Minimum slope and mainline size on level land?

[yards1520]

I have a new woods that I would like to tap but is extremely flat. I was wondering what is the very minimum amount of slope I need in order to tap these trees on vacuum. I'm not sure I could get them all with 2% slope-would that be a problem? The main conductor line will be about 1,800' with about 1,000 taps on the flat section of woods with lateral mains at about 500' of both sides of the conductor line. That flat section of woods with 1,000 taps now has to climb about 8-10' to make it over a ridge and down a hill to the holding tank. Any ideas about how or if this could be done? I know 1,000 taps is a lot to have to be lifted. I have no electricity in the woods and was wondering if I might be able to use one of those reverse slope releasers or something similar?
Also, for that distance of 1,800' with a wet dry line what size mains would I need to have?
Thanks for any input you could offer.

[ennismaple]

Get your mainline good and tight with lots of supports and you can go to 1% slope or flatter.

Can you dig through the hill to get to your tank location? There are some producers in our area who have sections of underground mainline and they work well for them. Otherwise, I think one of the commercial sap lifts would be a good investment rather than trying to do a 2-pipe sap ladder.

[Sunday Rock Maple]

Lapierre has a youtube video on the reverse slope releaser.

[yards1520]

What about mainline size on 1,500 taps total? Would 1" wet line and 1.25" dry line be enough or should I go a size larger with such little slope?

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

With limited slope, I would go bigger. Having a dry line is key when the slope is limited.

[maple flats]

If you have enough vac pump you might want a sap ladder too. If you can't get 1% slope I'd use a sap ladder and then use 2% slope. When the main gets too low, build a sap ladder, make the sap climb the ladder and resume the 2% slope. On one of my bushes I have 3 sap ladders, one of 8', one of 9' and one of 30". These are not on the same main, each is on a separate main and then dumps into the higher main or conductor. The 2 higher lifts are 3/4 main, the tee apart 4" , ell up, climb the 2 3/4" lifts, then rejoin and flow down slope to the higher main or conductor. My 30" lift is just a single 3/4" line, it climbs and it dumps into the manifold entering the vacuum tank, that bush has no releaser. If you can avoid sap ladders, do, but if not use them, but sap ladders require more CFM. I have no problem, since I have a 30 CFM pump on 525 taps at that bush.

[sapman]

I have the exact problem in my woods. Around 1600 taps coming in on flatland, on three different mainlines. To make things worse, it's mostly swamp (soft maple). I used to run 2-pipe ladders in series, but was unhappy with the vac loss beyond. This year I changed to flat mainlines. But now that the sap is flowing, I'm trying to get just a little slope to them, as the sap fills the pipe, often the dry line, too. Very frustrating! It's 1 1/4" over 1". But even with the problems I have, I believe I'm getting considerably better production now than ever before with the ladders.

[firetech]

have any of you spoke with Art at Indiana vac pump company? I spoke with him a couple weeks ago about flat land systems as we are about to go into a 12-1500 tap wood lot with ony .2 of a foot slope anywhere with in the wood lot. He recommends 3-4 cfm/100 to keep the sap flowing, oversized lines in the mains and using sap ladders. a least check out his web page. There was also an artical Farming Magazine 7/11 about under sized vac pumps and flat land tubing. The reseach centers out east are only looking at the moutain region and the nature slope not providing info for producers on flat ground. Glen Goodrich also metioned some thoughts on flatland tubing at the Mich Maple Mgt, but I will wait till the season is over before I get back with him

[yards1520]

Thanks for the input guys. Sounds like it is doable. I just wanted to get some confirmation from some other guys that may have had the same problem and make sure it was something that I could make work before I went and spent money on tubing a woods that wouldn't flow. Thanks for the tips!