Pu humidity "Medusa method!" Thanks Wes!

[Mary R]

Once the braids thoroughly dry, any bleach smell should be faint. A 1:10 solution is pretty weak, so most of the chlorine will just sort of 'disappear' with a good drying.

You could do the bleach solution first, then launder the ropes second. The rinse cycles will be incredibly thorough and minimize any smell just that much more.

As far as my vast stores of trivial knowledge go, Sal...I just remember a lot of random things from a lot of random jobs and people. The bleach thing was when I worked in an insurance agency. Around 2002, home insurance companies began making radical changes to their policies to limit mold coverage...so I paid more attention to the reasons informing these changes and to the techniques used by the restoration companies I contracted.

[heatwaves]

I tried this today with three half-gallon milk jugs. Thus far, it's raising the humidity (3 percentage points higher in just one hour), but the strands of rope continue to drip onto the floor. It appears that it will continue to drip as long as there's water in the milk jugs. For those of you who tried this method, is this typical?

I suppose I could lead the rope strands into another empty milk jug, but then they wouldn't be exposing all of their surface area in the surrounding air. Any suggestions would be helpful. Many thanks.

[eanglin]

The dripping is occurring because you are getting a sort of Siphon effect going.
If the ropes were kept upright they would still wick, but you wouldn't get the siphon action going- what about a wire support to hold them upright?

As for mold, washing the wicks requently will help, but mold and mildew are likely to reoccur. I used to maintain an atlas Weatherometer machine- this machine exposes samples placed inside it to controlled humidity and light for colorfastness testing.
Even though we used distilled, deionized water in the system, the wicks on the evaporative parts of the machine had to be changed regularly as they got nasty.

Changing out for fresh ones was a minimal expense and it kept out contaminants like soap and bleach.

Another possibility- look into using Hemp rope- it has been used on sailing ships for centuries due in part to to its natural mold and mildew resistance.

[tsverrir]

hop, where did you learn this info from? hasn't pu been traditionally stored in large warehouses and on shelves in tea shops without too much damage?

I'm just guessing here, but I imagine puerh in stacks in warehouses where only the outer most ones get a continuous airflow (until they get re stacked).

About cleaning the ropes, why not just boil them? We are boiling water every day. That way it should not smell funny and it would kill any mold if present.

[hop_goblin]

Brandon, a 'continuous' flow of air will ultimately make your pu weak and flimsy. Opening your pu box or container everyday should be suffcient to replenish the oxygen level.

hop, where did you learn this info from? hasn't pu been traditionally stored in large warehouses and on shelves in tea shops without too much damage?

Well, it is pretty much accepted gospal that air will make pu-erh weak. However, air and oygen are not the same thing. Oxygen is essential for the aging process however, air in abundant amounts is what I am referring to. As for warehouses, warehouses, well the ones I have been exposed to are very much closed in meaning that wind can not spoil the natural goodness of pu-erh since air is blocked by walls. Not to mention, tongs in warehouses are repeatively moved around in the warehouse to insure equal amounts of humidity and exposure. The same can be said about teashops. But you also have to remember that people only have to be cognizant of air if they have their beengs out of tongs. Warehouse pu-erh are typically still in there natural bamboo or thick paper wrappings.

[shogun89]

Brandon, a 'continuous' flow of air will ultimately make your pu weak and flimsy. Opening your pu box or container everyday should be suffcient to replenish the oxygen level.

hop, where did you learn this info from? hasn't pu been traditionally stored in large warehouses and on shelves in tea shops without too much damage?

Well, it is pretty much accepted gospal that air will make pu-erh weak. However, air and oygen are not the same thing. Oxygen is essential for the aging process however, air in abundant amounts is what I am referring to. As for warehouses, warehouses, well the ones I have been exposed to are very much closed in meaning that wind can not spoil the natural goodness of pu-erh since air is blocked by walls. Not to mention, tongs in warehouses are repeatively moved around in the warehouse to insure equal amounts of humidity and exposure. The same can be said about teashops. But you also have to remember that people only have to be cognizant of air if they have their beengs out of tongs. Warehouse pu-erh are typically still in there natural bamboo or thick paper wrappings.

You mentioned some stuff about tongs in the end, I have a few cakes that I just want for storing and aging only, Would it be beneficial to wrap them in some sort of heavy brown paper wrapping of some sort?

[hop_goblin]

Brandon, a 'continuous' flow of air will ultimately make your pu weak and flimsy. Opening your pu box or container everyday should be suffcient to replenish the oxygen level.

hop, where did you learn this info from? hasn't pu been traditionally stored in large warehouses and on shelves in tea shops without too much damage?

Well, it is pretty much accepted gospal that air will make pu-erh weak. However, air and oygen are not the same thing. Oxygen is essential for the aging process however, air in abundant amounts is what I am referring to. As for warehouses, warehouses, well the ones I have been exposed to are very much closed in meaning that wind can not spoil the natural goodness of pu-erh since air is blocked by walls. Not to mention, tongs in warehouses are repeatively moved around in the warehouse to insure equal amounts of humidity and exposure. The same can
be said about teashops. But you also have to remember that people only have to be cognizant of air if they have their beengs out of tongs. Warehouse pu-erh are typically still in there natural bamboo or thick paper wrappings.

You mentioned some stuff about tongs in the end, I have a few cakes that I just want for storing and aging only, Would it be beneficial to wrap them in some sort of heavy brown paper wrapping of some sort?

Many people wrap their pu in paper. In fact do. Wrapping IMHO protects your pu just that much more from odors, insects such as moths. I wouldn't go as far as heavy brown paper, although you could, some factories use thick type paper to wrap tongs, but I figure tissue paper and then place them in a box will work just find.

Hop

[hop_goblin]

thanks for clearing that up for me - I was wondering about this.

Is that why loose leaf older pu sometimes lacks very much strength or flavor?

You know, that is a good question. I guess logically, it would make sense. However, I have had some really nice loose pu that was just great. Deductive logic would then tell me that, if some are good and some are bad, than bad pu can't be contributed to it being loose. This would leave one to believe that the loose stuff you have had were just crappy!

[heatwaves]

I think it's back to the drawing board for me. I triedmodifying" the medusa method by tying the cords upright to avoid drippage. It did put an end to the dripping, but it also didn't raise my humidity now that there was dramatically less surface area of the cords.

I'm in So Cal, so currently without any assistance, it's only 55% humidity. With the "old" medusa method I got it up to 62% and only 56% with the upright medusa method.

[knix]

This might sound dumb, but what about using a humidifier?

[hop_goblin]

This might sound dumb, but what about using a humidifier?

Not a dumb question at all. Many people will logically assume a humidifier will solve their humidty problems. However, the reason it is not a good idea is taht a humidifier will release WAY too much humidity way to fast. It needs to be gradual and constant.

[hop_goblin]

I think it's back to the drawing board for me. I triedmodifying" the medusa method by tying the cords upright to avoid drippage. It did put an end to the dripping, but it also didn't raise my humidity now that there was dramatically less surface area of the cords.

I'm in So Cal, so currently without any assistance, it's only 55% humidity. With the "old" medusa method I got it up to 62% and only 56% with the upright medusa method.

Wow, that is a big difference. So, people are actually using my method huh? Awesome!