Early?

[Ravenseye]

Here it is, December 30, 2013 and I was walking around the edge of my property yesterday. I looked across at my neighbors field and he has sap buckets hanging all around it already. Is it me, or is that quite early? I know I got started late last year (my first year and I mis-judged the flow) but starting now doesn't seem quite right to me. I'm in Pepperell, MA and he's the only one I see with buckets out. What do you all think?

Happy New Year everyone. I wish the best of health and success to all of you and your families!

[BnSmaple]

Definitely early if he wants them to go all season. Buckets tend to dry up faster than tubing

[Shawn]

yep I would say early we look towards Feb.:o

[Ravenseye]

Yeah, that's what I thought. Last year I started at the end of February and missed a little although it worked out fine. I don't know what he's thinking but maybe he's always done it like this. Who knows. I never noticed before but this year he's cleared a lot of brush along the edges and I can see clear across. For a minute, I thought that maybe he'd never taken the buckets down but then I saw him out there putting them up.

[adk1]

would be worth a conversation with him

[Sugarmaker]

I agree he may know something we don't? Might be interesting to find out his plan.
Regards,
Chris

[sjdoyon]

Maybe you need to drop off a calendar to your neighbor.


Here it is, December 30, 2013 and I was walking around the edge of my property yesterday. I looked across at my neighbors field and he has sap buckets hanging all around it already. Is it me, or is that quite early? I know I got started late last year (my first year and I mis-judged the flow) but starting now doesn't seem quite right to me. I'm in Pepperell, MA and he's the only one I see with buckets out. What do you all think?

Happy New Year everyone. I wish the best of health and success to all of you and your families!

[Jebediah]

Saw a person on other thread today who describes third boil ongoing. He is in NY I think.

[SevenCreeksSap]

as tempted as I've been with the perfect sap weather we've been having,I'm holding off until feb or late January like we started last year. don't want the taps to close off before the real stretch begins.

[RC Maple]

I thought about asking someone on here that had been tapped about how they ran the weekend before Christmas when we had 3 days rain. As we were going by a woods we tap" on our way to grandmas house" for Christmas I said I bet the buckets would be full today. Also the weather we had here last weekend was beautiful with highs in the upper 40's and I could just imagine the trees would be running. As for being too early I would say so but I know there were some talking about fall tapping on here that may have buckets hanging now. Well, how was it?

[maple flats]

Any sap collected now will likely be lower sugar%. Each time there is a freeze thaw cycle the % rises a little. I think this is too early, especially for buckets.

[killingworthmaple]

Im in CT well south of MA and it's gonna be below -0- Sat morning. I think it's a bit early winter only just started Dec 21st.

[Dave Y]

One thing folks need to remember , Spring comes once a year, this wasn't it.

[RC Maple]

My favorite quote about going too early was from a customer of mine at the fertilizer plant who was grumbling about neighbors planting corn before he thought the time was right. He said "You don't celebrate Christmas on the 23rd just because it's a nice day."

[wall hollow]

Here in Pa we had a couple days that were real warm and rainy but that is it. It is cold now and will be cold for awhile. I plan on getting a month or 2 of ice fishing in before I tap. Last year I relied on Accuweather to decide when to tap. Left a good day on the ice to tap and had to wait 3 weeks for the sap to flow. Wont be making that mistake again. Normally late Feb i can tap around here.

[Ravenseye]

Well, he's a new neighbor and I haven't been able to catch up with him. He's been doing a bunch of brush clearing near the edge of the property and I get the impression he's woods "wise". What's even stranger is that he has far less buckets than he has trees to tap. As an example, our property line is divided by a stone wall. On "my" side of the wall is a pretty good sized maple that I'll probably put three taps in this year. Just 20 yards away is a similar sized maple on "his" side of the wall. I think the previous property owners would have let me tap that one if I had asked. Yet, he hasn't done a thing with it. Instead, his taps are a hundred or more yards away along a different wood line. My wife is wondering if he's just cleaning up to flip the property and the buckets are for effect. If I run across him, I'll let you all know. In the meantime, the only wood I'm burning is to keep warm in the house and, with the temps we're having tonight, it'll take a bit to get the job done!

Happy New Year everyone!

[Sugar]

Well, he's a new neighbor and I haven't been able to catch up with him. He's been doing a bunch of brush clearing near the edge of the property and I get the impression he's woods "wise". What's even stranger is that he has far less buckets than he has trees to tap. As an example, our property line is divided by a stone wall. On "my" side of the wall is a pretty good sized maple that I'll probably put three taps in this year. Just 20 yards away is a similar sized maple on "his" side of the wall. I think the previous property owners would have let me tap that one if I had asked. Yet, he hasn't done a thing with it. Instead, his taps are a hundred or more yards away along a different wood line. My wife is wondering if he's just cleaning up to flip the property and the buckets are for effect. If I run across him, I'll let you all know. In the meantime, the only wood I'm burning is to keep warm in the house and, with the temps we're having tonight, it'll take a bit to get the job done!

Happy New Year everyone!

Maybe he is doing what we are...We are trying to keep the amount of sap manageable, but don't want to risk losing out with an unpredictable winter. I have about half the taps in...If they close off I will increase the number or I will just increase the number in a few weeks. We are in Kentucky, so never know how the season will go. I guess we are sap gamblers~

[PATheron]

Put some test taps in here at Pierce and Sons and its starting to run some. Been real cold last few days but ground is all thawed under the snow so I think they want to turn on. Its only been above freezing for a few hours but they want to run. /Going to be 36 degrees till tomarrow morning at 10 am then its going way cold for two days then this weekend going to be 40s for a week. Way early for buckets but it is running. I have the vacuum on but if you pull a tap it runs out gravity. Theron

[spud]

Today I should get some sap from my Fall Tapping trees. It's going to get cold tonight but next week we have 5 days of warmer temps coming. Not sure if those five days will be warm enough for the sap to run. I don't plan to tap my main woods until Feb this year.

Spud

[shess6]

never posted before, but looking for input on tapping. I have been involved in collecting and making syrup for many years, however this is only my second year doing it completely myself. I'm in southeastern pa and thinking I should start tapping end of week, temps in the 40's during the day and twenties at night for at least a week starting Thursday. long range shows on and off cold spells but for the most part good weather. My concern is that if I wait our weather down here sometimes warms up so quick we don't have good freezes at night and sometimes its in the 50's during the day. Any input would be great, thanks. Last year I waited till beginning of February and the season only was good for about a week and a half.

[PATheron]

Shess- Can you ask an experienced guy in your area what the standard time usually is? I know in my area it would be later but the old timers say don't tap till February 14 and you make all most all your season the third week of march and that usually is how it is. You have to decide if you want to play around with a little sap here and a little sap there and a long season or just wait till standard time and do it all at once. If you have a small tap count and lots of trees you could tap some early and then tap different ones later? If you tap earlier than normal it can work out good but youll have to have a vac pump running whenever its over freezing, use new plastic, etc, etc, all the things that keeping a tap hole running a long time entails. Theron

[unc23win]

Shess6 I would think that you are about 3 weeks ahead of me based on what I know about spring planting here and there. I am planning on starting Feb 1 which is 2 weeks early for me. I think Buffalo Creek Maple is fairly close to you not sure when he taps.

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

Shess6, I am from Somerset County, and due to the elevation we have a later season then you do. I started tapping Feb 6 last year, and made syrup shortly after. Its going to take me a couple of weeks to tap, so I will start earlier this year. I see you are close to Allentown. I would think that with your weather conditions, you should be close. Put out a test tap and see if its starts to run well.

[PATheron]

Shess- Another thing to keep in mind that Ive found is that if the ground really has frost in it the trees wont run for a while even when it gets warm so an early warm up might not produce sap and then it gets cold again. If it snows and then gets cold and there is no frost in the ground itll go to running real quick when it warms up . Say your off road with your pick up in the field and if you get on the gas and it just spins in the snow the ground Is hard, If you go right to making ruts theres no frost and the trees will run like that when it warms up. Theron

[Gary R]

Shess, I go along with the rest of the guy's. You are in a lot warmer place than the rest of us. There's risk because we don't know what the long term weather will be. I started about now last year and had a great 12 week season! This coming warm up is tempting. But, it's -10 right now. We have very little snow. I think it will take a few days in the 40's to warm the trunks up. Regardless I'm getting everything cleaned up and ready this weekend, just in case:)

Theron, good to hear from you and best of luck!

[PATheron]

Good luck to you too Gary- I think that frost is a huge factor because Ive had good weather here with frost and they wouldn't run for a long time but It can be real cold but no frost and they will be quick to run. Ive been tapping because I want to be all tapped by feb first and it takes me a long time to get ready and the other night it got to 36 degrees and I was hoping it wouldn't run because I didn't want to mess with the vac pump but I ended up having to turn it on because it went right to running. If I only did a small number of taps I wouldn't tap now because its way early and I think they would dry up unless you had a nice little fix where you can leave a little pump running all the time. I think that does help a ton. I just wait till if freezes up in January, use the Dr's checkvalves, and try to never have releaser with sap coming into it without the vac on and cross my fingers and it seems to work for me. The taps will decline at the end but by then Im making mersh and I don't care anyway. Gonna find something else to do this morning, really cold right now. Theron

[shess6]

thanks for the suggestions and the advice