Tapped NW wisconsin (Siren) area.

[bearair]

Dad and I tapped 275 trees on drop lines this weekend. Lots of snow which will hopefully help drop the temps to freezing faster on the upcoming warm weather. Some trees were already starting to drip even though the temp only was 28 degrees. They are ready to BURST!

Good Luck this year

[Jeff E]

We had the same situation in our Sugarbush. Finished tapping on Monday the 5th, and got everything operational in 'the system' on Tuesday.
Trees gave up a little on Vacuum, but I think they are still frozen. Took advantage of the slow sap and found leaks, getting the vac up to 23".
I have enough sap to do an initial run to clean out the RO from storage, so I will be ready to make syrup this weekend.

Here we go.

[Brad W Wi]

I'm over in Winter, Wi. all that snow 16"+ I'm haning a hard time getting around on my tractor. It's like grease underneath. I'm planning on putting out my 400 pails this weekend. Although I might have to stay on the high land till the snow is easier to drive on. I don't know what to extect this year. I've got 4 pails out to see whats happening and so far not much.

[mike z]

I don't know if I should tap this weekend or wait til the warm spell passes. That could be October.

[jmayerl]

I don't know if I should tap this weekend or wait til the warm spell passes. That could be October.
I wish that we wouldn't have tapped at all this year. 15 gallons of syrup won't even pay for the bags to tap the trees. We collected about 2 gallons of sap average per tap and no freezing temps after sat will end our 1 week season. I would have been better off to just buy a few bulk barrels for my customers.

[Rhino]

Mike z, Misery loves company and if this eases your mind we are waiting for this warm spell to pass before we even start tapping our 4000+ trees. Still over knee deep snow, and concerned that the tap holes will rapidly fill with bacteria and be useless IF this warm weather pattern changes. When my brothers and i discussed what our tapping plans should be last night we also talked about how rapidly the sap will turn bad as we would be tapping with temps near 60 and no freezeing temps at night. we would end up throwing out what sap did run during the hot spell anyway. Producers i talk to up here and in central Wis. have diff. thoughts, some are tapped and not much happening.....some put in half and will put other half in after warm spell....... and some are waiting till after warm spell like us to start tapping. If after next week they still forecast hot temps i think my brothers and i will just put our 1600 bags back into storage for next season and just get what we get through our lines. I changed my mind about hateing all this snow when the storm dumped on us, in the end it might save our season. good luck

[Meridian Maples]

This year could be a year for vacuum. Start the pump and don't shut it off. We finished tapping last Saturday and got the vacuum up and going with leaks fixed by Wed. night. So far we sucked in around 4000 gallons. I see a guy's bags just down the road from me that haven't had a drop in them. Going to get the RO put together tommorow morning, do a rinse and cook the first time tommorow. We've had other years with warm weather for long periods and just left the vacuum go, it doesn't come in like gangbusters, but it comes steady.

[Jeff E]

That was a bonus to get that sap yesterday!
We never got above feezing here is Spooner yesterday, and I doubt we will today. But Saturday should be the start for us.

[bearair]

Collected today 300 taps only yielded 110 gallons of sap. Not even enough to start the fire. Won't have time to boil until Friday so HOPEFULLY it will keep. But even the if nothing runs we might just dump it. Not worth 3 gallons of syrup we will get from it. The 10 day forcast is caing for 33 for the low on the 20, Maybe that will begain a week of cold weather. If not, at least we are ready for next year. We also have enough syrup left over from last year for personal use for the comming year.

[markcasper]

Look at the following, just what I thought all along if it holds out........

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/knapp-wi/54749/march-weather/2248674



Hopefully its not too late.

I pulled out 520 plus gallons of sap @19" vacuum from 245 taps since 2pm yesterday when the line went in the tank. Checked it @ 2pm today and it was running over. This was mostly all south slope. Was going to forget hooking the ro up this year......now with the forecast, I think I'll be hooking it up.

[Jeff E]

THis is something. It felt very strange going to the wood pile for the first boil, with temps in the 60's at dusk, in a tee shirt, worrying about bugs flying around the sugarhouse.
We are making all dark syrup so far.
Vacuum is very good, keeping it above 24". Have taken a lot of time to get the tubes to totally drain so no sap can sit it sun for long.
3 boils so far. 2400 on vac have given 4700 gallons of sap, 1500 buckets about 400 gallons. Ouch.

There is still some frost and snow in the woods, surprisingly. The vacuum pump will be getting a work out this year, running warm, non-stop for weeks.
I hope I can make enough syrup to fill my store orders, and I have no thoughts of bulk sales right now.

One question for everyone is if we all are generally down by 50% production, what will happen to the bulk price?
Have our northern sappers (Canuks) been hit by the warm spell as well?

[chadsoare]

Started boiling tonight. Worried that sap was going to go bad, but tastes ok and looks clear. Collected 106 gallons of sap from 55 bagged trees.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

One question for everyone is if we all are generally down by 50% production, what will happen to the bulk price?
Have our northern sappers (Canuks) been hit by the warm spell as well?[/QUOTE]

The Southern portions of Canada have been hit as hard as we have. Northern Main and Eastern Quebec are just tapping and have 30 inches of snow on the ground.... so it is still a big ???????????????

[WildRiver]

I just collected 70 gallons of sap from 180+ taps, the sugars ran well yesterday but the reds not. Will store the sap in a snow bank till maybe next week. We're near Solon Springs, and we sure had plans for a better year than this.

[Jeff E]

Wow, one week ago the trees were just getting thawed, now the peepers are peeping.
Syrup is still good, as of last night. Buckets are doing nothing....

[bearair]

Got to the woods on Friday and suprised to see sap in the buckets. Collected another 110 gallons on 300 buckets. Boiled down to 4 gallons of syrup for the year. Buds are growing and with some left over from last year we decided to pull on Sunday and clean up for next year. It was odd not seeing the large amount of steam coming off the boiler because the weather was so warm. Only positive is I have plenty of wood for next year already stacked.

[Jeff E]

Last night I had another first for the sugar house.
Making some of the last syrup of the season a month earlier than normal, and frogs and salamanders were crawling and jumping into the building!
I had conceeded to the bugs coming in, it was just to hot to keep the doors closed.
But frogs? Little jumping buggers! I must have swept out 15 or so before I finally just shut the doors.

Sap was getting buddy, so 1 more night of Mersh making then I am done. 1 month early, 80% short.

[WildRiver]

A neighbor and I combined sap and boiled yesterday, we'll end up with about 5 gallons of dark syrup for the season. This was from about 400 taps. Today I'm pulling taps and cleaning up.

[GramaCindy]

I pulled my taps just 11 days after setting them. Collected 9.5 LOUSY gallons of sap, no boiling for me this year. Not only are the maples all budded out, but the lilacs are too. IT"S MARCH, NOT MAY!????????????

[sbingham]

We pulled our taps on Monday night, only 18 days after we tapped.
I have not finished yet but guess we'll end up with a couple gallons of syrup.
Never really had a decent run throughout the two weeks that the trees were tapped.
Good thing it is only a hobby for me....

[mike z]

Just think of all the wood we saved. I should get 10 g. syrup. But the sap I did get was low in sugar this year (under 2% most of the time). So who knows. I've never had sap test under 2.2. usually run 2.5 or better. Hours of bucket washing await.

[Jeff E]

It's official, we shut off the vacuum last night. Sap was going acidic, buddy, and very low sugar. That last of the syrup was light amber, and was still sweet but had that buddy 'tang' to the taste.
I only made a bit to be sure it was over, then let the rest run down the drain.

The clean up begins.
First boil on March 12, last on March 21. UGLY.

[sbingham]

Mike - 10 gallons of syrup is pretty good, all things considered.
One of the things on the "to do" list for this weekend is to wash up all the bag holders and put them back into storage.
I still need to do the finish cook on my syrup, everything is in the refrigerator right now.
The way it looks right now, the guys at hunting camp next fall are going to have to get used to "Aunt Jamima's" again as I'm not going to have enough to supply them and keep the family happy!
Guess it's a good thing that we have "day jobs".