Anyone considering tapping this weekend in the Ottawa valley?

[Eric in Kinburn]

Anyone tapping already in the Ottawa valley? Long term forecast is starting to look about right, but it seems so early.

Eric

[jd maple]

I was the same thing. To tap or not to tap that is the question. The 14 day forecast does not look warm enough other that the next few days. I wish I had the awnser.

[Quabbin Hill Farms]

I have been keeping records for 20 years and I have only tapped in february once in 1996 think I will wait until next weekend end of Feb.

[nudlebush]

I tapped one tree today at first it did not run but 1.5 hr later the bottom of the bucket was covered.

Calling for some warm days this week...last yr we were tapped by Mar 4.

My crystal ball is in the shop right now so I will keep an eye on Maple Trade....keep posting.

Andy

[cowboy729]

I tapped 25 tree's just to say that I started and with no frost under the snow wanted to make sure I got some good sap. The temps never went above zero today but the tree's still had some sap running with that bright sun. Looks like we might have a couple good days this week and then I'll see when I'll do my other taps.

[gregord]

I put in 30 Taps and about 25% were dripping slow I'm just south of North Augusta but I think buy next weekend we will be boiling. Here we Go!

[DrewCP]

No tapping for us. Looks tempting but cannot see any advantage. Only maybe 3 days this week of good running then no good until first week of March. We will throw our 50-75 taps in on March 2-3. Our bush still has 8-12" of snow in most places.

We only need enough syrup for our family and some to give away. 2 150-200gal boils is more than enough for us.

Good luck to everyone and keep us updated.
Drew.

[Eric in Kinburn]

Agreed DrewCP. This week looks very tempting, but then is looks like it will cool down for 3-4 days. I think I will holdoff until at least next weekend.
I'll go spend the rest of my day cleaning the holding tank ans getting everything else ready.

Cheers,
Eric

[Eric in Kinburn]

Based on the current 14 days trend, I think I will be tapping on March 3rd this year. There are a few days above zero between now and then but just as many days below zero as well...at least for my area.

Eric

[hillbillybee]

Well i kicked the cat this weekend.

After nipping a maple sapling while cutting wood on Friday and saw the steddy drip, i tapped 15 and saturday another 50.

They are slow but are flowing. May have enought to boil on sunday.

[halladaymaple]

Hi:

I live in south east of smtihs falls, we still have hard packed snow in the bush but the fields are getting bare. I agree with the posters below, we have some good weather but not enough in a row. I have all Vacuum and will wait until next weekend. taps are only good for 4 weeks as far as I am concerned. Tap to early and you risk good sap flows in mid to late march were the realy syrup is made. You wont wrong with waiting. Patience is a syrup makers best vertue! make sure your ready in the sugar house so all you do is light the fire or hit the switch for us oil guys.

happy sugarin'


Darrell

[jd maple]

I tapped about 50 on mon and I have collected about 40 gals of sap enough to try out my yearly improvements. Will tap the rest first week of march hopefully. Installed new health taps and drop tubes into 15L water jugs this year will see how long new taps will run for.

[ennismaple]

We've tapped about 2100 of our 3800 taps over the past 2 weekends. The rest of the taps we'll get in this coming Saturday. Since we're using all new Leader CV's or Lapierre 90 degree polycabonate spouts there isn't much risk of the taphole closing up before the end of the season. If the weather forecast holds we'll get some of the pumps on at the end of the week and start collecting sap.

We had about 4 lines damaged by deer that had to be repaired and one mainline on the ground beneath a fallen limb. Other than that there's not too many repairs required because we did a quick sweep of the woods in the fall to check for any downed lines. The only thing that sucks more than repairing lines is digging them out of snow and ice to repair them!

[Bruce L]

Agree with you there Marty,had to use the hammer to carefully bust ice away from some lines and drops that were down in the ice.Repairs took alot less time than putting up and stretching tubing in the main bush,so ALL tubing will be staying up year around from now on.Went and shot another bush with the transit today to see if it is doable for tubing,depends how much time we have before the sap starts flowing.We are all tapped as of tonight other than a few buckets around the sugarhouse.

[ennismaple]

Amen, Bruce!!!

Since we started using semi-rigid tubing about 5 years ago I've said repeatedly: I like stretching tubing - ONCE!

I do not miss stretching frozen tubing one little bit. I'd rather spend 3 or 4 hours repairing animal and fallen limb damage than 3 or 4 days re-stretching the same lines each year.

[Eric in Kinburn]

With the cold and snowy weather we've been having this past week I still have not tapped anything. I may tap some trees tonight though since they are calling for warmer days starting Friday. I have a feeling this will be a weird/short sugarin' season unfortunately. I hope I'm wrong.

Eric

[Eric in Kinburn]

Arghh! I only had time to tap 13 trees after work last night before it got too dark. I'm not sure I'll tap anymore trees until the forecast improves. +2C today, +4C tomorrow, but then -5C, -9C, -4C. The original forecast only showed 2 days of colder temperature, now it's 3. So frustrating. How's everyone else handling the difficult start we've been having so far?

[jd maple]

just waiting for the weather and the forecast to change for the better. All tapped out now at about 100 hoping for the weather man to help us out. I hope the 14 day forecast is wrong for this area my be a short season, hope not to much work for a few days god weather. The long range hasn't been to accurate so far, cross our fingers

[ennismaple]

We're gonna try to get the remaining 1700 more taps in tomorrow - weather permitting of course! We tried to run the vacuum pumps today but the lines were frozen solid and nothing made it through to the releasers.

[TwinBay]

Parry Sound enjoyed another 6 inch of snow. The ice is still 30" thick on the lake.
I think we will go from snow to waterskiing.
**** groundhog !!!

[DrewCP]

We've had some crazy winds and forecasted 3 cold, cold nights in a row (-18 tonight and tomorrow night). I hate chasing down blown off buckets and tapping frozen trees. The spiles never seem to seat correctly. We still have loads of snow in the bush so no real rush. Should start to run nicely Wednesday and Thursday. Mar 12-16 looks great. This will be our prime week as long as the forecast stays relatively the same.

[Eric in Kinburn]

Here we go. I tapped 74 trees earlier today (I guess that how many buckets I had). We should get a good run tomorrow at +12C.

[Eric in Kinburn]

This looks like it will be the shortest year on record. I boiled for the first time yesterday and will finish today. I'm planning another boil for Tuesday, but after that it will warm up too fast...way too fast. Oh well.

[jd maple]

well I think it is all over before it ever started. I just bottled 12 liters last night and for a total of about 16l. I could almost cry well no one is getting free hand out this year just enough for ME. Hope for better luck next year or maybe a freeze soon.

[hillbillybee]

Sad, sad sad, 14 litres for me, 65 trees

[slw105]

I tapped 27 trees this year and only made 8 litres of syrup. Quality is excellent,, great colour and taste but only 25% of what we usually make. Yesterday the trees started to bud so we're done. I feel for the commercial producers in our area.

[DrewCP]

Finished off what we had on Sunday. TERRIBLE year. 50 trees only produced 160 gallons of sap. It is still running right now but not worth collecting. Spoils in the bucket right away. We pulled and washed everything yesterday.
160 gallons of sap yielded 3.5 gallons of syrup. A dismal 45:1 ratio. I don't really understand the ratio. All the sap was testing at 2-3%. Our non family give away bottles went from 500ml to 250ml.
Despite the poor return I would not trade my time back for anything. Time spent with family and friends is worth all the hard work.

........till' next year............
Drew

[ennismaple]

Drew - The sap was still running in our woods the last 2 days but looked closer to spoiled milk than sap and smelled worse! No way that was going near our equipment...

[Asthepotthickens]

Trees are budding and the sap is dark it's over folks

[DrewCP]

Drew - The sap was still running in our woods the last 2 days but looked closer to spoiled milk than sap and smelled worse! No way that was going near our equipment...

I'm still baffled at our bush's low sap output. How did you guys run this year?

[Eric in Kinburn]

Made 20.25L of syrup this year out of 72 taps. Very disappointing...oh well can't complain too much as I did enjoy last week's weather.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

The trees have yet to bud up around the Pembroke area. Taps are still in and we're hoping that this week will be the best week of the year. Hopefully it actually gets warm enough, as highs are forecast for 0 tomorrow and 4 above on Tuesday and Wednesday. Whoever though that we'd be wishing for warmer weather after last week's heat wave.

[cowboy729]

I was looking at my tree's up in Douglas and there are no signs of buds at all on my north slopes. The weather is looking really good for this week and I'm kicking myself in the butt for pulling all my pails. The only thing I have left in is my 50 on gravity so I'm hoping it produces some nice sap this week. It's been way to short of a season not to get a little blessing at the end of the season.

[ennismaple]

I'm still baffled at our bush's low sap output. How did you guys run this year?

Drew - We averaged 6.6 USG of sap per tap. Sugar content was poor too - averaged 2.0% for the season.

[Bruce L]

Marty,would you say 50% of a crop?That's about what we squeezed out,not much of a test run for the new rig!!!!!!

[ennismaple]

Bruce - Just over 50% crop for us. We could have made a bit more if we'd spent more time chasing leaks but otherwise we didn't miss much. Guys I know that were fully tapped in February spent a lot of time dealing with ice and didn't get much until about March 7/8 anyways. It sucks you didn't get the new rig as long a workout as you wanted but at least it was enough to work out some of the kinks. Marty

[can'twaitforabigrun]

Yesterday we gathered 55 gallons, and today we gathered 120 gallons (approx. 1 gallon/tap). I'm hoping this cold weather will keep the trees from budding out for a bit longer, as some forecasts are now calling for lows below 0 up until Easter weekend.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

We are still gathering close to 1gpt everyday. Some producers have thrown in the towel, but others that I've spoken to, particularly in the higher elevations around Griffith and Dacre are still going strong with clear sap and good tasting syrup. Saturday was one of the best days of the season, but it slowed down a bit on Sunday. The forecast indicates that we should be making syrup at least until this weekend.

[ennismaple]

That's great news for you guys! I couldn't help but think on the weekend that I'd rather be boiling on April 1st than washing lines. All the producers I know in Lanark County are washing up and trying to figure out how we'll keep our customers happy this year with a limited supply of syrup.