Pulling Taps

[SUGARSMITH]

Just curious, when do peolple plan or have pulled taps. I like to keep track of it for my own accord. Sort of like to go along with the herd.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have pulled 2/3 of mine already and the other third get it Sat as they aren't doing hardly anything. This is the normal end of the season for me down here, but the season really ended 2 weeks ago. :(

[ennismaple]

We pull our taps the day after our last boil. Last boil generally corresponds with syrup the colour of your rubber boot that won't filter and sap that looks like skim milk!

Here's a link to our first and last boil dates for the past 17 years. Of course, every bush will be very different depending on geography.

http://www.geocities.com/ennismaple/start-end.pdf

[rschoo]

I'm thinking about pulling mine because of the low sugar in the sap. Yesterday it was @ 1.95 Brix in my feed tank after collecting 60 gallons. I have a 14"x71" home-made 2 section flat pan rig and it takes a long time to boil off 50 gallons to make 1 of syrup. The syrup still looks good but the amount of wood and time to boil off all that water is a lot. Going to do a tree by tree sugar test today when I collect and will probably boil the stuff higher than 1.9.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Hmmm. 8O I couldn't imagine what 1.9 sugar would be like. Never seen it that high down here at least not for a long time. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[mountainvan]

I'll pull my taps when the fat tree sings!! Here in the Catskills I hope to go at least another 2 weeks. Weathers just getting good for sugaring.

[PF]

Had a killer sap run today. Got home from work and 1/3 of my buckets were overflowing. It looks good for a few more days with sap flowing strong. I will probably pull them next week sometime when the sugar content drops too low. Connecticut.

[VA maple guy]

Hay PF, if you have the time, the propane, and the trees are running, keep on boiling!! :D :D
Gerry

[brookledge]

Not as soon as I'd like to. Usually when I'm done boiling I'm so tired of the long days its nice to not have to do anything for a few days. Most of the time I try to get all the taps pulled within a few weeks of my last boil.
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I try to get my taps out the same day I finish or within a week. That tubing gets expensive and it is lots of work and want to keep it as clean as possible. Not that much sticks to this new rigid tubing, but don't like snot it it. 8O

[Russell Lampron]

I can usually tell by the weather and amount of sap flow. If you have a day when the sap should have ran good and it didn't it's a pretty good indicator that the season is over. That usually happens around the end of March here but I have gone to the 14th of April before.

Russ

[rschoo]

Hey Brandon what is your sugar content usually? I know most guys here in Michigan stop boiling when the sugar falls below 2.0. I have 50 buckets and tested every one last night when I collected and they varied from 0.7 to 2.6. I kept the stuff 1.7 and higher and have about 30 gallons of 2.2 to boil.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Averaged around 53 to 1 for the entire season which is somewhere around 1.6. Those guys are spoiled as 95+ percent of my taps are sugars. :lol: :lol:

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Brandon- Maybe i need to send you down some red maples :?: Yesterday i tested around 100 red maple trees or so and i think i might have hit a couple 3 that were under 2% and most were running 2.4-2.7 and found a handfull over 3% one was 3.7%. I was a little dissapointed in the 5%+ red i found last year as it was only 2.5% yesterday :( Mike farrell wanted trimmings from it if it was up around 5% this year again for the sweet tree program at Cornell-Now some of the other ones close to it was 3 and 3.1% last year and this year was 3.3 and 3.4%///Interesting as the 5% one didn't hold its pecking order. Did find that the middle sugar maple that hit 7% last year was running 4.5% and the field tree behind the nursing home that was 4.4% was 4.3% yesterday.

Usually i don't go back and check them again until next round/But this is what learning is all about-As i had predicted the sap was sweeter this year then last due to the chain of events that took place in the area over the course of this past year.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Kevin,

Would love to have some, but don't think it would matter. Guess it just comes with being this far south. I have a lot of awesome sugars, but I just enjoy the 1.7 or 1.8 sugar content.

[MASSEY JACK]

Brandon, it still could be a genetic thing. You should get your hands on some of the sweet trees and plant them. You could test them in a few years to see if they are any sweeter. The "sweet tree program" trees in VT came from a farm in Danville VT. The farmer still makes syrup and I'm told his trees run over 5 percent sugar. Other trees in the area don't get that kind of sugar. Maybe you just need some different genetics in your region. Something to think about.

[mapleman3]

I havn't gone into "Buddy Sap" time yet, I always pull the taps when I am frustrated or burnt out, when I'm getting all grade B bordering C, but usually I stop boiling .. take a few days to rest and do nothing Then pull taps and buckets... then it takes me a week or so after that to get the want to go out and actually clean the buckets and flush the lines...this year I will flush asap the lines since they are a few years old.... also I will fill my bulk tank with water and a bit of bleech and put all my bucket drop lines in it to soak, with a pvc pipe with holes under it with air going through for agitation.. I do that for a couple hours.

[MaineMapleDave]

My trees tell me when to pull the taps. They're mostly reds, and just shut right down, sometimes leaving just some cloudy sap in the buckets--looks like the water after you boil pasta in it.

Also, when the peepers start their ruckus out in the pond, that usually tells me that it's going to be too warm at night--in my log I note that the trees usually shut down within a day or two of my hearing the first peepers.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Possibly better genetics, but I think it may be more to it than that. I still think it is the temps and the winter. The farther north, the harder the winters, the colder the temps, the higher the sugar content. I have no proof, just a theory, but I would like to hear a better explanation if there is one. :? Guys that are in warmer areas than I am like VA Maple Guy runs 60 to 1 and guys in Kentucky about the same thing. Last winter it was very cold all winter other than the first two weeks of Jan and a producer who is south of me with 1500 taps ran 45 to 1 which was his best ratio ever. This year, the same producer ran 60 to 1 with a very, very warm winter. :?

[maplehound]

Brandon,
Sugar content in the sap is somewhat determined by soil conditions but it is also genetics. I have 80 high yield ( sweet trees) planted around my place. They came from the Ohio nursery and they planted them from seed gatherd at a woods owned by OSU. Gary Graham was out to my place yeasterday to get a sap sample for testing but my trees are still to small for him. I however did trim off a small branch from one of them and put a drop of sap on my refractometer and it showed 4% sugar. My sap I have been collecting all year has only been from 1 3/4 to 2 1/4% sugar. So I think these trees will one day be able to give me sweeter sap.
Ron

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

For Brandon's proof.. Funny thing was about a week and a half ago i was re-reading some of my research papers that i have on maple stuff and they thought they came to a theory of about what brandon said..

Long story short was that the starches in the trees would in turn make sweeter sap in the spring if there was a quicker cool down of the tree going into dormancy in the winter.

Now to blow that theory to heck- i find that it's close to the opposite when i get sweeter sap/BUT there are other factors throught the year that control this too that i'd guess they didn't consider??.

Genetics will play the most important role in determining the outcome. Would you find a cow that milks 14,000 Lbs and turn her into a 26,000 Lb in a short time? If you was going to buy a hunting dog/would you get it at the pet shop or buy it from a guy that hunts and raises them?

You might be able to take a tree with 2% sap and have it put out 4% by the time it matures if you babysitted it?/ but it would'nt take nothing to make a 4% tree if you started out with a 6% in the beginning would it?

[rschoo]

AH nature vs. nurture. Will the debate never cease? Both are important. Last year I had a very small set up and measured evey gallon of sap I boiled as I fed it in to the "evaporator". I made 3-1/2 gallons from 113 gallons of sap wich averages about 2.6. Last winter was colder than this one and I tapped earlier but, the trees I tapped are ones I pulled a few days ago because of low sugar content. They were still flowing plenty of sap but the sugar was lower than the average of the rest. I think the weather has a lot to do with sugar content.

[Brent]

30 miles north of Toronto I'm pulling about 40 of my taps and relocating them to trees on the north side of a small hill and getting good flow. Some buckets on the north side were emptied last night at 7:30 and full by noon today.

The buckets on the south slope bare had 1 cup in each. The fat tree sung there already.