Tapping a north slope

[cur dog]

I'm allready thinking of next year. I've got a very steep north slope that I'm thinking of running my first tubing on. My question is if I should spend my money, and make my first attempt at a tubing line at this location. I remember some years when the snow stays on this slope till late spring. Will I get as much sap from these trees as I would from another area with a different orientation? Would it run later in the season that other trees?

[twocanines]

I have a north facing slope and I seem to run later than some around me. I kind of like it actually, don't have to worry about being first out of the starting gate. Just sit back and wait to see the early folks start to boiling and then go dig out the cordless drill.

[sjdoyon]

I'm allready thinking of next year. I've got a very steep north slope that I'm thinking of running my first tubing on. My question is if I should spend my money, and make my first attempt at a tubing line at this location. I remember some years when the snow stays on this slope till late spring. Will I get as much sap from these trees as I would from another area with a different orientation? Would it run later in the season that other trees?

Our complete sugarbush is on a north facing slope. Locals told us we'd have difficulty producing due to the lack of sun. We get about four good hours of sun on the sugarbush. Well, with the crazy temperatures and warm weather, we still have snow cover and are producing far better than the south facing slope sugarbushes near us. I posed this question to Dr. Perkins from UVM-Proctor and his response was that some years North facing will do great and some years it won't. This year is turning out to be a good year (compared to everyone around us). We are on vacuum so we've been getting big runs at night also. We expected to run a few weeks later than the others in the area but this weather had us running at the same time. We have a friend a few miles west of us at the same elevation (2,000ft) and he only boiled in the month of April last year. We will be lucky to see April this year.

As everyone will tell you, you can't predict mother nature. Go for it.

[ennismaple]

Our north facing bushes are our best producers this year. Set it up properly and you'll be watching the sap pour in during a year like this.