My new humidor medium

Some of you may have mentioned this stuff before, but I just tried this stuff, and it's pretty cool. It i decorative color beads to use in vases and things to keep moisture in plants etc. It isn't the garden, or potting soil stuff, but I would guess very similar and does the same thing. But, these make pretty cool humidors used in 35mm film canisters. Once added to water, it swells and takes on the water. As they deplenish their moisture, the crinkle up and dry out, then ya just soak them in water again to rehydrate them. Kinda cool stuff.. Various colors if ya want to get creative.

This is how they come, then the big one is after it is hydrated.


I put 20 pellets in one canister.


this is various staged as they take on their water. The right just after a few minutes, to the left which is after about 30 minutes.


This is dumping them out after they are hydrated.

Aloha Tudorp,
Mahalo for the tip.....cool. Will have to make some soon......................BO.......................

Spots did a write up several months ago but using Soil Moist instead. I made several and have been using them but what I noticed is that they don't seem to release the moisture as quickly as the Planet Waves humidifiers do. If I fill both up with the same amount of water, the home made ones are still hydrated when the Planet Wave is dried out.

Just a FWIW.

olgoat52 said:

Spots did a write up several months ago but using Soil Moist instead. I made several and have been using them but what I noticed is that they don't seem to release the moisture as quickly as the Planet Waves humidifiers do. If I fill both up with the same amount of water, the home made ones are still hydrated when the Planet Wave is dried out.

Just a FWIW.

Click to expand...

Depends on how many/what size holes, I suppose. I've made them out of several containers - I still like the glitter tubes best because they fit between the strings and they have a very high surface/holes area to content ratio, so they give up moisture pretty quick compared to the other things I've tried.

I've also found that they work best when you have just the right amount of crystal in them. When there is too much crystal they will look milky even when freshly hydrated. When they have just enough crystal they go almost completely clear when freshly hydrated. It's kind of cool - looks like a tube of water but doesn't spill.

I've also discovered the best way to get just the right amount of crystal in them. (This assumes you're using 1/16" holes and the "soil moist" crystals.) Just leave one in a glass of water for a couple of days. As the crystals swell they'll actually deform and push out through the holes (leaving the water in the glass kind of jelly-like) until there are just enough crystals left to completely fill the container when freshly hydrated. I discovered this by accident when I forgot to take some tubes out of the glass and didn't notice them until a day or two later.

John

olgoat52 said:

Spots did a write up several months ago but using Soil Moist instead. I made several and have been using them but what I noticed is that they don't seem to release the moisture as quickly as the Planet Waves humidifiers do. If I fill both up with the same amount of water, the home made ones are still hydrated when the Planet Wave is dried out.

Just a FWIW.

Click to expand...

I'm wondering if those Planet Waves jobs are made of Goretex cloth. That's the brand name of stuff they make tents and wet weather gear out of. It's supposed to let water vapor exit while preventing water from entering. If so, those should be pretty easy to make, too.