Tap holes

[Darkhollow Sugar Bush]

We have 700 taps on vacuum all the new clear 5/16 with check valve in them. How long will the tap hole last?? Tapped another hundred yesterday and they are on just gravity tubing and it seems like the 100 on gravity are doing as good as the 700 on vacuum.. the ones on vacuum have been tapped since mid Feb.. Could this be possible or are they not running good enough?? Just hope the tap holes last.

Any info please.Should we retap the 700???? I heard not to ever retap just wondering if it would matter with the smaller 5/16 hole


Thanks

[psparr]

I'm in pa and tapped Jan 3rd. There still going.

[psparr]

Just clear seasonals. Not check valve, and drops into buckets.

[spud]

We have 700 taps on vacuum all the new clear 5/16 with check valve in them. How long will the tap hole last?? Tapped another hundred yesterday and they are on just gravity tubing and it seems like the 100 on gravity are doing as good as the 700 on vacuum.. the ones on vacuum have been tapped since mid Feb.. Could this be possible or are they not running good enough?? Just hope the tap holes last.

Any info please.Should we retap the 700???? I heard not to ever retap just wondering if it would matter with the smaller 5/16 hole




Thanks

Don't re-tap your trees. Your taps will last you over 3 months just the way they are. I have 12 smaller trees (8-10) inches that I tapped November 14 for a fall tapping experiment and they are still running good quality sap using the smart spouts from CDL. I did not ream these tap holes because I felt the trees were to small to handle a larger spout. In the last three day's I have gotten 6 gallons from them with no vacuum. The sap on those trees was 2.0% yesterday. I did ream out some bigger trees that I had tapped in the fall also. As of now I have gotten 35 gallons of quality sap testing 2.8% as of yesterday. I know I will get over a gallon of syrup per tap on these test trees.

Spud

[PerryW]

It always seemed to me that freshly tapped holes run exceptionally well for a day or two after being tapped.

[Mark]

We have 700 taps on vacuum all the new clear 5/16 with check valve in them. How long will the tap hole last?? Tapped another hundred yesterday and they are on just gravity tubing and it seems like the 100 on gravity are doing as good as the 700 on vacuum.. the ones on vacuum have been tapped since mid Feb.. Could this be possible or are they not running good enough?? Just hope the tap holes last.

Any info please.Should we retap the 700???? I heard not to ever retap just wondering if it would matter with the smaller 5/16 hole


Thanks

Don't retap, the season has probably not gotten into full swing yet. Any frost in the ground in you area? I started tapping on Feb. 15th and just got done a few days ago. I am in the U.P. and the trees are still frozen.

[Darkhollow Sugar Bush]

Ya there is quite a bit of frost still in the ground. I just need to chill out a little bit and let it warm up lol

[ackerman75]

Wait till we get a "good" year Mike, these last two years have sucked, thinking 2013 isn't going to be much better than last year. If we get a good year you will get sick of seeing sap lol