2006 Season Totals & Goals for 2007

[ibby458]

Since nobodys posted in this forum for a while, I decided to post my totals, in case anyone's interested.

480 taps total, 280 metal buckets, 200 plastic pail/tubing sets. The metal buckets on roadside trees started earlier, the deep woods tubing sets started later, ran later and sap quality stayed consistently higher. Plastic buckets gathered faster, but had to be carried farther.

Made 142 1/2 gallons of syrup from 4280 gallons of sap. Averaged 8.8 gallon of sap/tap. Average gather was 325 gallons. Average 38 ounces of syrup/tap.

Definite changes for next year - New filtering/canning setup so we don't have to haul syrup to the house for reheating and canning. New gathering trailer with lower dump station. More, and BETTER wood put up. Used 12 face cords, but only had 8 cut in advance. (WE cut 2 cords yesterday, for next year)

Also - either buy new evaporator, or buy this one and build air tight arch, super-insulate it, add pre-heater and hood.

Build bucket washer that will do both metal and plastic buckets. Pick up a couple hundred more plastic buckets, make up drops for them. Tighten up tractor shed where I boil until a sugar house gets built.

I'm tired out just thinking of all I want to do before next season!

[325abn]

This was my second year boiling and I must say I got the bug for sure!

I boiled on a rig I set up using 3 turkey fryers and a 22 x 20 aluminium roasting pan. I modified the burners so they where 1.5 inches from the pan and where enclosed with block and brick. I had two 10 x 14 "preheat" pans on eaither side of the main pan, I was able to get the sap to a rolling boil before dumping it into the main pan.

With 3 burners going I managed to get **** near 10 GAl/HR then one of the rubber hoses sprung a leak (not good) so I went to two burners and managed 6.5 - 7 Gal/hr.

I had WAY to many taps for my setup I just could not stop tapping :oops: I had 60 taps and ended up dumping many many galons of sap. :oops:

I ended up the season by burning my pan! :oops: I lerned a lot and ended up with a total of 12 Galons of MED to Dark amber of some of the best syrup I have ever had!

Now I am looking forward to next year and am going to expand to a 2 x6 or so!

[ibby458]

It sure is an addictive hobby/activity/business, etc!

I was thinking about this the other day, and concluded it was at least partially due to the time of the year sugaring is done. Nothing else is happening in early spring; we all have cabin fever and it's a pleasant, productive way to start the new year. Just about the time we're tired of it, it's over and we can move on to gardening, fishing, spring turkey hunting or whatever strikes your fancy.

You shouldn't have much problems finding a used 2x6, at a reasonable price. I started with a 2x4 flat pan and cement block arch 6 years ago. I used a 2x9 this year, and am thinking about a 3x12!

Good Luck!

[maple flats]

I had 300 taps in, 250 on tubing and 50 on buckets. Sap flow started later than 03 and 04, but similar to 05. My tap breakdown for trees was 240 on sugar/black and 60 on reds (with 4 on silver). I had a family medical interuption and had to dump 450 gal shortly after the best sap flow weekend all season. Ended up making 42 gal total, all med except the final batch off the evap was dark and a very small batch at the beginning was dark. For 07 I have bought a 3x8 to replace the 2x6, will add many taps. Ordered a filter press from our sponser to get clearer syrup for glass. Plan to start making maple candy next season as well. Will have all of my firewood cut, split and stacked by sometime in May, a month later than usual but after getting an evap 3x faster than before i will add taps for more syrup. I plan to remove the temp wood floor in the sugarhouse and pour concrete with a drain and fresh combustion air ducts coming up thru the floor and a wiring conduit for the blower. I will be building a preheater for the evap but will likely wait a year to make a steam hood. From the preheater I catch condensate and collect for fresh water needs, in 06 with a 2x3 flue pan I collected about 3 gal/hr, with a 3x6 flue pan i should be able to have all I need to even hook up a small storage tank and pump to hook up the sink instead of rinsing in buckets. I also bought a 10' comercial ss sink/counter all in one unit to replace an old piece of second hand counter from a kitchen remodeling at my daughter's With all of that work I better get going now or i will never get it all done.

[MASSEY JACK]

Maple Flats, talk to me about your fresh air ducting in the floor. I hope to build a sugarhouse this year and am looking at designs.

[maple flats]

Well Jack, My idea is to run an 8" plastic pipe under the concrete and a sweeping ell up thru the concrete. I would have it slope down enough to drain and going out 1 side of my sugarhouse if extended about 15' will exit ground. At that point I will put a screen on to keep unwanted visitors out. Where it comes up thru the floor I will have a sheetmetal ell going to the air intake on my blower which is also 8" round. Then I will use a variable speed control to operate the blower. Do you see anything I am missing on my plan? I will also have a large enough plastic elec. conduit for snaking an ext. cord thru to operate the blower and the control will be on the wall.

[andrew martin]

Our season started on January 13th, and we had 80 taps in the trees for a total of 13 days. We made 15 gallons of syrup (could have made more, but two weeks off from work was straining the checkbook) and have sold all but three gallons. I do not have any averages because I did not keep track of how much sap we gathered, perhaps next year. I am looking at buying a new or used 3x8 evaporator for we are planning to have at least 300-350 taps next year. We are already clearing new trails, and cutting scrub trees down. Next week, a KY state forester is going to visit us so in order to help us manage the forest by telling us which trees to cut and thin, and give us an overall report on the forest's health. I love maple trees, but I also like hickory trees when squirrel season comes in.

Andrew

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Ibby,

It is amazing the difference in sugar content. I boiled 4100 gallon and had 73 gallon of syrup, you were almost double that.

[brookledge]

I previously posted my 06 results in the tapping section only I made a mistake and titled it 2005.
I had 710 taps with 701 on vacuum
Boiled 11,007 gal of sap= 15.5 gal per tap
Made 236 gal of syrup= .33 gal per tap
11,007/236= 46.64 average sap to syrup ratio for the year.
My goal for next year is to reach 1/2 gal per tap. If proctor can do it then I want to do it. Since I've had everything on vacuum (3 years) the best I did was .41 gal per tap
Also might venture off my own land and expand a little.
Keith

[ibby458]

Brandon;

Sugar content makes all the difference in the world. The roadside maples are the only ones that I pay to rent, but I've seen sugar content as high as 5 1/2% off these trees. (Not this year. Best I got was 4.5%) The deep woods maples are quite disappointing at 2.5-2.8%, UNTIL I think about what sugar content you get, then I'm grateful it's that high!

[MASSEY JACK]

Dave, what do you see as the benefits of the hard pipe bringing in outside air to supply the blower? I 'm thinking that maybe it will be better because cold air is more dense with more oxygen --just like feeding air in an engine. Most blower setups I have seen just take air from the sugarhouse. I do think it would be good to not have any trip cords on the floor.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Keith,

One thing to remember about Proctor is they undertap their trees. They only put 1 tap per tree if I remember correctly regardless of size and of course, they are going to get a higher per tap ratio. :?

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

post edited

[Toblerone]

Im no physicist, but I believe the specific heat of air is very low, so the energy difference between outside air and inside air would be negligible. Also, I wouldn't think the colder air would have significantly more oxygen in it. I could be wrong.

The thing is that the air for combustion has to come from somewhere. If you vent the smoke to the outside, the the combustion air WILL be coming from the outside one way or another. If you don't have a duct, then air will come through the door, windows, siding, anywhere there is a crack.

If you have a duct near or connected directly to the blower, the cold air from outside will go directly to the fire instead of first going through your sugar house.

If your sugar house is too warm to begin with, then the duct doesn't make sense. If your sugar house is chilly and drafty, then I would think the duct should help tremendously. Also, if your shack is sealed up tight with no cracks, the the duct is essential to provide enough air for combustion.

Dave

[Toblerone]

Im a weekend boiler with 24 taps on droplines to 5gal buckets. We made 5.25 gallons of syrup. Some light, some medium, and some borderline dark. We didn't keep track of the total sap, but we were averaging about 60g sap per gal syrup. :(

I learned alot this year thanks to this forum. I hope to have 50 taps next year. Can't wait to try out all the ideas learned from this forum. Thanks to all of you.

Dave

[ibby458]

My only disappointment this year was grade. (That's where I was hoping the UV would help) We only had 2 days where we made light amber. We had about an 8 day run the first part of the season, and 6 days of it was medium amber. There was a 6 day stretch where it was too warm, and a lot of producers pulled their taps. It restarted for another 6 days, when I made 25 gallons of dark amber, and 45 gallons of grade B and C syrup. Sure glad that I didn't jump the gun pulling taps!

I'm going to put a seperate air intake in for the forced draft blower, too. I can't say that I'll always have this evaporator, so I won't put it in the floor, just run the pipe under the evaporator and out the wall.

[maple flats]

I have a drafty sugarhouse and I want to help keep it a little warmer, this is why I want the fresh air intake. If I get too warm I can always open a window or door but my wife helps boil only I she is warm enough and when she boils during the afternoon while I drive school bus I finish mid evening instead of mid night, this is why I want a warmer sugarhouse.
Dave

[mountainvan]

2006 season was ok for me. made a little over 300 gals syrup, lots of light. right now I'm trying to get everything cleaned and put away right so 2007 will be an easier start than 2006. as for plans? depends on this years sales. would like to add vacuum, and more taps, to my largest sugarbush, and get a filterpress. I'd also like a bassboat and world peace. see what santa brings me.

[saphead]

Sat in on some seminars @ Bascoms put on by Tim Wilmot and Brian Stone from the Proctor Research Center, awsome production ratios.2004: 1549 taps(400 gravity)-930 gal.syrup .6 gal./tap ave. 2% sap 17.2" vac. 2005:1549 taps all on vac. 800 gal. syrup .52gal./tap 2.6% sap 19.8" vac. 2006:1777 taps (all vac.) 1117 gal. syrup .63 gal./tap 2.0%sap 20.6" vac.
They put only 1 tap per tree,which makes a diference in the long runs as the pressure in the tree is released over a longer period of time and the vac. sucks sap out of a larger section of the tree. Using 2 or more taps w/ vac. the sections will overlap w/time,although Tim said on short big runs you will get some more sap out of the tree w/2 taps, I didn't write down the%'s from the graph. Only 500 new taps this year,all others 3 years old.
Two more years on the test plots from the different manufactures and I think they will run tube cleaning tests on these sections. Basically no difference in production from the different manufactures test plots.

[sapman]

I was at Tim's seminar yesterday. I really love seeing what they are doing, and getting the hard figures they put together. Wish I could have heard what they presented today. But I'm glad I was there yesterday, as the weather was PERFECT! Nothing better than being on that mountain, in the sun, talking about maple!

[HHM-07]

Hi Folk's
I am new here , my first year since i was a kid for suraring. Got a late start due to deep snow but overall it was good and enjoyed it .110 taps 60 on line 50 on buckets. Made 14+ gals 4 fancy 2 dark amber the rest light and med amber. Hope to do better next year. Could tap 1500+ but at age 69 started this year with 110.


2x4 leader w/tin pans
Bolens 4x4 27 hp tractor
10x14 sugarhouse
Dick & Georgette
Hobby Hill Maples