lots of sap

[lisound]

Not sure if the rain helped or hurt, but my buckets were almost all full today.
35 gal on 15 taps...and i wanted to put more in. I'm toast from collecting.
very steep grade to climb up with full 5 gal buckets...need to figure something out because this will kill me.

[valleyman]

waaa

Sounds like you're up with a baby all night or something running outa energy and all. :cry:

Interesting. It slowed down for me. I'm pulling in the bags and cleaning them out with some hot water and set them out again tomorrow after work.

There was another post saying just what you're experiencing- foggy & rainy= good flow

[lisound]

Not sure. One bucket was slight yellow...all the others were very clean and sweet.
my trees are in a swampy wetland. Maybe that's giving me better runs???

[CTfarm]

I've had pretty good runs this week. I'll have to start boiling tomorrow if I don't want to spend every minute boiling this weekend.

[lisound]

I hear ya ctfarm. And my wife wants to go to the maple syrup festival in stamford this weekend...i told her why not just hang with me for the day while i boil...
guess my operation isn't "festival" worthy. Ha

[wkies]

Come on down to our maple sugar festival this weekend for sure. We've had a great start to the season and will be boiling all day both Saturday and Sunday. Lots to do. Hope to see you there.

[bunkerchump]

Here in Seymour, sap flow has been strong, and run has been long, but the sugar content has dropped tremendously. Last weekend, I was 2.5 to 2.75. Monday was around 2, but last night I was at 1.75. Today, I dumped the take, as the reading was 1.25 and below. It hurt, cause the flow was still strong. I think we need some colder nights to get the sugar content higher. Is anyone else seeing decrease sugar content?

[CTfarm]

My sugar content this week has also dropped to around 1.5 or below. I too have to make a decision whether or not to boil or dump. That RO for next year is looking better and better.

[lafite]

I'm dumping today. I have 3 gallons to finish this afternoon and we'll start fresh on the next run. I couldn't imagine dumping any last year..

[lisound]

how do you measure?

[bunkerchump]

how do you measure?

Sap Hydrometer. Works similar to a syrup hydrometer except is calibrated to pick up much lower sugar content. Divide the sugar content which reads from the hydrometer into 86 and that's how many gallons of sap you need to make one gallon of syrup. For example, a 1.75 reading on the hydrometer will need just over 49 gallons. That's why I was dumping last nights take which was at or below 1.25 (almost 70 gallons required). BTW, the hydrometer is calibrated to read sap at 38 degrees F.

[Blocmi]

It's amazing how much sap flow can differ within a small area(CT). It's been a poor week for me so far. From 25 taps I collected 10 gallons Tuesday, 5 gallons Wednesday, and 3 gallons today. I had better runs on ten taps in the first week of January than with all 25 in now.

[Starting Small]

I have noticed the same thing in North Central CT. We just need a good freeze to get the trees back in order. If not tonight the weekend looks to have cold nights and then we are back in business!
-Dave

[bunkerchump]

Yeah, I'm with you Dave. I'm hoping it gets cold enough tonight, but as you say, the weekend looks better. I have plans Sunday, so I'd like to get enough to process Saturday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Just went out and collected today's take and the SAP flow decreased, but the sugar content was a bit higher, but nowhere near levels from last weekend.