NH Fall Sugaring 2012

[jrgagne99]

With the great cold-nights and warm-days weather pattern forecasted, I figured I'd try a little science experiment... On a whim, I tapped two trees about a week ago. As of today (8 days total) one of the trees has produced about 2.5 gallons of sap, the other zero. I boiled down the 2.5 gallons inside on the kitchen stove and got some good tasting Grade A Light.

Has anyone else ever tried sugaring in the fall on a larger scale? BTW, I'm not planning to tap those two trees again this spring, figuring I'll let them recover.

[spud]

I have been doing a little experiment on fall tapping also. On November 16th I tapped three large maple trees all being 36 inch or better. I also tapped 12 smaller trees that are 8-10 inch. I used buckets on all trees so there was no vac at all. Last sugaring season I tapped 100 taps on gravity in a lower section of my woods. I wound up getting 2.6 times as much sap from my high vac system then I did with these 100 taps on gravity. Because of this my thought is whatever I get in my fall tapping experiment it is safe to say I would have gotten 2.6 times as much using high vac. Here is what I have come up with so far.

1) The big trees gave 3.5 gallons of sap (per tap) that tested at 1.8% —3.5x2.6=9.1 GPT using high vac.
2) The little trees gave .87 gallon of sap (per tap) that tested at 1.0% —.87x2.6=2.3 GPT using high vac.

Even though the temps are cold today the spouts will be left in the trees until the end of December. I feel there might be a handful of warm days that could give me more sap before the end of Dec. As of right now if there was no more sap the big trees would have giving me .19GPT of syrup. The little trees would had giving me .03 GPT of syrup.

It is safe to say that tapping small trees 8-10 inch would not be worth while in the fall (at least in my woods). Although tapping big trees might be worth while if .19GPT could be made. My thought is if I tapped 300 big trees in the fall with just one tap per tree then could I re-tap that tree in the spring with one or two more taps? It would be nice if Dr.Tim could share his thoughts on this issue. If a person could make .19GPT in the fall and then make another .40GPT in the spring that would be real good production from your woods. If a person only had 300 big maples in his/her back yard and could increase their production by .19GPT that would give that person 57 more gallons of syrup. If you could average $60.00 per gallon selling in small jugs or glass you could stand to make $3500.00 more dollar per year. People that are interested in fall tapping can go to the PMRC site and type in (Fall Tapping). I found their studies to be very interesting.

Spud

[tuckermtn]

Rumor has it Theron has made 300 gallons so far this fall...

[spud]

If that rumor is true I sure wish he would share his numbers with the rest of us. I know I would find it very interesting and I am sure others would too.

Spud

[PATheron]

Spud and Eric- I havent hit 300 yet but I think Ill go over that next boil maybe next week. Im having pretty good success as far as Im concerned so far. I didnt really know what to expect till I tried it. Brannons in vermont have had the best success Ive read about so far. They tapped in the fall with quarter inch taps and did a quart per tap in the fall and then as I understand reamed them in the spring and did four tenths on the same holes with 5 sixteenths taps. Thats how I understood it. Im kind of doing what they did. I used checkvalve taps on stubbys and then bought quarter inch adapters to put on the end of the checkvalves and tapped shallow with quarter inch holes. My theory is to do that and make my fall sap and then in January ream the quarter inch holes to five sixteenth and then put the checkvalves in the holes. Im not going to decide if Im happy with the fall thing till January is over. Reason is I should finish making fall syrup in december and I now have the advantage of having a lot of line and equipment problems figured out by sugaring early.. That should let me capitalize better on January runs if there are any. Last year the only syrup I lost was not having all my taps in in Januaryearly enough for all the taps to run on all the run weather in that month. Some of the things I have found that are interesting. You can tap, put 25 inches on trees with no freeze and you can just make them run. Sap is weak like youd think, Just figure 1 percent. If it hasnt froze itll be one and if it freezes itll be up to maybe 1.5. Run days are very short just like Dr. Perkins has said and it is a substantial loss of sap. Itll get 25 degrees at night and with it overcast and such things arent going good till about noon and by 4 ocklock its winding down and 5 its over. If it runs all night you do better but sugar gets weak etc. Ill have to wait and see how happy I am with the fall thing come next fall. IF the holes go the whole way its good extra money and Im really well prepared for regular season. IF the holes dry up early I probly wont do it again. I just wanted to try it becouse Ive always wanted to and it seemed like we get so many good freezes in the fall. Ive tapped a bit over 3000 taps and still havent made 300 gallons so It doesnt appear Im having as good success as Brannons had. Im sure theres a lot of variables and reallistically I cant do as good a job as those guys with having a town job but thats been the extent of my experiance so far. Theron

[wiam]

Thank You Theron

Is the flavor the same as springtime?

[waysidemaple]

Wiam

To date the stuff has tasted great. The last batch was medium amber and for me the best tasking stuff yet this fall. If I remember right, in the beginning it was dark amber. It's been a lot of fun seeing the sap come in.

Scott

[PATheron]

The syrup is terrific. Its got good flavor and good color. It just takes a lot of sap to make it. I can see why grandpa sugarmaker didnt do it. You have to have vacuum to get any big amount of sap and then have to have ro machines to process it. I think if you were hobbying and wanted to have some fun you could tap some trees with buckets like Spud did and you could definitely make some good syrup and have fun becouse some of my days it was running gravity. I really question that its practicle on a large scale. The Brannons were the only ones that kind of continued to do it. The other large producers didnt becouse it was hard to ream holes and things like that. Its probly best to just be real on top of ones regular season whenever that may be for your area. I kind of was more ready than normal this year so decided I could try it. Have to really just wait and see when everything is over. Theron

[Thad Blaisdell]

That provides some serious thought into what will happen in my bush next year...... one months work for 1000 gallons of syrup..... hmmmmmm

[PATheron]

The fall thing is kind of neat becouse its so out of the ordininary but I personally think for me the money is in the fundamentals and thats going to be what Im going to focus on in the future. Theres people out there that are getting between half a gallon per tap and a gallon every year. Proctor usually does six or seven tenths. Im not a half gallon guy, I average around 4 tenths pretty consistently. Im all done hooking up trees in the future now Im going to go for eficiency. I think the fundamentals hurt most peoples production. This year I moved my releaser to make it a better fix but theres very little slope. Id come home from work and sap running but come to find out it was freezing up right before the releaser and holding things from running for a while. Over a season thats big loss. Totally fundamentals no fancy trick. Went to bed tired after cleaning tanker trailer forgot to close the valve on the back ran at least a 1000 gallons of good sap right after a freeze on the ground, fundamentals. Get water in suction line to remote releaser, fundamentals. All things that cant happen if going to make huge averages. Thats the things I work on year around. No embarrassment in having them happen, but if it continues to happen your not doing the job you need to. Thats the stuff I struggle with but I try to just keep doing better and better and every year it does get a bit easier and we learn more etc. Theron

[spud]

Theron,

Thank you so much for the information you have shared. This really should make some sugar maker's like myself consider fall tapping. I always knew I would not get as much syrup as in the spring but if I could increase my overall GPT for the year that would be great. I to was very excited to see my sap run this fall. For anyone that really loves to sugar this is a great way of getting more. This is like having Christmas twice a year for the kids.:) Thanks again for the info you shared with all us Trader. I wish you the best in the future.

Spud

[PATheron]

Spud- You can read about it in Tim Wilmots farming magazine column if you havent already. They actually did better than me. I think its going to be really fickle depending on the year. MIght get lucky or maybe not. Just depends on the year I think. Some of the guys in that study only got a couple runs and it froze up so you cant help that. Just one of those things that a guy has to decide it its worth it to him to try it or not. Theron

[TheMapleNews]

Hello fall tappers,

This would be a great story for us! Can any/all of you send some photos and contact info?

pgregg@themaplenews.com

[markcasper]

I'll have to admit my jealousy of you guys that have the oppurtunity to do this. I wish I could.

[PATheron]

Guys - You guys asked me about the fall tapping becouse you heard I was doing it so I dont mind letting you know how I made out. I didnt want to make a big production out of it becouse its out of the ordinary and sometimes that invites all kinds of opinions and I just like to make syrup and dont need getting caught up on all that. Its been pretty interesting if nothing else. I tapped last week of October. Turned the pump on and that sap started running. Real weak like .6%. After that if it froze it would be 1.4% if it didnt freeze it would be one percent. Last couple weeks it seems to be alway 1.4%. Id say that you get less than half of spring runs in volume. Nothing is as intense so to speak. Half to draw your own conclusions if its worth it. When you see these temps your thinking in terms of sring sap run volumes and it just doesnt seem to be like that. Very short dark days. If it freezes at night you have to get several days of not froze to add up to a real good volume becouse it will thaw out at noon and quit at 4 to any big extent. No freezes for several days and your doing it on pure vac it slows down at night even if its warm and speeds up during day. Just how it works. Ive done it roughly six weeks and will make 500 gallons I think on 3300 taps. No idea if the holes go whole way. Id say if they do its well worth it. If you dont care about redrilling trees its worth it. If the holes quit early might not be worth it. Your ready for season way ahead of time. For me Im not sure I do it again or not. Ill kind of have to wait to see how the spring goes. The syrup is very good quality near as I could tell. I dont think it would ever be like an extra six weeks of regular season. I think no matter what it will always be a lesser returning thing than the spring runs. I know one thing to do it to any extent its got to be on high vac and you better own ro equipment unless you want to make a gallon over a campfire or something. Theron

[spud]

Thanks PaTeron for all the information you shared with all of us here on Trader. I hope you go on to make .4 GPT in the spring.

Spud

[spud]

In the last couple of days the sap ran a bit for me. I am up to 19.93 GPT on the big trees and 5.2 GPT on the small trees. The sugar is 1.8 on the big trees and 1.0 on the small trees. It is supposed to rain on Friday so that may cause the sap to run a bit more.

Spud

[spud]

The sap ran real well today at my house. I plan to test sugar tomorrow. The small trees ran much better today then they had been running. The wind blew real bad today so I plan to run the 4-wheeler around the woods tomorrow to see how many trees I lost.

Spud

[Marc Duclos]

Beavers seam to like 10 inch maples. First they flood me out then they have at it. They seam to know when I am away. I hope I have seen the last of this for a while. I taped 10 trees at the waters edg and used three foot drops to buckets and the darn beavers whent back to the birch. One of these days Allice pow right in the kisser. Ya it ran sort of but this anint what I am looking for. I didnt test it I boild it and made a quart of prity good stuff.

[MIMapler]

Fall Sugaring

I tried for the first time tapping in November/December up in Michigan. I've read the reasons not to (low sugar content in sap, no double tapping in Fall/Spring), but I just had to see for myself. I'm only a hobby enthusiast, and I ended up tapping 11 trees in all. Although I never did Brix test the sap for sugar content, it was clear that I had to boil for much longer than in the spring, and the taste of my fall syrup wasn't quite as good anyway. Pretty sure I'll never do that again, but it was a fun experiment.