John, I have never dealt with a burl cut into slabs, so I can't advise with any authority. I hope someone can. It seems to me you'd want the internal moisture to escape slowly. But you don't want to keep it trapped inside the plastic wrap. That's a sure path towards mold and other nasty stuff happening. I'd be more inclined to sticker UNwrapped slabs of your burl, and then maybe cover your stack with a large piece of plastic drop cloth, which I would remove for a couple of hours every day. Or maybe for a day every few days. The stickering is very important, because it lets air circulate all around the slabs. Then, pretty soon, I'd leave the stack uncovered but stickered in a sheltered environment--even if this was in a garage with wild temperature swings. If you can go right to a sheltered environment, I'd unwrap the slices and not even cover them at all. But I'd keep the stack stickered and weighed down. That's just what I would do. Other wood scroungers might have better methods. You've got a real potential treasure in that burl! I genuinely wish you the best with it.
I should also say that it's very important to look at your wood stash at least once a month for the first year, and re-stack it. When you do this, move your stickers slightly to one side or the other. The reason: If they are left in one place for a year, they can also trap moisture, and mold can begin to grow between the stickers and your prized wood burl. ...or your prized walnut gunstock blanks. You see what I mean. You don't want to unstack your stash five years from now and find cross-stripes of mold growing across your prized wood every ten inches. Monitor it faithfully and restack it once a month or so. The rule of thumb used to be one year of air drying for each inch of slab thickness. I frankly don't know how true this old axiom is. Drying environments are each so unique, I think we have to adjust our wood stashes according to our storage areas.
You guys would not believe how much 30-year-old wood I have stacked up in the rafters of my garage, where it is subject to brutal temperature swings. It was thoroughly air dried before I stashed it there. I would NEVER have stashed green wood up there. I always bring it into the shop for a few weeks before using it. For that reason, I never have any problems with it. I should also state that I have re-inforced the roof trusses in my storage areas!
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