Anyone hit last years total yet I have

[TRAILGUY]

last year 20 gallons from 1000 gallons sap

this year 20 gallons from 890 gallons sap

higher sugar content and it is still early

4 gallons med/amber and 16 gallons dark amber

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

I will most likely surpass my last year total tonight of 15 gal. What I have made is right on the fancy/ med amber line good taste light aromatic hint of maple.aroma , oh wait that next year flavor grade

[DonMcJr]

Here in Michigan Today is the first real big flow day and I am already at I think 105 Gallons of Sap and last year I think I only got 129 1/2 Gallons of sap. I also have 29 more taps though...:cool:

[Pweideman]

Here in Michigan Today is the first real big flow day and I am already at I think 105 Gallons of Sap and last year I think I only got 129 1/2 Gallons of sap. I also have 29 more taps though...:cool:

Don, how many gallons of sap did you get today on how many taps?

I only got 6 gallons on 23 taps. I have trees that are running on the center tap and the side taps are dry.

[Pweideman]

The percentage of sugar in my roadside trees is 2.2% (I only have silver maples)
The percentage of sugar in my woods is 1.8%

That means I need 39 gallons of sap from my roadside trees to make 1 gallon of syrup and 47.7 gallons to make 1 gallon from my trees in the woods. Yikes! Wish I had a couple miles of road frontage.

Does the sugar level change as the season progresses or is it constant?

Is 2.2% good for silver maples or about average in your experience?

Thanks,

Paul

[DonMcJr]

Paul I am at 30 Gallons for 41 taps for today and counting cause my Gravity Tube is still flowing...Video from today in Michigan Section...

[aws]

Passed last years total on my first finished batch. Only 3 gallons last year, so far 5 this year. Still no amazing sap runs like two years ago though.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

up by approx. 4 gal from last year

[Dill]

I was just calculating that last night, I passed last year's total of 23 gallons already. Which really isn't saying much since that was 32% of the 2011.

[steve J]

I will boil for first time this weekend and I suspect by Monday night I will have last years total of 4 gallons lol. I am small with 2x4 and 200 taps but last year was the pits. My expectations are to make about 25 gallons.

[smokeyamber]

I actually have less sap than this time last year, but with the forecast this weekend should bring me up to close to last year. Ran pretty good yesterday with around 20 gallons from the 50+ taps. Some trees haven't woken up yet :D I am expecting this season will run a bit longer than last year's one week :D so no worries that I can't beat my 4 gallon total from last year. First boil may be this weekend if I have time, otherwise I see some late night boils in my future... love boiling at night !

[happy thoughts]

Does the sugar level change as the season progresses or is it constant?l

As I understand it, it fluctuates. Tends to go down toward the end of the season. Also tends to go down over long sap runs like those times when it drips all day and night and sometimes beyond. Toward the end of those kinds of runs sugar content decreases.

Now if it would only start running good here. I'll take any sugar content I can get! Glad to hear some are doing well already. Hope everyone has a great season and beats last years yields:)

[happy thoughts]

Paul- I've posted this link before but you might be interested in this older study from UVM where the variation in sugar content of sugar maples is studied over several years and within years, Look for the section on variations within a single season.

http://vip2.uvm.edu/~uvmaple/sapsugarcontentvariation.pdf

As for your silver maples I can't tell you. Someone who taps them and tests the sap would be better able to give you info. I think most research has focused on sugar maple and I don't have silvers so never looked into them much. The common wisdom from what I know is that they are less sweet than sugars though there are some claims to super sweet silvers offered for sale that supposedly run in the 4% range.

[Greyfox]

With last nights 18 degree low and today amazing spike of 55, I drew 3/4 GPT today and matched last years miserable total already. AND last year I had twice as many taps at this time since the flow was so lousy! What a much more enjoyable year. The sugar content has come up, I'm making nice DA, and if the long range forecast holds we should be sugaring up here for another four weeks. :D Hope everyone else is having a good season as well.

Doc

[KenWP]

I already passed last years total with just one tap on one tree. I tapped 4 trees last year and never got a drop of sap. I can't make syrup anymore due to health and work but we use the sap to make coffee and drinks with until I retire someday and have time again.
I have one hard maple beside my silver maples and the silvers test almost twice the sugar content. I think it's also due to the slivers being twice as tall and several times bigger around also.