Boveda or integra boost?

Smoker's Lounge
#21

Although I appreciate you guys trying to give some helpful advice, it’s very counterproductive to what I’m trying to figure out here. I don’t need drying and curing tips, got that figured out just fine and not my first rodeo in that dept. You wouldn’t jump into a bud buster pro forum and go on about fertilizers or amendments they should be using right? Well I’m strickly looking for feedback on these two products and finding out FROM PPL WHO HAVE USED EM, the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you don’t have experience with em then this isn’t the forum to be commenting.

There’s new products coming out every day and these 2 have emerged as very large companies cuz obviously there is a large need and demand for em, if your an old school grower and certain methods have worked for you over the years that u feel u don’t need these products that’s fine, but it’s still a new technology that’s made an advancement in the market and I’d like to explore what’s been made available to us in this day and age and be able the learn from others experience with em.

Plants are dry, jarred and in my safe, but I plan on smoking on these buds for a year+, so for the 4-6 months they are sitting idle in darkness in my safe untouched I would like em to be sitting in an ideal humidity environment for long term storage.

I have identified a need for long term storage humidity control (whether or not you guys feel my weed has been dried/cured properly from where your sitting) and these are the 2 market leading products for that need and have little to no experience with em, so respectfully that’s the knowledge I’d like y’all to share about these products instead of the repetitive comments assuming I don’t know what Im doing in my harvest work.

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#22

I’ve used both, haven’t noticed a difference between them, to be honest. This last grow was the second time I used the Integra packs; I’ve got jars of the same exact plant, some with Bovedas in them and some with Integras, just because, like you, I was curious and had read the same thing, that Integras preserve terpenes better. Or whatever. I haven’t found that to be the case. After about six months, all of the weed smells the same, whether they were in jars with Bovedas or Integras. Didn’t make a difference. That I can tell, anyway.

It’s dry as fuck where I live, too, so for moisture levels, either one works fine (I use the 62% packs). But as far as preserving terps and all that, neither seems to work, long-term storage-wise. They both keep the weed sticky, though.

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#23

Honestly terps arent as big of a deal, most the bud I grow is super dense anyways that even if you can’t catch a whiff in the jar, once you grind it, it all comes alive. I guess I’d have to ask do u think it actually degraded your terps or no more than time would anyways without the packs?

not getting dry and harsh over time in my safe is the goal and we’re not in a perfect world so any improvement is better than none.
I did notice on both they are suppose to be swapped about every 2-3 months on the fine print but a 2 year shelf life not in the herb, did u ever swap or “recharge” yours out?

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#24

Hm. That’s a good question. I’ve actually never NOT put a few Bovedas in my jars, once everything is ready to be sealed up, so I don’t have an answer for you on that. I have noticed that after about six months, no matter the strain, it all smells like musty Sprite haha. And that’s probably because of the Bovedas/Integras. It’s possible they fuck with the terps. But, like you said, once I start breaking it up, the smell kinda reverts back to what it oughta smell like. And it always tastes really good. Not at all like musty Sprite haha.

So it doesn’t seem like it affects the flavor. Or the high. And those are the two things I care about most. In fact, I blazed some Time Bandit last night that I harvested mid-September, 2020. Smelled like musty Sprite when I opened the jar haha (that’s gotta be because of the Bovedas, just because any weed I store for longer than about four months ends up smelling like that), but it was still sticky and it tasted delicious. Not like the way it smelled at all. And it got me super-baked, too, so…

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#25

Sorry, forgot to address this. I only swap them out when they get all stiff. As long as they still feel kind of “gel-y” or whatever, I keep them in the jars. They seem to last about a year, sometimes longer, before it’s time to toss them.

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#26

you are right --comes down to personal choice !!!

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#27

I used to vacuum seal and throw my weed in a freezer for long term storage if it was already cured. Worked great for me but long term normally wasn’t more than 3-4 months lol

These also work great just for keeping your daily stash fresh

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#28

I’ve opened properly sealed herb a year later and had it still taste the same as when it went in. I’ve also seen somebody ruin 400+ pounds using those packs your considering. Oxygen and light are your biggest enemies in regards to degradation of the product. If you want all your herb to turn a shit brown color and taste the same these are definitely the way to go. Those packs keep the humidity far to high for a sealed enviroment , we’re storing cannabis not cigars.
I wish everybody the best of luck in using these but they are a fad, a marketing gimmick and a great way to destroy flavor.
Just because a new product is available does not mean it’s a beneficial one . It is often just people rushing to creat something they can sell to a growing market that will purchase anything there told will make there weed grow better. Sense legalization has been occurring there has been a flood of new products people are hoping will catch on and make them rich but most are just already existing technologies that have just had a weed growers theme added and the price hiked way up.
I understand some people live in harsh environments and feal the need for these, I live somewhere that is over 100 degrees in the summer with less then 14% humidity then It shifts to below freezing with 80-100% percent humidity threw winter and have no issues with storage.
We literally call all the bland boring weed from the clubs bovida kush because it all smells and tastes the same, like decomposing plant material.

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#29

You do realize these packs come in all different humidity options right? 58% and 62% are the suggested for cannabis on their site. So your right we are storing cannabis and not cigars but cannabis still holds best with moisture vs bone dry not unlike a cigar. Yes they make em also for cigars but not in those humidities. If they say a drying room should be 60 and 60 then why shouldn’t we be aiming for storing in jars at the same range?

100 degrees? That’s cute, we hit 125 for a couple weeks straight this year… Humidity is usually 2-5% and can be up to 10% without storms

I’ve looked at the data and seen some of the tests and they appear to do what they claim at holding the desired humidity after the initial few days balancing the environment, only problem is I can’t stick my nose through the screen to see the smell but like I said before if the smell doesn’t hold but the bud itself does then it’s not a concern for me

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#30

Yeah I realize they come in different ranges , and there to high, the reason you want those levels during the drying period is to prevent things from drying to fast which would prevent the proper biological conversions from taking place that you want to have occur.
If you triple vac seal and store in the dark, in decent temps the humidity stays the same in the herb as when it goes in. There is no way for the humidity outside to effect a air tight package.

The reason people keep bringing up drying and curing is because when done properly it results in the perfect moisture content for long term storage.
I’m not telling anybody what is best for there situation but after 25+ years of growing you gain confidence in what works and what dosent and what’s a actual improvement to the industry vs a trendy new item that will eventually be thrown to the way side.

The best thing you could do is to try multiple different methods and determine what works best for you in your enviroment. Different strains have different storage quality and abilities and not one method will work the same for all strains. Each strain you grow will have different types of terpenes and plant phenols that react differently to oxygen and light deprivation. When people talk about having things dialed in for a strain this is one of many aspects they refer to, every strain grows , dries and stores best under slightly different conditions that you can only discover threw trial and error.

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#31

they have packs at many diff humidity levels… i definitely dont use the same humidity levels for my cigars that i use for my herb

i recharge mine 1x and then chunk them

oh and ive found that if they dry out too much they dont recharge well

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#32

This is exactly why I expected an old school grower with old school methods cuz they are the first to knock the new technology and usually the ones dead set and stuck on their ways…
You have your methods and they work for you which is fine, that many years I’d guess your up north somewhere in Cali in completely different conditions and I’ve worked on those farms up there, it’s how I even learned to grow and started with going up as a harvest helper. If your drying in 60% humidity and nothing lower then even on the 14th day when u package up that bud it’s still only gonna be at 60%, not like u intentionally dry it more from that point, new technology allows us to maintain it around there.

I do agree different cultivars hold better than others, seen it personally as well but bringing back 5 lbs and smoking on it for a year and a half the last time from commercial professional farms and trying the traditional storage methods just isn’t working cuz Everytime I pull and eighth or a quarter out everything just gets dry as hell. Now that we’re legal and harvested my own I don’t plan to let it dry and deteriorate like that again if new technology allows us to preserve it better

1 Like
#33

Proper storage is key regardless of how you achieve that but in my expierance those packs are completely worthless. 60% humidity is way to much esp in a sealed environment and it would take way to long to explain but the weed that is sealed does not contain those levels just because the room did…
Also storing it in a manner that dosent require you to open and re seal a large portion of it each time is just a small part of correct storage. long term experience and observation will always hold more value then theoretical science based solely on text book facts. People have corrupted the scientific process and are applying theory to achieve results with out acknowledging observed behaviors and then speaking to explain them. What should be true isent always true due to unknown variables that alter results.
This has nothing to do with being old school and stuck in my ways I welcome new advances in the industry as long as there claims ring true. I have done side by side comparisons with these packs on at least 10 different strains and from what I have seen I wouldn’t recommend them at all.

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#34

Here’s what messaging boveda and asking em about the claims of their product taking away the smells response was

"When your cannabis is stored with Boveda, the terpenes are protected with a monolayer shield of purified water, the aroma you love is kept safe until grinding. Once the cannabis is ground, it releases the aroma with great potency.

Or in more detail, the aroma of your cannabis comes from the terpenes, or essential oils of your flower. So when you get a nice “nose hit” from your cannabis, you are actually smelling the terpenes evaporating off of your flower. So although in the past people have judged the quality of cannabis by the smell, strong aromas emanating from your cannabis is actually a sign of terpene degradation. Rather than these precious terpenes evaporating into the air, Boveda shields these terpenes inside of the trichomes where they belong, until the moment of consumption."

Sounds like what @minitiger described about how he grinds it up and it smells like it’s suppose to when stored with em

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#35

So please enlighten me how someone would CONTINUE to store their weed AFTER 6-9 months after the jars have been opened a bunch of times in 5% humidity and it’s already dried out at that point? What’s the approach? What do u do to maintain that humidity when u have to pull smaller amounts off the bigger amounts over time?

1 Like
#36

I find the integras to be superior they hold up way better it seems to be a slower curve. Like if u put dry bud in a jar with bov3da the next day it will be 62%. The integra would take a week or 2 to accomplish the same thing .

So for primo bud longer term storage integra boost ftw .

I’ve dried all my bovedas out to a crisp and I use them in my buckets only when the initial sweat is on the damper side of the equation, or if there’s a lot of big lumber in with the buds . They soak up excess moisture so I don’t have to dump it out and re dry or even leave lids off overnight is a thing of the past. Hope that helps

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#37

By portioning into smaller individual sealed vac bags so you are not having to open and expose the entirety of you supply each time you need to refill your daily smoking supply.
Different things work for different people, maybe in your enviroment and methods of storage they provide some benefit but in mine and everybody else I know they have been thrown in the trash.
Best thing you could do is try a few different methods with small amounts and see what works best over time for you in your situation.
I’ve seen people have drastically different results when they were trying to emulate another persons methods due to small variations in enviroment and timing.
I could tell somebody who has never cooked how to turn sugar into Carmel and they could verbally repeat those steps perfectly and I will just about gaurentee that when they try it for the first time they will fail. Some things require more then knowledge to achieve.

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#38

Mini rh meter. DRop RO smear on lid when needed. Anything cheap 62% pack for initial cure.

#39

I have a bit of GG4 that I bought from a dispensary supplier last year, when people were just starting to learn the word coronavirus and no one had panicked yet - I saw the panic coming and decided to stock up for a year or so. Most of what I bought was not GG4, but this was the best of what I could get. I stored it in a 1qt mason jar with a single Boveda pack, regularly opening it to take out more. It does indeed smell like hay, but every time I’ve smoked it over these last 22 months, it’s done the job. As far as the terpenes go? I have no idea whether it would smell any better after 22 months jarred up and being smoked semi-regularly if I hadn’t used a moisture pack, but I suspect not, and it would probably have gotten moldy or crumbled to dust long ago at any rate. Maybe I’ll try it with a bud or two from my next harvest, just to see what happens, though…

As far as swapping them out and recharging them, I haven’t thrown a single one out yet. When they dry out, I put a shot glass in a mason jar, pour some water in the bottom, and put the dried packs on top. Close the lid, open it up again a week later, it’s full of moisture again.

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#40

I’ve got 50 cultivars in 1 and 2 oz jars, trust me thats easier said than done, to package even smaller just isn’t practical, I need something I can throw in the jars and it maintains and if I go pull a quarter out of one for my daily smoke it doesn’t crisp the hell out of it all since it got opened to 5% humidity