Drop lines

[Fred Henderson]

What is the average lenght of a drop line? Is it ok to use the older purple Lamb tubing as a drop line? I have a lot of it, I am not totally against buy the white for drops or whatever is recomended.

[Jim Brown]

Fred; From what I've heard you will get pros and cons about the purple tubing. I make mine 2 feet long and it appears to work well and gives enough room to move around even a large tree to tap the side away from the lateral line. As a matter of fact I just ordered two(2) rolls from Mike in Frankiln Vt. to make another 500 drops for the spring season.
Hope this helps
Jim

[brookledge]

Fred
Alot depends on whether you will take it down or leave it up yr. round.
Yes it can be used but I would only use it if I was taking it down. And even then its still not the best.
When it is left up all yr. it will turn black in a couple of yrs. Also since it is made of vinyl it is porus and alows for bacteria to grab on on the inside easier than poly ethelyne or semi rigid.
If you are going to put up new lines and leave them up for many years than I would recomend spending alittle extra now and go with a semi rigid like 4 seasons
Keith

[ennismaple]

We make ours 28" - it gives you lots of flexibility for taphole location.

I second the 4-seasons recommendation. It doesn't get gunked up like the other stuff does.

[brookledge]

I forgot to say I cut mine around 30"
Keith

[Fred Henderson]

Thanks guys. I think that I will go with 24" drops. These lines will be not vac. I bought 500' x 5/16" of the 4 season stuff. So as I understand it I can use it for drops as well as laterals.

[royalmaple]

Fred-

I'm not sure if you got all rigid or semi rigid? but I think you'll like using rigid for latterals, and semi rigid for drops. Semi makes it a lot easier to get around the trees, seems a bit more forgiving and you don't have to fight it.

[oneoldsap]

I like 30" drops, they allow you to move your tap holes up and down as well as around the tree. We made our first ones 24" and they just were too short after a very few years. A decent tubing instalation should last 10 years you want to give yourself plenty of room to move.

[Dave Y]

I was to a tubing seminar at dominion&grimm in november and they recomended 30" or longer. But they sell tubing. I would make them as long as needed to tap around the tree.

[802maple]

Look at this way if your average tree is 12 inches it is alittle over 36 inches all the way around it, so if you were to have a 24 inch drop line you would be quite limited as to where you could put a tap on the back side of that tree. That is a small tree in most cases. We use a mininum of 30 inches and sometimes 36 which allows us to tap the tree just about anywhere you would with a bucket. I have seen where sugarmakers with short drops have pretty much girdled there trees after a few years.

[Russell Lampron]

I have tried both 24" and 30" drops and I like the longer ones better. I have used just about everyhting for drop lines too and like the semi rigid the best.

Russ

[Homestead Maple]

I agree with 802's recommendations. Some of my trees are over 36" and I'll make some drop lines longer than 30" for those.