Buddy Sap

[ceebsonline]

How long until I need to worry about buddy sap? I'm in zone 4, in central NY just north of the Catskills. The weather is warming up and I'm starting to get worried, but I'm probably jumping the gun. This is only my second season though, and I don't really know what to look for. Can the sap be buddy before the tree changes, or do the buds actually need to pop open and green up? Also, are there any visible changes in the sap, or just flavor?

[Kev]

your sap will start getting cloudy, giving you less and less time before you need to have already boiled it. you will then start having sap come out of the trees cloudy. you can still make good tasting syrup with cloudy sap,you just can not dally around, collect it and cook it ASP.

[sapman]

If you have all sugar maples, I wouldn't worry much about buds yet. Soft maples, which is over 2/3 of my trees, is another matter. I'm praying I've still got another week or better. The colder weather coming should keep us in good shape.

[Haze]

We should have pulled the plug a few days earlier last year. Unfortunately we made some on the last boil. It smelled like a wet dog just before it hit the syrup point. We did save the little we made of it but it's nasty! It isn't sweet , tastes like tree bark and is almost as dark as used motor oil.

[wnybassman]

We should have pulled the plug a few days earlier last year. Unfortunately we made some on the last boil. It smelled like a wet dog just before it hit the syrup point. We did save the little we made of it but it's nasty! It isn't sweet , tastes like tree bark and is almost as dark as used motor oil.


Come on, don't sugar coat it :lol::lol:

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

There is some sort of chemical filtering process to make it into normal good tasting syrup if it is buddy. My cousin did it to 75 gallons one year.