-sealed will be stored at higher RH, or else I’ll insert a Boveda pack.
