When is it over?

[4rjn]

HI only second year doing this and I am unsure when it is time to stop gathering the sap and pull everything out. Can someone please give advise. Thanks Rod

[Ausable]

HI only second year doing this and I am unsure when it is time to stop gathering the sap and pull everything out. Can someone please give advise. Thanks Rod

Hi Rod -- Sure - If You want to make Maple Syrup as long as You can and You collect in pails, containers it is fairly easy.... Toward the end of season in your area - check each pail prior dumping into collection bucket - if it is yellow and I mean yellow - dump it on the ground and check the buds on that tree - just a visual - if they are swollen and reddish the tree is done for the year if not - on the next gather - the sap could be clear again and fine to use. Your trees will vary - some might go for a week longer then the others - but - then - it happens - they all start putting out buddy sap (yellowish) and the year is over. -- Mike

[PerryW]

I can never tell by looking at the sugar maple buds and.... sometimes I get yellow or cloudy sap in the middle of the season. sooo.....

I go by the smell of the sap boiling, but, if you hear the peepers, the season is over.

[ennismaple]

I go by the smell of the sap boiling, but, if you hear the peepers, the season is over.

My grandfather always said you make 1/2 your syrup before you hear the first peepers and the other half after!

[ehafkey]

I hate to ask a dumb question but what is a peeper?

[NH/Pete]

I hate to ask a dumb question but what is a peeper?

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/4232/thumbnailpy.jpg

[jasonl6]

I hate to ask a dumb question but what is a peeper?

You know Peep Peep Peep...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Peeper

Jason

[jasonl6]

You beat me by a click :-P

[NH/Pete]

I'm not hearing any yet.

I just need a week or two more.:D

[Brokermike]

If you make it for yourself, you stop when it smells like you're boiling socks.

If you make it for Bascom's (or any wholesale purchaser of mersh) you stop when you need to cut your lawn!

[ehafkey]

got it (the peeps), thanks. Unless they can survive single digit temps and like to play in the snow we won't hear any for at least a month.

[ennismaple]

For us, we're done when we can't get sap through the RO pre-filter. That normally coincides with road-tar syrup that tastes no better than it looks!

[Sugarmaker]

20 degrees F here last night and the peepers were still right at it!
Time to stop is when you just cant take it any more and the wood and your energy has run out.
Chris

[waysidemaple]

I have to agree with sugarmaker. I could have gotten another week out of the season but when your tired and your out of wood its as good a time as any to call it a year.

[Digger]

I've heard some old timers say when you see the first moth in the sugarhouse the seasons over.

[heus]

We had moths a month ago but none since