An anecdotal observation, not measured with instruments, with the tea is that it preserved the tea well, however it seemed that once opened that the tea dried out faster than normal.
Nitrogen purging replaces all the natural air which contains moisture creating a dry environment.
That would have an affect on the moisture content of the stored material.
Maybe including a humidipack would solve it. Depends on the varietal but 58% should be good for most.
If you have the material and the costs aren’t crazy I might do sets of them. Open a non treated and a purged one at 3 months. Open a non treated and purged one at 6 months etc.
I have a CO2 bottle as well, I make my own tonic waters and ginger-ales. LOL, I have read a lot about supplementing CO2 to a grow, but alas I am not sure the view is worth the climb in a tent.
Will read up on it, might be worth adding a CO2 bag to the sets in the trial.
Lets throw the question out there, which gas would be best and why?
Nitrogen, CO2, Argon, others???
Argon or CO2 / Argon mix - welding shops. Inert mixture to provide an oxygen free environment for the arc to occur during welding. Argon is pricey on its own, hence usually a 75% CO2 / 25% Argon mix is commonly available. I think this might work well…
Nitrogen - used to fill tires, etc. A very dry air, inert to oxidation, but I would imagine it would dry out the buds a bit, but only as much as it takes to balance the nitrogen within the bag.
Nitrox - A mixture commonly used for scuba diving. Air is 20% Oxygen and 78% nitrogen (well roughly and theres other gasses in there). Nitrox mixtures ramp the oxygen percentage up to 32%, 34%, 36%, 38% and 40%. Higher mixtures are available but are usually custom requests. So you could use this for more than atmospheric oxygen, but not pure oxygen… Maybe a happy medium?
Hmmmm, you are correct I believe in that “only as much as it takes to balance”. So if I were to vacuum the bag, that would eliminate most of the gas volume, resulting in very little volume to balance. Yes, very dry during purge but I suspect it would achieve equilibrium within the vacuumed space rather quickly.
I did not vacuum the tea leaves because they were too delicate, it would have ruined them. So maybe this is the key, pull a vacuum to eliminate most of the “gas volume” and what little volume is left “should” equalize quickly. Maybe bag them at 1% higher humidity to compensate. Worth thinking about.
Definitely worth exploring. One thing my scuba instructor classes did teach me was gas blending, gasses ability to hold moisture, pressures (and vacuum to a degree), and balance between them. Thinking outside the box applies this to other areas
I also think my vacuum sealer on my counter has two settings, one that would suck all the air out, compressing the nugs a bit much, and one that for sucking most of the air out, for delicate items you dont wanna crush. That might be perfect…