eastern ontario taping

[govner4]

when do ppl plan on tapping up in eastern ontario ?

[govner4]

nobody from around theses parts ? must be some canadians on here weather starting to warm up a bit up here +1 and sunny on moday or 34ish
on that other scale :) im going to put in my taps this comming week and I think. read an article that says early tapping not really detrimental to production long term any way.

[DrewCP]

govner4,

Check out the Canadian forum "Tapping-Canada 2013" Most of the Ontario guys are there.

I'm not too far from you. We have absolutely no plans to tap anytime soon. Weather forcast is showing only one day above freezing in the next 2 weeks. Still some nights in the -15*C range. (curently -22*C) Unless something changes drastically, we will shoot for early March. Good luck and keep us up to date.

[govner4]

hey thanks drew I will check out the canadian forum and with it being -24 here this morning it kinda kills the buzz a touch
:)

[markr]

I also live in the Kemptville area we were thinking of possibly tapping the weekend after Family Day but will be checking the long term forecast

[ennismaple]

I'm praying for a "normal" season, starting about March 10th. That means tapping the weekends prior to then for us.

[Kyle Baker]

Hey Kemptville / Bishops mills/ lanark people! I'm just over between Jasper and Toledo. I'm just itching to get tapping as well, but still holding off. I'm hoping the weather turns right around the start of march, but the weather network doesn't go that far ahead. Looks like things are starting to work in the right direction though.
Cheers,
Kyle

[Kyle Baker]

Anyone else thinking of tapping for this weekend?

[markr]

I think I'm going to start tapping either this weekend or early next week

[ennismaple]

Kyle - We're gonna start tapping this coming weekend because it takes us over 70 man hours to get ready to boil. If I was in your situation I'd probably hold off until a few days before a good run of +5 to +7 C weather. If you tap buckets too early you'll miss some good runs the first few weeks of April - assuming the season goes that long!

[Kyle Baker]

Thanks for the advice. I only have last years experience to guide me, and that was a short short season. I tap silver maples, and they were budded by st Patrick's day. I'd love if weather permitted a longer season. I'll just keep an eye on the forecast then and hope I make the right decision.
Happy tapping!

[daverobitaille]

I am thinking to tap Saturday as well. They are calling for +2 C . The weather men talks about cool temps around 1 to 3 degree for the all week. Is it still too cold? I use buckets and plan 80+ taps.
Dave

[Run Forest Run!]

Kyle and Dave, after reading lots of advice on here I decided to tap early but am only about "half in". What I mean by that is;

* if a have a tree that can take two taps, I put in one - the other tap I'll put in closer to the traditional time of early/mid March
* for trees that can only take one tap, I've saved half of them to tap in early March

This way I won't miss any early runs (and there haven't been any so far for me) and I can benefit from a longer season if the weather cooperates. Just my two cents - but then in Canada with our penny gone I'd have to round that down to 0 cents, so there you have it, my advice now means nothing. :lol:

[Oddmott]

Just my two cents - but then in Canada with our penny gone I'd have to round that down to 0 cents, so there you have it, my advice now means nothing. :lol:

Haha, that's awesome. Fricken penny drama.

My sugar bush is a good 1.5 hrs north of the Kemptville folks, and there's no sign of tapping weather up there yet. Probably won't have to tap until the first weekend of March at this rate.
Heading up this weekend to do a big firewood and equipment prep, make sure we're ready to rock when the sap rolls.

[ennismaple]

Kyle - Do NOT use 2012 as guide! Yes, global warming means we are seeing an earlier season than in past years but every year is different. We have 25 years of records about when we first made syrup and the last day syrup was produced. Last season was the earliest end (March 18th) that we've ever seen, with the average season ending on April 9th.

For your reference, we have a chart on our website showing when we first and last boiled each year. It can be found at:
http://ennismaple.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Ennis-Maple-syrup-first-and-last-boil-dates.pdf

Good luck and happy tapping!

[Run Forest Run!]

Ennismaple, thanks for sharing that link. That's really interesting and helpful when put in the form of a graph.

[Kyle Baker]

Wow, great info Ennismaple. With my inexperience, I always appreciate all the tips I can get from people who have been at it a long time. Just looking at the weather I don't think I'll be tapping quite yet. Maybe into the start of march. This will give me more time to prepare. I've just started chicken farming this last week so I could use this weekend to get a few more things done on the coop and prepare some of my maple gear.