Tapped Tuesday

[nymapleguy607]

I tapped trees on tuesday but for some reason alot of my tap holes are leaking and i'm not sure why. Still havent got enough to boil and i hope it will warm up soon.

[maple flats]

if you mean leaking around the tap, very gently tap them in a slight bit more but not til temp is above freezing. Be careful not to tap so tightly that the bark splits. If you tapped too hard and already split the tree I don't know of any way to remedy it, do not overtap by adding new tap holes. I usually have a 25-30" circumference for each tap, if tree does not measure at least 50" it only gets 1 tap, 75-80" for a 3rd and this is using an agressive tapping approach, a conservative one will be 30-35" circ. for each and the second tap only goes in if 60" circ. I do not however measure them any more but I did make up a string when I first started. The string had a knot at 28", 55" and 78", as I strung it around the tree I tapped however many knots were at the overlap, did not tap another if it was close but not quite unless I had marked it for removal for thinning the sugar bush.

[brookledge]

If the sap is ozzing down under the tap then you probably split the tree when you hammered the spout in. That is a problem with tapping when it is frozen if you are not used to it. Like Maple flats said wait till it has warmed up and you can try tapping in more otherwise not much else that can be done that I know of
Keith