Year End Stats

[Dan W]

Well this morning I finished off everything that was left over from calling it quits last weekend. All in all it was a pretty good year-175 gallons of sap more than last year. If I hadn't burned my pan twice and didn't have to dump some nasty sap, I calculated I should have made almost 50 gallons. Spent most of the day cleaning the filter press, milk cans, and the rest of the sugar house. All that is left to do is pull and clean the buckets, clean the storage tanks, clean the RO, and then clean the evaporator. Hey, I thought I got a lot done today, but there is still 18 to 20 hours of work to do. What was I thinking? Anyway, I had a great time again this year!!!!

Tapped January 27
Season over March 3

Collected 16 days-best day 446 gallons

Collected 2897 gallons sap
10 gallons/tap

Made 38.9 gallons syrup (really should have been right around 50 based on sap)

[Gary R]

Dan, that doesn't sound like too bad of a season! Sorry you lost out from the burnt pans. I might have a week left.

[Paddymountain]

tapped Feb 3, gathered last time Mar 11
total taps: 229
30 taps :vacuum on Reds
139 on roadside Sugars
60 from friend on Sugars
boiled about 2550-2600 gallons
syrup total 45 gallon/1 quart

vacuum on reds/ 400 gallon; for 13.33 gallon per tap
(vacuum was never run overnight as didn't seem to be profitable for 30 taps)
hope everyone had a great year!!!!

[Springfield Acer]

I tapped on 2/2 and first collected on 2/3. I pulled my taps (62 average) EOD 3/12. Totals for the year are: 863 gal of sap, 16 gal of syrup, 1.6% overall sugar average, 13.9 gal sap per tap on all buckets with tubing, .25 gal of syrup per tap, 39 days tapped with 24 days where we at least collected something. All sugar maples this year. Work like crazy for eight weeks, wait like crazy for 44 weeks; what a hobby! No wonder I like this. It's just like grouse season only shorter. I can site all kinda stats on my grouse season too. I think my shot to kill ratio is real close to my sap to syrup ratio now that I think about it!

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

12.75 gallons per tap. Roughly Do not have an actual tap count
68 gallons of syrup
4100 gallons of water
85 gph on new to me 3X10
Low sugar content
Last fall filled the shopvac with maple helecopters (samaras) 3 times on our patio.

[Gary R]

136 tapped on vacuum, Jan.22. 15 sugars, 121 reds. First boil Jan.24. Taps pulled March 12
3069 gal. total, 22.5 gal./tap

35 buckets tapped Feb. 19, all sugars. Buckets pulled March 12
281 gal. total, 8gal./tap

23 boils. 35 gal. syrup made. 22.5 gal. dark amber, 12.5 gal. B. Approximately 2.5 gal. lost due to burnt pan.
95.7 gal. sap/gal. of syrup. (89.0 if burnt syrup included)

Weight loss = 1lb.
I think I need more buckets and get rid of the tasting cup in the sugarhouse:lol:

I am glad I tapped early. I made almost 1/4 of my crop by Feb. 7th. Then I had a nine day freeze. Sugar content is very low and sap flows were poor at the end.
I have ideas for next year. I need too wait about two months before I can call them plans.

[Springfield Acer]

Hey Gary, if you were tapped for 50 days, you averaged about 60 gal boiled per day which per your stats equals about an hour per day. Way too relaxed! Too bad about the miscellaneous mechanical issues or you'd had more. Regardless of sugar content and syrup produced, it sounds like you're going to be wanting for a couple thousand more gallons next year; right? Maybe next year 5000 gal at 2% and you'll be cranking out close to 120 gal. When are you buying an RO? I'll tell Mrs R to put one on your B-day list.

[cur dog]

I ended the year with 13.47 gal.
39 taps on buckets. 5 on reds 34 on sugars
Tapped on Feb. 19th and pulled everything on March 12th.
Its been a strange year, 2/3 of my syrup has been quite dark.

[Springfield Acer]

I ended the year with 13.47 gal.
39 taps on buckets. 5 on reds 34 on sugars
Tapped on Feb. 19th and pulled everything on March 12th.
Its been a strange year, 2/3 of my syrup has been quite dark.

Cur Dog;
Do you know how many gallons of sap you took in? It sounds like your trees either ran hard and/or had good sugar content compared to what I was able to squeeze out here; especially in just 22 days.

[adk1]

6 boils for 10-11 gallons for me on 120 taps

[cur dog]

I'm quite pleased with our season considering the weather. I tapped only our large roadside trees or field edge trees. I don't have a sap hydrometer, but wish I did. All of the trees are on a creek flat dairy farm. I think the night time valley temps probably helped get us some really good runs when hillside trees might not. I'm wondering also if the yearly fertilization of the fields might have helped our sugar content. Who knows? Next year I'll have a sap hydrometer and answer some of my own questions.

[DrTimPerkins]

... I'm wondering also if the yearly fertilization of the fields might have helped our sugar content....

Probably. Improved nutrition boosts the photosynthetic machinery and processes in trees. This stimulates growth of the tree and storage of carbohydrates (sugars and starches). Fertilization, although not typical for most maple stands, can improve both sugar content and sap yield, and therefore, sugar yield per tap. You don't want to overdo it though, as that can cause problems.

[Kngowods]

So I will tap 100-200 silvers and reds next year so if I was to go and sprinkle I couple handfulls of fertilizer under each tree they would or could produce more sweeter sap??

[DrTimPerkins]

So I will tap 100-200 silvers and reds next year so if I was to go and sprinkle I couple handfulls of fertilizer under each tree they would or could produce more sweeter sap??

Not necessarily. Trees will grow better if they have better nutrition. If you fertilize them with something they already have plenty of, you won't see any effect. If you fertilize them with something they are lacking, or could use more of, it may well help. However if you put too much of one thing on (especially nitrogen), you could cause them to develop some serious problems. Therefore if you do fertilize trees, generally the low dose slow approach is best.

[blaircountysugarin85]

70 taps. boiled 5 times, about 400 gallons or so of sap for a total of 8 gallons of syrup, up from last years production of 4.5 gallons, all on my homemade arch and not lots of free time to boil ;)