Sap Ladder without vacuum?

[Genson]

Will a sap ladder work at the bottom of a hillside gravity tubing system not on vacuum?

[DrTimPerkins]

No. There is nothing to pull it uphill.

[mountainvan]

I have a 12ft double 3/4 inch sap ladder with 300 taps, no vacuum set up yet, but the mainline from the other side of the road is in the tank and sap is coming out. if the system is tight seems the pressure from the trees will force the sap up. probably not for long, but it was flowing today. with enough head pressure the sap will flow up the sap ladder.

[wiam]

I have a 12ft double 3/4 inch sap ladder with 300 taps, no vacuum set up yet, but the mainline from the other side of the road is in the tank and sap is coming out. if the system is tight seems the pressure from the trees will force the sap up. probably not for long, but it was flowing today. with enough head pressure the sap will flow up the sap ladder.

And when it cools at night there is a lot of sap in the lines for the trees to suck back in.

[DrTimPerkins]

I have a 12ft double 3/4 inch sap ladder with 300 taps, no vacuum set up yet, but the mainline from the other side of the road is in the tank and sap is coming out. if the system is tight seems the pressure from the trees will force the sap up. probably not for long, but it was flowing today. with enough head pressure the sap will flow up the sap ladder.

Not sure that I'd call that type of setup a ladder.....more like it is just tubing that runs uphill. This should be done only as an absolute last resort. Your yield from those trees will probably be extremely low. Basically sap will only run across that system if you have enough head pressure (height, slope) to push the sap across when the lines are full. If you have any trees with the taps below that 12' height, they aren't going to be running whenever your system is full of liquid . If you have enough drop in elevation on the other side down to your tank, you might be able to siphon it down periodically, but again....this approach is far from optimal. Can you go under the road, or set up a tank with a pump on a float?