Some people are “glass jars all the way,” preferring the airtight click of a pop-top Mason to ensure their stash is kept safe. Others roll out a big bucket for curing, transferring their haul to individual storage containers afterward.
And then there’s the discourse around storing and curing flower in bags: Plastic bags, turkey bags, mylar bags, and so on. Some people swear by them, citing prevalent marketing points about the insularity, breathability, and “self-regulation” of these products.
Separating the bud from the shake—fact from fiction, that is—can seem daunting, even to an experienced grower or connoisseur. Here, we turn a scientific eye toward those bags, specifically. What are turkey bags (and their ilk)? What do the marketing points get right about them, and what’s fiction? And maybe most importantly, what are these conversations around storing bud in bags missing?
Here’s what you need to know about storing bud in turkey bags or other plastic bags.
First, let’s establish our subjects. In the world of flower storage, a grower or consumer has several options. In the past, many people didn’t think too much about where they stored their bud, reaching for an average zip-top polyethylene baggie or screw-top jar. Now, as flower becomes a more accepted and researched topic, an entire cottage industry has popped up around storage, with several brands making competing claims.
Broadly, bag storage products fall into a few categories:
Originally, people used literal turkey bags to store their bud (a practice some still observe to this day). They stocked up around Thanksgiving and used these large, high-barrier nylon poultry bags throughout the year. Now, companies sell “turkey bags” specifically designed to house dried flower. A turkey bag’s main selling point is its size (clocking in at roughly 18 by 24 inches) and its so-called ability to preserve flavors. There are even brands that tout a “special plastic blend” created for “better terpene… preservation.” How they accomplish the advertised preservation remains unclear.
Better known by its brand name, Mylar, is a material made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate. Mylar bags are popular for good reason. These bags are pretty cool! They’re odor-resistant, opaque, sturdy, and relatively impermeable. The only problem is when companies make outsized claims about Mylar’s ability to regulate humidity—a talking point picked up by some online articles and forum netizens. They might be designed for that high-minded goal, but no amount of bag design can defy physics.
If a type of plastic bag exists, chances are someone has tried using it for flower storage. Vacuum seal food bags; zip-top sandwich bags; low-density polyethylene bags with “antistatic” chemical additives, bags lined with active carbon to prevent odors, and so on. The world of plastic bags is vast and varied. In some cases, when they aren’t prone to ripping, UV exposure, or permeability, these bags work just fine! Again, the key is to resist outsized claims any bag manufacturer makes about “preserving” flower quality.
Not a bag, but totes are worth mentioning since they often go hand-in-hand with the storage solutions above.
Basic totes are little more than industrial-grade tubs used to house the bags mentioned above, keeping them from smashing around in transit. Commercial manufacturers use more sophisticated totes for their excess stock, which can feature vented side walls for the drying process, gas pressure release valves for curing, operable window panels for product evaluation, etc. It’s essential to note that these tote storage solutions are only as good as the bags held within, which, themselves, are only as good as the proper humidity control practices employed within them (more on that below).
Storing flower in bags like turkey bags, mylar bags, and various other plastic storage solutions can do quite a few things.
They can create an odor-resistant cushion for discreet flower storage. Their opacity can effectively limit the amount of UV rays that hit your bud, thereby preserving some potency. Static-free bags can help ensure that those terpene-rich trichomes remain on the buds, where they should be. And tightly sealed, durable bags can resist tears while inhibiting oxygen permeation.
But here’s where things get a little complicated. For all their benefits, these bags aren’t magical.
They do not. Any interior environment of any bag is susceptible to the ambient environment in which it’s placed. If a room is humid, the inside of the bag—however durable and tightly sealed—will eventually reach equilibrium with the room’s RH, and the same will happen for dry environments.
For a scientific explanation of how this happens, direct your attention to this peer-reviewed research article. The researchers ran experiments on Tedlar bags (roughly the medical industry’s equivalent of Mylar bags), which they filled with dry air and monitored with a thermohygrometer. Then, “the evolution of the humidity in the Tedlar bags was monitored until equilibrium was reached between internal and external levels of humidity,” a process that took roughly a few hours. While the experiment indicates that double-layered bags “slow down the moisture increase” in the bag, no bag can create a lasting, effective buffer between outside and inside RHs.
Yet, that’s exactly the verbiage some bag companies use. They pitch products as “guards” against RH fluctuations. And they tout their bags as being a “perfect micro-environment.” This simply isn’t true. If it were, a scientist could perfectly preserve a specimen for centuries using little more than a $5 Mylar bag. If that sounds like science fiction, it’s because it pretty much is.
As mentioned at the very top of the article, everyone’s pulling in the same direction. Everyone wants fresh bud. So, at least from the perspective of consumer transparency, the language around proper cannabis storage matters. No bud consumer should labor under the illusion that a simple turkey bag or mylar bag can be a silver bullet solution for their flower storage.
At best, this misinformation lets people down by compromising their stash. It assures them, falsely, that their storage bag alone can weather humidity fluctuations; over time, this will result in users experiencing reduced flavor and potency in their hard-earned or grown bud. In other words, it wastes money, time, and resources.
At worst, this exaggerated language can potentially lead to hazardous mold growth. If you live in a humid environment and were to believe the claim from storage bag manufacturers about “the perfect microclimate,” you might justifiably assume that your stash is well protected. Over time, however, the humid environment can create enough moisture for mold spores to feed and proliferate. And if you don’t know how to tell if your bud is moldy, you might justifiably smoke it. That would not be good. Language matters, as does a strong scientific backing. The following sections cover how to store flower the right way. A discussion that begins—but doesn’t end—with a good bag.
Without a Vivi Pack, a Bag Is Just a Bag
As the research linked above plainly demonstrates, the contents of a bag will eventually reach equilibrium with the relative humidity of its surrounding environment. That is, without something inside the bag working to counteract those humidity extremes.
Enter Vivi. Each pack contains a proprietary mixture of salt, purified water, and food-grade thickener wrapped neatly in a vapor phase osmosis membrane. Its job is simple: add or remove moisture vapor to stabilize and deliver the ideal humidity level for dried flower. When the humidity spikes, the pack absorbs moisture vapor; when the humidity dips, the pack releases moisture vapor, maintaining a consistently ideal RH for your cannabis.
Growers trust it to dial in the humidity for drying their crop and curing flower. Casual users and enthusiasts alike trust it to keep their stash’s terpenes locked inside their bud. And commercial distributors trust it to keep their product potent and sticky during transport.
In the end, that’s what matters: trust. Don’t trust the outsized claims made by storage bag companies about their products’ magical ability to defy basic science. Often, their bags are good—great, even. However, unless you supplement any bag with a 2-way humidity control pack, you will render your bud defenseless against the natural flux of humidity.
Lastly, here’s a review of the best practices for flower storage (or how to rehydrate flower, if you’re dealing with a dry stash).
To start, you want an airtight, UV-blocking container at the bare minimum. Some people opt for pop-top jars hidden away in a dark part of the home. If you’re storing dried flower in bags, reach for one of the options we’ve listed in this article: mylar bags, turkey bags, or even a basic zip-top bag.
Ideally, you should store the bag at a temperature of around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Luckily, 65 degrees is just a hair chillier than the recommended thermostat temperature—so you should be good!
Next, you need to control the humidity. As mentioned, the best way is to pop a Boveda 2-way humidity pack into your storage container. It’s a vital tool for preserving stickiness, reviving dense, dry buds, and enjoying an easier grind for a smoother smoke. Critically, you need to replace your Boveda pack roughly every three months. The pack will “tell you” that it needs replacing when it becomes solid all the way through.
To summarize this sprawling consideration of storing your herb in bags, remember one key point: a bag is just a bag. A quality bag can do several wonderful things, from blocking light to resisting odors. It can’t, however, create a perfect micro-environment or resist humidity fluctuations. To preserve those precious terpenes, you need a correct storage strategy, complete with ideal temperatures 2-way humidity control to balance and maintain the perfect humidity for your flower.