Syrup to tap ratios

[madmapler]

I've been talking to a few long time producers in my area(nw. mass.-so. vt.) and It seems that even though these guys are on vacuum (or at least mostly) they average around a gallon of syrup to every 4 or 5 taps. From what I've heard, theres guys out there getting close to .5 gallons to a tap in some places. Just wondering what other producers in my region as well as other regions and states average out at. Also, if they have high (honest) percentages, why they think they are getting those numbers. Thanks

[mapleack]

On low vacuum, 20" average I made .33 gpt in 2011, .33 gpt in 2012 and .39 gpt this year. Properly sized vacuum and mainlines. Short, tight laterals with 10 taps per lateral or less, I average about 7. Checkvalve taps as well. My tubing in the woods ranges from new to 9 years old. The 9 year old stuff has up to ten taps per lat, the new stuff has 5 or less. If I'd had high vac this year I believe I would've broken .5 gpt. Maybe next year.

[heus]

I got .48 per tap on 517 taps this year. Over 150 were on buckets or sap saks. My tubing was on medium vac, around 21" and was almost all new, with the clear and black check valve spouts.

[madmapler]

I've noticed you guys south of here tend to get more sugar even out of your red maples. It seems like 2% at mid season is fairly decent for a sugar maple around here. I'm still pretty new to this but I hope we're just having some off years or something. One thing Mapleack said about short laterals might apply because most of the guys around here are just getting on board with vacuum and are still using lines set up for gravity. I'll be running shorter laterals as I set up my woods and I hope this makes a difference. Thanks guys.

[heus]

My sugar content is not good at all usually 1.5-1.8 sometimes hits 2.

[madmapler]

Heus, I was just looking at your website and I noticed the 1.2 to 1.5 sugar content in 2010. I'm glad to see that you can get that much product per tap. It gives me a little hope. I just bought an older 2.5x10 fixer upper for this year. Nice site. Great history.

[mapleack]

Mad, I started out at 1.5% ssc and finished at 0.8% ssc this season. 33 gallons of sap per tap. Some of my older laterals are upwards of 200ft with the ten taps, new stuff is 100 ft or less.

[maple flats]

I started at 2.1-2.3 in my 2 sugarbushes. I ended with 1.5-1.7. Even with several issues I ended up with .267 gal/tap. If my help had opened the valves on the one bush I can only imagine how much better it would have been. One woods only had 2 valves open on mains out of 9 total for about 10 days. (the 2 man team doing that woods will not work unsupervised again.) That bush was the higher sugar% too. My vacuum only runs at 19" on that woods and 17" on my other woods. Going to higher vacuum on the lower one ASAP, the other is on a vacuum tank and I don't dare run higher until I put a releaser on that system.

[madmapler]

Andy, Those sugar numbers are almost identical to a bush thats close by to me. I have the opportunity to tap it (2000+ taps).
A few guys in my area have tried it and walked away from it but as I said earlier, no one around here really runs laterals the right way. I went to a seminar on tubing for vacuum last winter and he taught it the same way and swears by it for high yields. Maybe once I get an RO I'll give it a shot...... Dave, I hear ya on the Supervision thing. Part of the reason I got out of construction was because good help is sooooo hard to find these days. Thanks for your input. Sean

[motowbrowne]

We run about 300 taps on buckets and 135 on gravity lines. Made about 165 gallons this year, so .38 gallons per tap I guess. When we used to do just 300 on buckets we always figured we were closer to 1/3 gallon per tap than the 1/4 I hear as the rule of thumb. We do get lucky with sugar content, starting the season at 4.7% from the buckets and 3.9 from the gravity, ending around 3.2% all around. We tap about 85% sugars with some reds. Had one tree we called the "easy money tree" this year, 5% sugar, right next to the tank, and a full bucket almost every time we looked. Very happy this year, but I was worried at the beginning, we tapped out half the trees on march 6th, and didn't get a run until the end of the month. I though they'd start drying up in early april, but they held on a lot longer than I expected. I think it helped that we had a lot of days that only got up to 34 and nights only down to 28. Glad to hear that I'm not too far behind the vacuum guys.

[brookledge]

I went to high vacuum two years ago. last yr was not a good yr for me. This year i made .59 gallons per tap or 6.5 lbs per tap either way you look at it. I got about 30 gallons of sap per tap

[maple flats]

Brookledge, what was your specific vacuum to get that? I have been planning to get a Busch Rotary claw pump in a year or 2 at the most. First I need a bigger RO so I can still spend time checking for leaks or the result will not justify the expense.

[jrgagne99]

We run about 300 taps on buckets and 135 on gravity lines. Made about 165 gallons this year, so .38 gallons per tap I guess. When we used to do just 300 on buckets we always figured we were closer to 1/3 gallon per tap than the 1/4 I hear as the rule of thumb. We do get lucky with sugar content, starting the season at 4.7% from the buckets and 3.9 from the gravity, ending around 3.2% all around. We tap about 85% sugars with some reds. Had one tree we called the "easy money tree" this year, 5% sugar, right next to the tank, and a full bucket almost every time we looked. Very happy this year, but I was worried at the beginning, we tapped out half the trees on march 6th, and didn't get a run until the end of the month. I though they'd start drying up in early april, but they held on a lot longer than I expected. I think it helped that we had a lot of days that only got up to 34 and nights only down to 28. Glad to hear that I'm not too far behind the vacuum guys.

Motowbrowne, that is incredible production for buckets/gravity. And 5% sugar on some trees? Wow. You should collect some seeds and send the to Cornell or UVM so they can work on cloning them. If you were on vacuum, I bet you'd be close to 1.0 gal/tap on those trees on avg/good year. Or would the sugar content drop due to vacuum?