Rookie getting nervous with the temps!

[mathprofdk]

OK, so I'm not really a rookie, but this will only be my second year. I'm in the Chicago suburbs, and we've barely frozen this year, so being "above freezing during the day" has been the rule, rather than the exception. I only have a few trees in the neighborhood, so I don't want to screw anything up. Any advice for when to start? AccuWeather has one day out of the next 10 with a high below freezing. :confused:

~DK

[mathprofdk]

Not sure if anyone will read this, but I ended up tapping the big maple in my yard this weekend. The extended forecast looked good, but now it looks like we might be below freezing for a few days. Anyone know how long it will take for holes to start to heal over? Will I have to ream them out in a week or so when it warms up to the 40's again?

[happy thoughts]

They should start again without doing anything. It takes more than few weeks to heal completely. Try not to mess with the taps too much. You don't want to end up with a leaky tap hole. If there are some calm sunny days in your forecast they might even run some if the day temp is a little below freezing. Good luck and happy sapping:).

[mathprofdk]

Thanks, happy thoughts, that helps!

[sk8heaven]

Happy thoughts is correct. I live in extreme Northern MN and I just looked at my sap collection records for last year... went 3 or 4 days with good sapping then a few days below freezing, a few days with good sapping, then 10 days with below freezing (even below zero) then good sapping again. I sure wouldn't worry too much - I am just jealous as I won't be tapping for another month yet!