White Mold

[Jason55555]

Open the wine cooler humidor tonight to take a look at my beauties and to my shock ughhhhh when I opened my monte no.2 box I found white mold just on the caps of my monte 2's damittt took my finger and brushed it off it came off really easliy. Checked rest of my boxes and I was all clear I'm just worried about the monte 2's I don't want the mold to spread. The mold was white and fuzzy and came off super easy I've been doing some reading online and ppl are saying that white mold is a easy fix it you find it early just need to lower your RH.

I'm not sure what I did wrong I keep my RH at 66% and temp at 70 all the time, when I checked the memory on my humidification device it read that the highest my RH ever went was 72% and that happened a day ago because I left my window open and my room got crazy cold and temp in humidor went to 19C therefore RH spiked to 72%.

Therefore any ideas what could be causing this I thought in order for mold to grow the RH would have to be left high for weeks & in terms of the white fuzz aka mold monet 2's I brushed off all the white fuzz and I put them back into my wine cooler humidor in there No.2 box and threw some dry Spanish ceder in with them to suck out the RH inside the box.

Overall good idea? or do members recommend another plan of attack to destroy this evil white mold?

Thanks for the help!

[MIKA27]

Sorry to hear about this unfortunate problem....

Not wishing to insult your logic, but how do you humidify your cigars? (Beads, 50/50 Solution, distilled water or normal water?)

Doesn't sound like you are over humidifying your cigars. Although perhaps where ever you purchased them from could have????

[Jason55555]

50/50 Solution in a foam brick stuck to the top and , crystals using only distilled water on the bottom.

Switching the foam to beads tmrw, nope they were brought from Cuba in February and never had a problem until today.

[brazoseagle]

Do away with the foam brother!!!! Be gone.

[Jason55555]

Yea for sure foam is gone tmrw lol just breaking my brain now on how white mold hit my monte 2's when highest humidity ever got was 72% and it wasn't even for more then 2 hrs at that level.

Threw a bunch of dry crystals in right now and i'm at 70F - 58% hopeful it will cut down the spore growth for tonight then i'll bring it back to 64 RH.

[brazoseagle]

All mold needs is + 70 %Rh and + 70F. It's a bastard

[markmurase]

I also have a box of Monte 2's that have a problem with white mould (or bloom, which I believe it's more commonly called). This is despite being in my humidor with RH beads that keep it within a rock solid range of 64% to 66%. My theory is that once the mould 'spores' are there it is difficult to remove them and the cigars are prone to grow more mould even if you wipe it off. I have noticed the mould can tend to spread to adjacent cigars, so I've put the Monte 2's in press seal bags in my humidor.

[CaptainQuintero]

Don't forget that using HG solution can block up and eventually kill humidity beads. Beads need distilled water, not de-ionised or HG solution.

[mk05]

I also have a box of Monte 2's that have a problem with white mould (or bloom, which I believe it's more commonly called).

That is incorrect.

[IcedCanuck]

Don't forget that using HG solution can block up and eventually kill humidity beads. Beads need distilled water, not de-ionised or HG solution.

X2 on that. If you switch to beads you will have to stop using the 50/50 solution or you'll kill off the beads.

[Professor Twain]

I don't have any evidence on this, but in my experience mold also grows best when there is a lack of air circulation. Your hygrometer is measuring the overall humidity within the humidor, but it could be higher inside of a box. I did some experiments with that with my wine fridge. The other factor is that the humidity is higher in the lower part of a wine cooler, by a substantial amount. I have multiple digital hygrometers, keep one at the top and one at the bottom, there is typically a big discrepancy. I take my boxes out and inspect them about every month, and rotate them within the wine cooler. It's actually fun to get them out and look at them, smell them, pick some out to smoke.

Good luck my friend.

[Puros Y Vino]

Wipe it off and be more vigilant on the status of your humidor. You're lucky that it wasn't blue mold. If you're really concerned, freeze the offending sticks to be sure, then reintroduce back into the humidor.

[maverickdrinker]

yes, freeze the sticks. Absolutely.

[Cohiba Stevie]

Relax...

white mould is harmless, its a common yeast based mold that originates from the human contact when the cigar is being applied. I am told by a very reputable dublin vendor it spores on the natural sugars in the wrapper. If looked at closely they are like little white fuzzy balls.

I would only be worried if there were particularly high amounts of it, then you know your humidor environment is habituating it, but on the contrary i do believe it thrives in drier environments.

if its just a couple of sticks then wipe those suckers down and fire them up!

However if you have green mold thats matted or white mold that looks like a stain you should be concerned, these will more than likely be fungal and will ruin not only your cigars but your humidor as well.

Just my two pence...

[Jason55555]

Yea seems like everyone is split in the online world and in here some ppl say its harmless as long as you catch the problem ASAP, wipe them off , and make necessary changes. AND........then there is the others that say panic freeze them and clear out everything thing.

Not sure what to do at the moment I've wiped it off, lowered the humidity down to 60's, change the foam to crystal brick. I'll be checking all of my cigars every night until it I see no more white mold growth.

**Professor Twain might be right on the bottom I do find my cigars on bottom are bit spongy-er then my top box's.

[Smallclub]

yes, freeze the sticks. Absolutely.

You are joking, right? Freeze the sticks because of 2 or 3 poor lonesome spores? That's completely crazy. And if you think that will prevent mold on the long term, you're wrong.

In my experience the most efficient enemy of mold is light, renewed air and… a brush.

[Jason55555]

Just to clarify there was only maybe 3-4 white spots on the top of the caps only and 6 out of 12 of the cigars had these spots, checked right now and seems that they haven't grown back..as yet.

Sorry no pixs of the mold as soon as I saw it panicked and just wiped them off lol

[CaptainQuintero]

yep just wipe off and check back in a month.

[Jason55555]

You are joking, right? Freeze the sticks because of 2 or 3 poor lonesome spores? That's completely crazy. And if you think that will prevent mold on the long term, you're wrong.

In my experience the most efficient enemy of mold is light, renewed air and… a brush.

Its a nice day in Toronto maybe I should take my cigars for a walk in the sun with the lid open LOL ppl might shoot me weird looks but i'm walking my babies for some fresh air and sun.

[Smallclub]

Its a nice day in Toronto maybe I should take my cigars for a walk in the sun with the lid open LOL

Yes, and buy them an ice cream and a ride on the merry-go-round…

[ramon_cojones]

Had some on my upmann 2s, I believe maybe the sticks were moist from transit last year and when I packed them away it possibly had a tough time dissipating. Just wiped off and they're fine. I also air out the boxes when I first get them before putting them in the humidor, my rh is at 63 so not high at all.

[Jason55555]

After a nice walk outside the monte 2's are looking good hopefully no more mold shows up, I went to my tabacconist and had a talk with & he told me that it seems the Prof member was correct the lower boxes soak up more humidity then the higer boxes so the day when I left my window open and the humidity spiked to 72RH the monte 2 box prob got to 77RH+ since it was on the bottom, the kicker and the mistake I made was trying to fix the spike in F to fast he told me I spiked the temp F to fast. Therefore the 77+RH spike + the sudden change when I tried to bring up the temp back to 70F prob caused the perfect condition for mold

Now i've changed the foam to crystals and lowered the RH to 62%RH I hope after a day in the sun and fresh air the evil white mold is gone......lets see if the evil mold tries to strike back.....To be continued