Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[Ultimatetreehugger]

For those who are still running lets keep this season alive for a while.
Amen to that Spud!

[DrTimPerkins]

Amazing run the last couple of day, especially for so late in the season. We tapped from mid-Jan to mid-Feb (using mostly CV2, one section of 750 with new drops/spouts). In a 27 hr period ending yesterday (Friday) at 5pm, we had over 15,000 gal of sap...or about 2.9 gal/tap, averaging 1.8 Brix. Good amount of sap in the tanks again this morning. I don't have the sap totals for today for the production bush yet, but a good number of my research chambers were full by noon today (measured late-morning yesterday). Sap coming into the tanks is starting to smell somewhat yeasty this afternoon with the hot weather, but still not bad.

Long boil yesterday (our 4th of the season). Ended up making 728 gal of syrup yesterday, for a seasonal total of 2,783 gal or 0.54 gal/tap. All of it GD or AR so far.

We've got about 500 gal of 35 Brix concentrate in the bulk tank now waiting until we boil again. Probably early-middle of the week.

In other news....peepers started up in the pond this afternoon. Let's hope they're just jumping the gun a bit. Cooler weather coming tomorrow, but no freezes in our forecast...however the actual weather has been trending several degrees lower than the forecast for quite a while, so given that we hear the packers need dark syrup, we'll keep at it until we reach the buddy end (but stop when we get there). If it keeps going much longer we may need to buy more barrels.

[WestfordSugarworks]

We're at 0.44 gal/tap in our Westford bush right now, not including what's in the rig. I think we just need to make another 3 barrels or so, plus cook out whatever is in the rig and we'll be at 0.5 gpt. I think we'll make it through this warm day and continue until end of next week. A couple of possible freezes monday night and tuesday night. So we''ll see. We won't make it without the freezes.

Was walking lines two days ago in our jericho woods and as it warmed up, sap started hammering. Most of our drops over there are 3 years old (4th season on em) and we're running CV2s. They've been in the trees for between 14-15 weeks and running great. Still running good now for us, near 70 degrees here in both bushes. Think we're gonna have a really good year all things considered. Helped a buddy boil yesterday for 12 hours straight. He's running 30k taps on a wood fired rig.. Was a good experience learning a new system and understanding what a pain wood can be

[WestfordSugarworks]

The fact that actual weather has been below forecasts is what i'm banking on to keep us going.

[MJPJ Sugars]

That's it for us. Hot one in the shack last night and today. Surprisingly good year after such a late and stunted start, even though we must have sat on our concentrate too long this week and ended-up tossing the last few gallons of almost finished syrup. We couldn't add anything but the lightest heat or it would completely turn to foam, and even at boiling temp, it had this sticky, gooey "stringy" quality. Taste wasn't bad, but it wasn't what we're used to... so the ants and bees get a treat. Live and learn.

Finished at .36 gallons of syrup per tap. Even with the final dump, that's 72% of last year's (record) syrup tally on just 66% of last year's sap haul. Neat.

On to cleanup, then fishing :)

Good luck to all still at it!!

[Mead Maple]

I spent the day outside scrubbing my (incredibly generous - thanks again Steve j) neighbors pan and getting it back to tip top shape. Took advice of several folks here and used a crushed piece of half inch copper and made a spade scraper out of it to help where the niter was heavy. Took a bit with vinegar and the scraper followed up by the green sponge but came out great.
Also collected and pulled all of our taps and buckets. Was sad to dump the remains but was very cloudy and a lot of them full of small bees. Definitely not the same characteristics it was 4 weeks ago! Some trees have turned off but most were running hard. Such a gorgeous day to spend outside that was for sure! Thanks again to everyone for all the help and great information I have learned the last couple months in order to make this year such a great success!
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[blissville maples]

All done here, sap was coming through the RO at 70 plus degrees yesterday finally got a funny flavor little sour, and that's after the sap sitting in the tank for only 4 hours!!! Sap still running almost one gallon per tap still in 24 hours, sugar just over a percent. Not bad for the southern part of the Champlain valley, still getting sap just can't use it!!

1545 gallons on 3500 taps, just over 90,000 gallons of sap. 200 of them saplings that have never been cut, and another five to six hundred of them are cluster soft maples 8in diameter or less. I'm pretty sure my good trees are well over half a gallon per tap, with these much smaller trees coming in way less.

With all the setbacks I would have never thought we would have got that far. Been running old dairy pump on 17 in on one sugarbush do to a pump issue on a high vac pump, 1 mechanical releaser that wanted to keep failing, and 600 gallons of sap down the driveway!!!
I think the best part about it was we boiled for less than 4 weeks compared to 10 or 12 weeks last year I made 100 gallons more syrup on 3000 gallons less sap so it was a very nice laid back easy season so to speak, with three weeks of prep time and 4 weeks of boiling and probably looking at a week of clean up- not bad.
Hope everyone else met their mark!!

[spud]

Went down to 30 degrees last night even though the weather person predicted 37 for a low. Last night at 9:00 pm sap was almost to a stop. Sap is now starting to roll again at 200 GPH and I think that will increase as the day goes on. Safe to say we will be running till next weekend with 2 more freezing nights to come. Sap tested at 1.4% this morning.

Spud

[GeneralStark]

That's a wrap. Boiled today what I collected since Friday afternoon; about 1500 gal. of milky sap. Made about 30 gal. including boiling out the pans, but only got 15 through the filter press. Will try for the other 15 after cleaning the press but it's definitely not table syrup. It just got too warm yesterday and the sap flow and quality dropped way off. Even a freeze isn't going to bring it back at this point so doesn't make sense to keep at it.

Ended up at .56gpt for the season which I am very happy with. 12 boils in just about exactly a month. A great season overall. Now it's time to clean up and move on to other things including getting ready for the farmers market season. Good luck to everyone still in the game!

[wiam]

Boiled twice yesterday. Close to 80 gallons. About 27 today. Today we finally made some dark robust. Not looking like a good freeze coming so not sure how much longer. Still filtering ok and flavor is still good....

[Mead Maple]

Went down to 30 degrees last night even though the weather person predicted 37 for a low. Last night at 9:00 pm sap was almost to a stop. Sap is now starting to roll again at 200 GPH and I think that will increase as the day goes on. Safe to say we will be running till next weekend with 2 more freezing nights to come. Sap tested at 1.4% this morning.

Spud

Way to go Spud! Funny how this is turning into an all out marathon and a game of optimism and luck. Keep it rolling!


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[spud]

Yesterday the sap slowed way down when the sun went away. I only got .25 gpt. Hoping the two nights of freezing temps will change things.

General it sounds like you had another great season.

Spud

[spud]

Boiled twice yesterday. Close to 80 gallons. About 27 today. Today we finally made some dark robust. Not looking like a good freeze coming so not sure how much longer. Still filtering ok and flavor is still good....

I hope you make it till weekend.

Mead are you still running?

Spud

[DrTimPerkins]

No freezes in the forecast for us (trend has definitely been colder than what has been forecast), but our vacuum is 27+" Hg or better, and sap is still 1.6 Brix. At this point it's slow and steady since we're pulling water right up out of the ground, through the roots, and out the taphole. Got 3,000 gal of sap from the main bush over the past two days (Sat afternoon through Mon morning) -- all decent sap, a little cloudy but not buddy. Probably another 3,500-4,000 gal from our other woods...quality there is not quite as good -- not at all buddy yet, but perhaps a touch of sour. We're concentrating a bit of that questionable sap into a segregated tank until we can boil some of the concentrate and taste it and decide whether to boil it or dump it. Still have about 550 gal of concentrate in the bulk tank waiting to be boiled, and getting rather short on barrels. Looking at a mid-week boil to finish things up....UNLESS Spud's freeze makes it this far south. Fingers crossed.

Afternoon update. The sap from the Main Bush 3,400 gal was good. The 3,700 in the other bush was just slightly sour. We concentrated the first batch and put it in the bulk tank along with what we had from the weekend, for a total of 632 gal 35 Brix concentrate (253 gal syrup), which we'll boil tomorrow morning and then boil out the pans. We pre-concentrated the sap from the other bush sap to 20 Brix and will bring it up to 35 Brix, along with any sap that comes in from the Main Bush overnight tonight, then do another pass through the RO tomorrow (usually we do right up to 35 Brix in 1-pass) and boil that afterward and drum it up separately. Should end up with a total production around 3,150 gal syrup for the year (0.61 gal/tap), which is just slightly above average for us.

That is the plan...unless Spud manages to send some of his cold weather juju our way tonight.

[tcross]

we had a record run here friday. bout 3 gpt then pretty much 2 gpt saturday. the evaporator couldn't keep up! i need another 5-8 gallons to hit my minimum for the year. looking like another slight freeze here Tuesday night with a high of 50 wednesday, then nothing even close to freezing. still 18" - 2' of snow in the woods! hopefully one more solid run! then time for clean up and to break out the golf cubs, fishing rod and gardening tools!

[Mead Maple]

I hope you make it till weekend.

Mead are you still running?

Spud

I am not. The kids and I pulled buckets on Saturday (along with our first tick of the season) and got everything cleaned up. Was out pruning apple trees Sunday morning but it only got to 34 at my house so not enough to freeze.
Glad I stopped when I did because with the heavy rain last night into this morning along with warm nights the roads in Middlesex are taking a beating. Started today at 4am chasing sinkholes around town. Missing sugaring but work and family have me thankful I pulled everything when I did.


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[spud]

Woke up to an inch of snow and temp flashing from 29 to 30. All the maple branches are white with snow. I'm hoping the trees have been recharged. Going up to 42 today and no sun. Supposed to freeze again later tonight and tomorrow is full sun and 58. I'm hoping to get another 3-4 gpt by weekend. Dr. Tim it looks like you may of got the freeze for s few hours in Underhill. I hope it was enough to keep the sap rolling. Good luck to all who are still rolling.

Spud

[DrTimPerkins]

Woke up to an inch of snow and temp flashing from 29 to 30. All the maple branches are white with snow. I'm hoping the trees have been recharged. Going up to 42 today and no sun. Supposed to freeze again later tonight and tomorrow is full sun and 58. I'm hoping to get another 3-4 gpt by weekend. Dr. Tim it looks like you may of got the freeze for s few hours in Underhill. I hope it was enough to keep the sap rolling. Good luck to all who are still rolling.

Hey Spud. Seems like you and Dr. Abby (who also predicted a freeze last night) pulled a rabbit out of the hat on this one. Yes....we definitely froze here and got a bit of snow https://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/data/latest/proctor.jpg Not a real hard freeze (roads are firm, but a bit mushy underneath), but the sap stopped running at 10:26pm and looking at our Smartrek sensors most of the woods in both bushes froze up around midnight. So we're pulling the plug on pulling the plug...and instead are cleaning tanks in preparation for the tsunami of sap today and tomorrow! Looks like we may be back to "boiling Friday" again. We might just need to start looking for more barrels...

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Froze hard here. Low temperature of 29 last night with monster winds and an inch or so of snow. I've never been so happy to see sap not flowing!

[spud]

Froze hard here. Low temperature of 29 last night with monster winds and an inch or so of snow. I've never been so happy to see sap not flowing!

You got to love it. Let's hope we get a bunch More sap all the way to the weekend.

Dr.Tim I hope you get a .6+ this season. The CV2s should allow us to get bigger flows.

Spud

[DrTimPerkins]

Dr.Tim I hope you get a .6+ this season. The CV2s should allow us to get bigger flows.

We're already there once we boil what we've already got in the concentrate and sap tanks. Sitting at around 0.61+ gal/tap (6.7 lbs/tap) right now. One more decent run would put us over 7 lbs/tap. Figure we'll boil in shorts and Hawaiian shirts on Friday (high temp of 70 deg F)...perhaps a tropical beverage or two. :D

[blissville maples]

You got to love it. Let's hope we get a bunch More sap all the way to the weekend.

Dr.Tim I hope you get a .6+ this season. The CV2s should allow us to get bigger flows.

Spud

Lol...... Ream holes and boil til next year....you guys will make it to may at least with the cv2s

[GiddingsHill]

We got some snow and didn't get much of a freeze here but it seems to have been enough to re-boot the trees, especially at higher elevation. we are getting pretty good flow now which makes 6lbs/tap look pretty achievable with tonights freeze and a possible freeze wednesday night too.
good luck to everyone

[bj's sugaring]

We ended our season on Friday, ended up making 72 gal of amber rich/robust. Puts us at .36gal/tap. We suffered from low sugar content with the long warm ups, and we do have quite a few smaller trees. The RO saves us. That all said, I'm happy with our season, this is the first of our "larger" backyard effort.

We are mostly 3/16 (all with 25-28" vac), with 30 buckets. We also started running a shurflo on our mainline to boost vacuum on our lower trees halfway through the season. Made a big difference.

Goals for next year include a hood/preheater for our 2x6, a filter press, and tapping the upper section of my property which will double our production.

I am curious about using CV spouts...im currently doing 3/16 with 5/16 drops. Dr. Tim, what are your thoughts? Ive read that pullback is severe in 3/16, but doesnt the larger diameter drop help? Should I sell the hundreds of extra spouts I have purchased in favor of cv? I do have one line I use 3/16 drops in to use as a control, I saw similar production until the last week, and it did indeed slow down...but it is also a year older. I want to maximize the yield and beat the odds of losing after 3 years on 3/16.

[spud]

Sap started running hard late today. Going to freeze tonight in the high 20s. Sap should start rolling early morning. Should be a big day tomorrow.

Spud

[motowbrowne]

We ended our season on Friday, ended up making 72 gal of amber rich/robust. Puts us at .36gal/tap. We suffered from low sugar content with the long warm ups, and we do have quite a few smaller trees. The RO saves us. That all said, I'm happy with our season, this is the first of our "larger" backyard effort.

We are mostly 3/16 (all with 25-28" vac), with 30 buckets. We also started running a shurflo on our mainline to boost vacuum on our lower trees halfway through the season. Made a big difference.

Goals for next year include a hood/preheater for our 2x6, a filter press, and tapping the upper section of my property which will double our production.

I am curious about using CV spouts...im currently doing 3/16 with 5/16 drops. Dr. Tim, what are your thoughts? Ive read that pullback is severe in 3/16, but doesnt the larger diameter drop help? Should I sell the hundreds of extra spouts I have purchased in favor of cv? I do have one line I use 3/16 drops in to use as a control, I saw similar production until the last week, and it did indeed slow down...but it is also a year older. I want to maximize the yield and beat the odds of losing after 3 years on 3/16.

If you're adding taps next year, use the new taps you've purchased in that section since the tubing will be new. If you want to use CVs, use them on the older drops. If you still have more traditional spouts, save them for when you replace drops in the future.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Our freeze last night yielded a gallon per tap and it will probably run for a while yet.

[bj's sugaring]

If you're adding taps next year, use the new taps you've purchased in that section since the tubing will be new. If you want to use CVs, use them on the older drops. If you still have more traditional spouts, save them for when you replace drops in the future.

I like that idea, thanks

[spud]

Lol...... Ream holes and boil til next year....you guys will make it to may at least with the cv2s

Bliss- you criticize the CV2 spouts and turn a blind eye to all maple research. You seem to suggest you know more about maple sugaring then PMRC. You finished your season at .44 gpt and PMRC will finish at .7-.8 gpt. Was math not your strong point?

Spud

[wiam]

Light coating of snow last night. Only got down to 31°. Did not stop running. Got maybe 1/3 gallon/ tap. Supposed to be 28 tonight.......

[GiddingsHill]

Oddly enough it appears the freeze we had heading into yesterday was better than what we got here last night. I have 27F at the sap house but appears not to have frozen at all above 1000ft where it ran all night. In any event we should be able to get to 6lbs/tap today into tomorrow. Not one of our highest production seasons but I'll take it. Looking back through records its very similar in timing, volume, sugar content and lbs/tap to 2015

[spud]

It went to 28 here last night. My woods froze solid. I hope we all get a bunch more sap. Good luck.

Spud

[blissville maples]

Bliss- you criticize the CV2 spouts and turn a blind eye to all maple research. You seem to suggest you know more about maple sugaring then PMRC. You finished your season at .44 gpt and PMRC will finish at .7-.8 gpt. Was math not your strong point?

Spud

From his last post he was at .61 and one more boil or so your talking .8??
I can do my own maple research I don't need to be funded or special in any way, I'd be saying everything I could about them too if I got a cut of the profits!! The only thing Maple research has showed me is to replace taps every year I don't have Petri dishes to test all that. Pmrc isnot teaching people how to run a drill or a drill bit, set up tanks and lines, they have some guidelines that most people already know everybody knows more vacuum more sap that's common sense that you can see with your own two eyes in the field without having a scientist. A lot of their studies up there are great but not practical for the everyday tapper, in a lot of it is just general information it doesn't even matter to make syrup. You lookin leaders catalog it is said something like 70% more sap with check valves does anybody really believe that? So if you make a half a gallon per tap without them then you should make .85 gallons per tap with them? Come on people it sounds great that's about it

I got caught up a couple years ago in all this until this year I finally realized. Research is great however this is not rocket science we're not putting men on the moon, research is merely experience it doesn't take a lot of money to do research on Maple it just helps. I have two eyes and I can see things pretty clearly I saw check valve closing up and I also saw a regular CDL spout flowing just as hard. Like I said no doubt the concept is there I just don't know if it works in the field.

I just think it's funny all these guys tapping in January like yourself to get nothing for the first 4 weeks. Then hope that your check valves make up for it what's the point of watching Frozen sap in January while you're tap holes getting older and older!! Like I said I know a guy that has 3300 caps never taps before the last week of February and he makes more syrup for tap that all of you guys well you guys are out tapping he's ice fishing....2100 gallons on 3300 do the math. And math has nothing to do with this. Last year I tapped last week of January to do nothing but hope and pray for sap but the time of sap started rolling I was less than half a gallon per tap didn't have enough to use it was all spoiling. This year I listen to our friend and I waited till almost march. ( We didn't even have a sap run til the last week of February and it was a quarter per tap woo hoo wish I would of tapped in December for that -not) now here we are second week of April and if I want to turn my pumps back on I would be getting plenty of sap but it's too warm it's spoiling, making garbage.

I mean if you guys want to spend extra money on Cvs go for it, but I think you'll have the same results if you tap the normal time that you should be.

Spud I read you have a fall sugarbush somewhere along the lines I guess there's some people out there that just have to stretch it for all it's worth even more than it is at times. You had also said last week your flow is down to .25 per tap. Are the check valves working or not?? Because .25 Pertap is pretty low yield for a run.... All I'm trying to explain to people is wait it out like yourself and you're going to make just as much if not more give it a try I did. What's the point of turn the vacuum pumps on when the roots are frozen and there's no sap flow. I made more syrup this year boiling for 4 weeks that I did last year boiling for 12 it's a no-brainer. Not to mention my power bill is significantly less..... I've just watched our friend consistently make over 2000-2200 gallons on 3300 taps there's something to be said for that as he's always between .6-.7 Per tap.

I will say this on the 3/16 lines the check valves are probably going to pay off a little better, as the logics the physics and the concept all point to this.

I'll tell you one thing I hate is this liberal scheme and one guy acting like he knows everything about Maple sugaring no doubt dr. Tim knows his stuff but he's not the say all tell all of maple sugaring. I can tell you one thing he really loves the praise he gets it puts him up on a pedestal which is fine but let's not overdo it. I mean do you ever look at him at one of his speeches he acts like god....I mean come on it's just Maple sugaring people it's not like he developed a cure for AIDS. Lol. For sure I'll hear some flack for that one but so be it.

I'm a realist, take it or leave it I could care less I just tell it how it is. I'm just saying scrap the check valves and tap normal time then when people get done reading it won't feel like you can't make syrup without a check valve... And to boot you might just be surprised how much more time you have and syrup you may make. For instance instead of tapping in January waiting for sap that's not there yet you can spend January upgrading, making things better, enjoying winter or expanding.....


So Spud will you be going for another two weeks like you were saying back on 4/11. I don't want to taste any of it!!

[blissville maples]

Hey my .44 is on about 2800 maples 10"+ The other 700 are a mix of 400 reds less than 6" and 300 saplings smaller than your arm!! I only have 2000 beauties.....not bad for 1percent sugar for last 2 weeks on these idiot trees.

Go talk to.my bud he will blow u all out of the water with his 2200 gallons in a 3-4 week season on 3300 taps no cvs.

My math algorithm- Time x sugar (not sap) x input= profitability

[DrTimPerkins]

Ah...spring in Vermont.

The robins are back, peepers are peeping, the spring beauties are beginning to pop up....and Bliss resumes badmouthing me and the CV spout. What's the saying, ignorance is Bliss (or is it the other way around)?

Just a few short points.

1. Research is not just observation. There is quite a bit more to it than that.
2. No one need believe me at all. Read the research from Cornell (Steve almost always finds BETTER results with the CV than I do). Read the research from Centre Acer. Not rocket science when all three places agree that sanitation is a critical element in achieving high yields, that CVs work, and there is more than one way to do it.
3. If you don't like the CV system...DON'T USE IT! I am always amazed by people who complain year-after-year about them, but then say that they put out a bunch out and they all stopped early. If you don't like them and don't think they work...don't use them. Pretty simple. Of course there are thousands of people who do use them and get great results.

I'm the first to admit that I don't know everything about maple....I learn from sugarmakers every time I talk to them (which is why I enjoy talking to producers). I do know some things pretty well though, and scientists are trained to be pretty outspoken in their arguments (public speaking is definitely not something that comes natural to me...I much prefer a one-on-one conversation...and even better, prefer to not interact with people -- I'd would rather just write). But I'm certainly not about to back down from an argument with an ignorant bully who hides behind an anonymous screen name. So as for the pedestal...I have never put myself above producers, and will be quite happy to fade away into retirement in a few years from now and spend more time reading and fishing.

Finally, if anyone is sick of listening to me....or if you are sick of listening to someone else, this forum provides a simple way to solve that problem. Just click on the person's user name in one of the posts, Click on "View Profile", and then Click on "Add to Ignore List".

[DrTimPerkins]

Short run yesterday after the freeze-up on Monday night. Didn't start running here until late-afternoon, and then froze up again in the middle of the night. About 4,000+ gal total from both bushes, 1.7-1.8 Brix. Double-wash of the RO, then a rinse. Concentrating and testing sap for flavor, but looks nice and clear now that the lines have been flushed out some. Expecting a decent run again today, tonight, and tomorrow. Still looking to boil Friday.

Afternoon update: Turned out to be a total of 5,399 gallons of sap by the time we got it all off-loaded and tallied (1+ gal/tap in 24 hrs). Brix of 1.7. Flavor was really nice in the stove boil. So into the bulk tank it goes. Hoping it continues to run a bit overnight also. Planning to boil tomorrow, perhaps boil out the pans as well.

[Mead Maple]

Welp, was not expecting the forum to take that turn sooooo.....
I was in the (road) grader this morning at 3:15am and did not start seeing the puddles begin to coat over until closer to daylight. Took a bit longer here but definitely cooled off as daybreak hit. Roads started to become tougher to grade.
But fear not! By 9:30am things were starting to take a turn with the sunlight and start to turn to mush so I retreated to the office for paperwork and emails. Will be heading home soon to work on firewood for next year and enjoy the sunshine! Sap should run hard today, keep the faith everyone. Forecast shows the beginning of the end I think...
(Sorry for the constant editing, forum and iPhone's clearly don't jive with certain icons)


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[GeneralStark]

I'm just saying scrap the check valves and tap normal time then when people get done reading it won't feel like you can't make syrup without a check valve... And to boot you might just be surprised how much more time you have and syrup you may make. For instance instead of tapping in January waiting for sap that's not there yet you can spend January upgrading, making things better, enjoying winter or expanding.....




You don't seem to understand that this forum is a community of maple enthusiasts that are here to share information. Many of us actually know each other and enjoy sharing our experiences and love of this way of life. Your posts make it seem like you are instead here to rub sand in our eyes and tell us all how we should be doing it. If you want to share your opinions, so be it. But to continually disrespect the members of this forum that do their best to maintain a respectful dialogue about maple is obnoxious to say the least.

If your family friend has already figured out how to do it, why don't you just follow his lead instead of continually coming back here during maple season to generate posts that are really nothing more than a turd in all of our drinks. Clearly you are the smartest guy here and already have it figured out so why are you even here?

[Bruce L]

Bliss- you criticize the CV2 spouts and turn a blind eye to all maple research. You seem to suggest you know more about maple sugaring then PMRC. You finished your season at .44 gpt and PMRC will finish at .7-.8 gpt. Was math not your strong point?

Spud
Hey Spud,of all the members here on Maple Trader,there is only one whom I have put on my ignore list,so I don’t have to read his spewing of derogatory comments and know it all attitude. I did this probably 2 years ago,and have never looked back. I enjoy surfing through trader,still willing to admit I don’t know everything yet, and willing to help out with what information I can

[wiam]

Made 20 gallons of dark robust this morning from previous 24 hour’s sap. Finally stopped running at 29 early this morning with slush in releaser. Started running about 8:00. Hoping for more....

[spud]

Hey BruceL ( I know your reading this) when you put me on your Ignore list you must of made a mistake. It's obvious you continue reading my post and even respond to them. The comments I made were in defense of the CV2 spouts and PMRC. I'm sure Blisses friend did make .6+ without using CV2 spouts. I think that's great and I'm happy for him. I also agree with bliss in part when he talks about tapping a little later can help production. Although there are many times when tapping early will help production numbers increase. Those who need to tap early benefit from using the CV2 spouts. Your profile says you use the CV spouts also. It goes on to say you are a two time World Champion in sugaring. Could it be the CVspouts that helped you become a champion? In my opinion bashing Dr. Tim should not be allowed on this site. People can disagree with him but not bash him.

Spud

[spud]

BruceL after rereading your post I now see it was not towards me. I'm sorry if I offended you in anyway. I know I have made some traders upset in years past and I have apologized to them. If I am put on anyone's ignore list I would understand. I read your post too fast and thought you were talking about me. It upsets me when certain people bash Dr. Tim and PMRC. The research from PMRC is priceless. Dr.Tims comment on this site are very important. Again I apoligize for misreading your post.

Spud

[Bruce L]

No offence taken spud,I maybe didn’t word it quite grammatically perfect

[Sunday Rock Maple]

........I do know some things pretty well though, and scientists are trained to be pretty outspoken in their arguments (public speaking is definitely not something that comes natural to me...I much prefer a one-on-one conversation...and even better, prefer to not interact with people -- I'd would rather just write).
.

I'm not a Vermonter but this is my favorite thread and mainly to see your response to current field conditions.

The improvements in our operation over the last several years track to the knowledge you've shared with an r squared of about 95 percent.

Thanks so much for staying the course!

[Mead Maple]

I'm not a Vermonter but this is my favorite thread and mainly to see your response to current field conditions.

The improvements in our operation over the last several years track to the knowledge you've shared with an r squared of about 95 percent.

Thanks so much for staying the course!

I agree.

I will also admit I like reading posts from everyone here in the forum. Going from someone who moved from Maine to Vermont in 2009 and not knowing anything about sugaring. I have stood around rigs since I moved down but only this year did I go in head first. Learned a ton from MT. Not just this thread but using the search button and reading other aspects. It has so far been the best forum I have been part of right next to grizzlycentral. What I appreciate most is large scale producers interacting with driveway boilers like me to all share knowledge and experience. And I thank everyone for being part of that.

Boy that all sounded a bit cheesy...regardless, thanks to everyone for sharing this awesome tradition!


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[blissville maples]

I'm not rubbing Sand in anybody's eyes I like reading these posts as well, it just gets really old hearing about how great these Cvs are when alot of people dont agree. You wouldn't drop from .6 to .35 if u went from CVS to regular spouts. Then you got spud and dr.tim hand-in-hand about the CVS. I can't handle that crap I'm a very traditional person and a lot of people come out here to get information and when somebody asks about what spout to use all their told is use check valves ise check valves you don't hear anybody else explaining the other side of it. I don't even know why come on here at times it's like watching the news. if you want to use check valves fine go for it I have I use them this year I didn't make twice the amount of syrup the season wasn't long enough it didn't start till the end of February and just ended last week. I mean what good is a check valve on a six-week season. I could keep going on and on about this but I'm not going to I have one bit of factual knowledge below and that's about it.

Out pulling taps today I pulled a check that the drop was below the lateral and full of sap and for some reason when I pull the check valve out of the tree all the sap came gushing out of the tap! Guess that one didn't seat...

What some are failing to realize is that all these studies on new drops old drops check valves 2 years old 1 year old whatever is that every tap whole is different every run is different everyday is different there is no way for a scientist to tell exactly what's going on inside that tree as far as suction and the amount of volume and uptake inside that tree on any given freeze, unless you somehow install flow meters at the base of that tree, haha. So if you don't know what's going in that tree and you don't know how viable your tap hole is how can you be so sure that one tap outperforms the other and if all you ever try is check valves then I don't know. yes that particular tap may have pulled out more sap through it but that doesn't mean it's because the tap. And then factor in that there is no way to gauge the integrity of a taphole, meaning just because you have a hole in a tree does not mean it's going to put out 100% of what a perfect hole could and there's no measurement to determine this. Just think about what I'm saying, and again no doubt the concept is there but and that's a big but........ Always hearing about how great these check valves are when I don't see alot of difference. maybe if you tried doing it like traditional ways and tap at the proper time you wouldnt think that so much Because you'd yield the same, I mean of course doctor Tim's going to agree with everything you say about them so the whole conversation gets biased and anyone that says any different they don't know what they're talking about bc they're not a scientist.....

That's fine I don't really care if people don't want to listen to what I say I am just not a fool I was not born stupid I didn't get stupid over the years don't let the wolf guard the sheep! You want to listen to somebody that selling something go for it just remember money is evil it's one of the most evil things on the planet people will do anything for it, lie steal cheat kill..... Just some food for thought

[blissville maples]

On a different note we had a great season all cleaned up should have all art taps pulled by the end of the weekend. Made some extremely nice light syrup as well as some good dark, have a new buyer this year for a syrup so we are happy no more bascom's!!

Good luck to allsorry if I stirred the pot and some don't like that but somebody has to this cannot be a one-sided show

[blissville maples]

You don't seem to understand that this forum is a community of maple enthusiasts that are here to share information. Many of us actually know each other and enjoy sharing our experiences and love of this way of life. Your posts make it seem like you are instead here to rub sand in our eyes and tell us all how we should be doing it. If you want to share your opinions, so be it. But to continually disrespect the members of this forum that do their best to maintain a respectful dialogue about maple is obnoxious to say the least.

If your family friend has already figured out how to do it, why don't you just follow his lead instead of continually coming back here during maple season to generate posts that are really nothing more than a turd in all of our drinks. Clearly you are the smartest guy here and already have it figured out so why are you even here?

Well if he has figured it out, and I went that route and was happy... Then wouldn't it be nice to share this with other people so they can maybe skip the check valves in January tapping and try it later in the season. Let them figure it out and not be persuaded by somebody, not to mention who wants to sugar for 12 weeks with 1000-4000 taps alot more profitable in a six-week season. all thrse folks looking for info (alot of them gravity) told to do is buy check valves and tap early. shouldn't somebody be on the other side of this explaining the other side. I don't claim to be a genius and their friend doesn't either but I can tell you what he knows how to make syrup it's been made on their farms since the 1800s

General we are not all a bunch of polite ladies, some of us speak our mind. I have not been castrated!! Seems like a lot of people don't like disagreements and no doubt I speak with emotion sometimes and words can get misinterpreted but I'm not going to sit here and listen to a bunch of junk day in and day out about check valves in dr. Tim getting praised over it. the proctor Maple research center has been around a long time before him, I'm not bashing him I'm just saying he's sitting up there taking the money laughing loving it because everybody's got them held up so high. I don't really care take me off this site if you can handle what I got to say about somebody too bad it's a free world freedom of speech don't turn it political where when somebody's not like minded you just shun them out. Seems like every time I got something to say in disagreance you want to come on and be the first one to point out how derogatory I am and put a turd in a drink.... Well wouldn't it be nice if everybody was like you!!

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Does anyone else feel like there reading a middle school diary on a maple site. Can we move on? If you have a beef with someone please handle it in the private message and stop clogging up the forum. Thank you

[tcross]

We ended our season last night. i believe my red maples are starting to bud or some have budded. half way through our boil last night we got a very nutty aroma from the steam. syrup still tasted as it should. about 3/4 the way through the boil we started getting the dirty sock smell... so we stopped! it was a decent year, but busy and quick! i believe if i didn't have the red maples, i'd probably be alright to continue. no real sign of budding on those. we still have a foot of snow in the woods! Let the clean up begin! good luck to all of those still at it!

[spud]

Sap is slowing down and I am going to pull the plug later today. I thought yesterday would be better but it never really took off. I have to wait for some numbers to come in and then I will post it. This has been one of my best years for sure. The new electric releaser was like a gift from God. It worked flawless. It's now time to focus on apple trees.

Spud

[GiddingsHill]

Yesterday turned out to be pretty good here, followed by another very light freeze in the lower sections this morning.
flow has picked up a little in the last few hours but the strong south wind is definitely keeping things down. I'll go till the buyer says no more.

[blissville maples]

We ended our season last night. i believe my red maples are starting to bud or some have budded. half way through our boil last night we got a very nutty aroma from the steam. syrup still tasted as it should. about 3/4 the way through the boil we started getting the dirty sock smell... so we stopped! it was a decent year, but busy and quick! i believe if i didn't have the red maples, i'd probably be alright to continue. no real sign of budding on those. we still have a foot of snow in the woods! Let the clean up begin! good luck to all of those still at it!

I have wondered this about the reds, we had that dirty sock smell couple years ago after an early tapping season but this year didn't seem to show up, only our last 15 gallons was sourish. I think it's Russ from New Hampshire taps mostly reds and he claims that they don't ever have an issue as they do flower before they Bud unlike sugar maples. Last year, to try to something, i even went out and pulled all my reds well keeping the sugars online and that didn't seem to change anything of course the tanks for pretty nasty.

I certainly was not trying to clog up the forum and frankly
Maybe instead of focusing on the things that I said read back three pages and understand how this conversation even came about. Instead of chiming in at the very end. Because all I remember saying was "you guys will be sugaring till May with the CVS"...... Then somebody wants to question my math and what I make for syrup when the sugar bushes are un-comparable and aside for my father boiling with me for 3 to 4 hours a day so I can run out if I have to to collect, I run 3500 taps on four different releasers without a stitch your help if I'm lucky I might have somebody to turn the RO on or off for me.....so I don't expect to make .6 gallons per tap although it would be nice .45 for me is ecstatic because it tells me my less than par trees are lower than that and my larger trees are over likely way over a half a gallon Pertap but I will never know because they all go in the same line and tank. I know a 3 to 4 inch red maple does not putting out half a gallon per tap it'd be nice if they did!!

We ended our season last night. i believe my red maples are starting to bud or some have budded. half way through our boil last night we got a very nutty aroma from the steam. syrup still tasted as it should. about 3/4 the way through the boil we started getting the dirty sock smell... so we stopped! it was a decent year, but busy and quick! i believe if i didn't have the red maples, i'd probably be alright to continue. no real sign of budding on those. we still have a foot of snow in the woods! Let the clean up begin! good luck to all of those still at it!

I have wondered this about the reds, we had that dirty sock smell couple years ago after an early tapping season but this year didn't seem to show up, only our last 15 gallons was sourish. I think it's Russ from New Hampshire taps mostly reds and he claims that they don't ever have an issue as they do flower before they Bud unlike sugar maples. Last year, to try to something, i even went out and pulled all my reds well keeping the sugars online and that didn't seem to change anything of course the tanks for pretty nasty.

I certainly was not trying to clog up the forum and frankly
Maybe instead of focusing on the things that I said read back three pages and understand how this conversation even came about. Instead of chiming in at the very end. Because all I remember saying was "you guys will be sugaring till May with the CVS"...... Then somebody wants to question my math and what I make for syrup when the sugar bushes are un-comparable and aside for my father boiling with me for 3 to 4 hours a day so I can run out if I have to to collect, I run 3500 taps on four different releasers without a stitch your help if I'm lucky I might have somebody to turn the RO on or off for me.....so I don't expect to make .6 gallons per tap although it would be nice .45 for me is ecstatic because it tells me my less than par trees are lower than that and my larger trees are over likely way over a half a gallon Pertap but I will never know because they all go in the same line and tank. I know a 3 to 4 inch red maple does not putting out half a gallon per tap it'd be nice if they did!!

Hhmm mmm mmm--- spud just for the hell of it ream couple holes or drill a new one in just one tree and watch what happens, can then see a fully open tap hole in April!!

Spud no hard feelings I get going like a runaway train and I do like to share some of the things I see

[tcross]

i guess i'm sort of assuming it is the red maples that are causing the stink when boiling... however i honestly don't really know what it was. the buds on my treeline are very much swollen however the sugar maple buds aren't even visible yet. i have about a 50/50 split. in years past i've taken the reds off and continued. for whatever reason i didn't this year. i've never experienced the smell... only heard about it. my syrup tasted typical of a dark robust even with the smell coming off the steam. guess the only thing i do know is the smell is what made my wife and i decide to call the season. i'm ready to take the fishing rod and golf clubs out either way!

[DrTimPerkins]

Quick check in. Season is over. Last boil today and boiled out the pans. Season provisional total is 3,340 gal syrup or 0.65 gal/tap. Five boils.

[wiam]

Made 15 gallons of very dark. Froze good last night but did not run great. Not sure if it was strong south wind or if the trees are done. Still running. See what tomorrow brings. Still no off flavor or smells.

[Mead Maple]

Quick check in. Season is over. Last boil today and boiled out the pans. Season provisional total is 3,340 gal syrup or 0.65 gal/tap. Five boils.

That is freakin awesome! I wanted to comment on the videos you had posted, couple of which I had seen previously. Amazing to be able to concentrate that high and boil that infrequently.
Big question is why wouldn’t anyone want to feed dozens of cords of wood day after day into a dragons mouth though...


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[Sugar Bear]

Ah...spring in Vermont.

Just a few short points.

I'm the first to admit that I don't know everything about maple.


NO ... you are closer to the last!

But that's OK cause you do know more then anybody about maple, and thanks for all your help, research and innovation that works.

[GeneralStark]

Big question is why wouldn’t anyone want to feed dozens of cords of wood day after day into a dragons mouth though...


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Because then you can call your syrup "reverse-osmosis free" or "traditional"...:D

On the subject of red-maples causing buddy syrup, that's an interesting one with lots of opinions on the matter. I tap about 15% red maple and have made good syrup when the red maple buds had visually swollen. I have also made buddy syrup when they were visually swollen so my experience has been mixed. I have heard some sugarmakers say they just shut down and stop giving sap before the flavor will be affected but I'm still getting sap from red maples on vacuum and they are in full on flower stage. I have also heard sugarmakers say you should pull taps on red maples early. How and when trees bud and impacts to syrup flavor seems to generate lots of debate amongst sugarmakers.

My personal approach is to boil until the syrup is no longer table grade as it's just about impossible to visually determine when a tree's level of "budding" will negatively impact the syrup flavor IMO. But I tend to be someone that relies more on scientific evidence than my personal intuition.

I turned the vacuum back on yesterday to pull taps and as is usually the case, the flow picked right back up to about 1 gpt/24hours level. Most tapholes are still very productive, though many south side taps have shut down. I wouldn't want to try to make syrup with the sap though...

I also was able to get most of the last syrup we made through the filter press. It's a little ropey it seems, probably due to concentrate spoiling in the head tank towards the end of the last boil. But it filtered so I'll trade it for next seasons taps with my C grade buyer.

I love this time of year. The wildflowers are coming up, the birds are singing and it's refreshing to work outside.

[maple flats]

It's now my understanding that on reds the buddy syrup doesn't start until the leaf buds pop, that comes after the flowers. I also think it was Dr Tim who said they will dry up before the leaf buds open.

[tcross]

what causes the odor from the steam when boiling if it's not due to the tree budding? i am curious to know because i can't think of what else would cause the steam to smell. when the smell first popped up, i was boiling fresh sap that was still coming in. it tasted normal and was crystal clear. bulk tank and feed tank were both cleaned that morning and evaporator cleaned the evening prior. like i mentioned before, my syrup still tasted just fine, but the odor from the steam started to increase rapidly after the first hour ... hour and a half so we quit before i ruined the batch and wasted wood. it's never happened to me before, so it would be kind of nice to know what the cause was. if that's even possible.

[maple flats]

Do you have any other than reds tapped? I believe sugars will make buddy syrup, they do not stop their sap flow like Reds do, and maybe silvers don't stop either.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Pulled the plug this morning. Made 500 gallons off of 1700 taps. Not an excellent year but one I am happy with.

[tcross]

i have a mix of red's, silver and sugar. if i had to guess i'd say 50% sugar, 5% silver and 45% red. out of 220 taps. i know the sugar maples are not the suspect... they're not even showing budding signs yet. perhaps the few silvers i have are the culprit? not really a huge deal... i'm pretty content with this years production considering the weather patterns we had up here.

[blissville maples]

TC....I chased the issue last year as year prior to that is was horrible, I couldn't even stand to be in the sugarhouse!! Last year I pulled all reds two weeks early and that didn't help, I then contribute it to the nasty poly tanks that had sap for 10-11 weeks in them building yeast etc. as I have not gone stainless, my releaser sit on top so I usually only rinse them once or twice.

This year I tapped end of February, went until last weekend and didn't come across the odor at all, actually the last few boils smelt pleasant. I do believe it's from the sap quality from sitting in the tanks. And I collect at least daily, so I also believe the bacteria changes the sap quality quite quickly, hoping to upgrade tanks so they are easier to clean.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Blissville, I had the same issue last year and upgrade to stainless tanks this year. Easier to clean and sap doesn't heat up as quickly and helped quality quite a bit.

[wiam]

Made another 25 tonight. DR. Very heavy maple taste no off flavor. Still running lightly. Going to try again tomorrow....

[Mead Maple]

Made another 25 tonight. DR. Very heavy maple taste no off flavor. Still running lightly. Going to try again tomorrow....

Wow go wiam! I saw 72 on the interstate going from Middlesex to Barre. Spent the day felling trees at work and couldn’t figure out why we sweat so bad all day long until I got in the truck to head home and saw the temperature!!


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[wdchuck]

Made another 25 tonight. DR. Very heavy maple taste no off flavor. Still running lightly. Going to try again tomorrow....
.....and we're giving it another go over here as well! Sap has been coming in since Wed nights light freeze- fairly clear, but the syrup is still good quality. Until it takes a major turn for the worse, I'm still in it. Plan to boil this sfternoon and should make another 30 gals'

[spud]

That is nice you guys are still in it. I hope you make a bunch more. Good luck.

Spud

[GiddingsHill]

shipped sap this morning, sugar way down but quality seems ok so were still in it until i get the word

[wiam]

Have to go check my tank but my sap guy opened the drain this morning as his smelled bad....

[wiam]

Found 300 gallons of milky 1%. Let it go. Boiled in rig last night. Now for the cleanup.

[spud]

Sounds like you had a great season.

Spud

[wdchuck]

Made 40 gallons yesterday. Flavor was heading into the realm of what I call "malty". Sap flow at the releasers stopped, and by the time we finished boiling by chasing the sweet with permeate, the syrup wasn't filtering very well. Done Done Done..........

[GiddingsHill]

about .8gal/tap overnight, testing 1% but seems to good enough for buyer

[GiddingsHill]

shipped another load this morning and got the word this afternoon we are shutting it down. still getting a good deal of sap but quality was gone.
looks like about 6.3lbs/tap or .57gal/tap.
next week looks like some cooler nights, I wonder if some of the real cold spots can hang on.
ready to yank spouts and move on!

[PARKER MAPLE]

So I see my first of the season sugarhouse boiling yesterday. I’m wondering how they have made out starting this early. With a big operation I’m sure they will be awhile before there done tapping.

[Mead Maple]

That is unbelievable. But I suppose we have technically had the weather for it. Personally with my 100-150 tap set up I will be waiting, but that was probably quite a site to see before January


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[VT_K9]

We finished installing the final telephone pole at our new collection station (sap shack), run most of the 1 1/4" mainline, and are working on the elevated portions of the 2" pump line and 1 1/2" vacuum line tomorrow. We hope to have both tightened and tied to the point where they are reachable on foot from the ground this week. Once we have those lines done we can setup the sap shack and then install sap lines.

It's coming fast and right around the corner.

Mike

[blissville maples]

Well here we are again another sugaring season upon us! What's everyone thinking this year? Here we are almost done with storm damage, replacement of drops and taps. Shooting to tap around the 10th of Feb. Looks to be a fairly normal season as far as temps go. No frost so trees should be ready to charge up nicely and release easy. Time tells all...
Cheers to a great season!!

[VT_K9]

We are almost done with tying 1200' (each) of 2" pump line and 1 1/2" vac line to our new sap shack. We have 800' of 1 1/4" mainline tied to the wire. Ready to finish the outside work at the sap shack and prep for the inside work (setting up the trap, releaser, and pump line from the tank). We are also ready to start installing lateral mainlines and finally sap line. Next bad weather day its setting up the new RO.

I think we will be ready to tap in 2-3 weeks, which is normal for our area.

Mike

[Mead Maple]

I am in the process of renovating a new to me sugarhouse. Hoping to have that done in the next few weeks since I still have to build an oil fired arch and run 3/16. This “hobby” is a ton of work. It would scare me to know what I will have into a quart of syrup haha


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[DrTimPerkins]

Close to 3,000 tapped (out of 5,200). Should be nearly done by end of the week hopefully. Membranes are installed and rinsed. Several studies being prepped for the upcoming season.

[spud]

I finished tapping last week. I only have 8-10 inches of snow on the ground so it was very easy. Good luck everyone.

Spud

[Mead Maple]

Quick question; given the low snow totals and the fact that it has been on the mild side, what is a fair assumption for when the sap will be actively flowing. I don’t have enough data of years and tracking for this end of things. But compared to last year a few warm days and the snow would disappear


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[DrTimPerkins]

Quick question; given the low snow totals and the fact that it has been on the mild side, what is a fair assumption for when the sap will be actively flowing.

There is really no knowing until it's all over, but if you're on buckets you should probably wait a bit. It's the folks with a LOT of taps that are out there tapping now.

[Geroldn]

For the past 3 years the weekend after Valentine's Day has been a good tapping time in my sugarbush. This year it looks like skiing will be better. We recently got a got 8-10" of snow in Northfield and have had some cold weather. With only 215 taps I can be done in a day, so I watch the weather forecast.

[tcross]

found a down main line this weekend AFTER the 2' snow fall! had to dig through 30" of snow for 100-150 yards to get it back up and tied up. no clue what took it down. my wire was broke right next to the tightener. perhaps the wind blew the end trees apart at just he right time?? either way, that sure was a good work out and a 3 hours of my time i wasn't ready to waste!

[PARKER MAPLE]

My hopes are starting to tap he weekend after Valentine’s Day as well. I have done one of these 3 weekends for the last 10 years and seems to work. Usually get a few hard freezes and the occasional block of sap ice build up in the tanks. But I wouldn’t change anything. Even a bad day of sugaring is still better then the best day of work.
Good luck to all
I still can’t believe every year this post keeps going. It’s been awesome checking in and fallowing my fellow Vermonters in there quest for the liquid gold. Let’s keep this thing going for many more years

Parker maple

[Mead Maple]

found a down main line this weekend AFTER the 2' snow fall! had to dig through 30" of snow for 100-150 yards to get it back up and tied up. no clue what took it down. my wire was broke right next to the tightener. perhaps the wind blew the end trees apart at just he right time?? either way, that sure was a good work out and a 3 hours of my time i wasn't ready to waste!

Cross, we got about a foot here in Middlesex and I had to make my way over to Huntington to visit a friend to get a foot for my sugarhouse. They got closer to the 18-2 foot mark and the ice build up in the middle of the transition from rain to snow weighed his 3/16 down pretty good. Not sure if the weight might have bothered yours enough to do that


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[tcross]

yeah, it was similar up here. we got 5-6" of wet snow/rain for a little bit then it froze up hard and had a good 16-18" of powder on top of it... what a PITA!~ All good now though!

[Mead Maple]

With the drizzle and sleet we got today plus the -15 or lower forecasted for this weekend should stiffen things up!


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[PARKER MAPLE]

Well I believe we have made it finally in our new sugarbush to the point where this next week we will be charging the battery’s and drilling the first holes in these new trees. These have never been tapped before trees and we are getting excited to see the outcome after this season and what this will bring to our operation. We have right around 1000 that we will put in this year there and plan to add another 1000 every year for next 2-3 years. Estimated total of 4000 taps for this sugarbush.
Hope the sugar gods bring us all lots of sap. Best of luck everyone I believe Saturday is going to start the ball rolling if the weather stays as they say.

[blissville maples]

That's what I was thinking!! If the forecast stays as they have it should see a first run next week. Unless you count December!! Coming into the last week of February so I'd have to say it's certainly time, I'll be charging batteries as well!!

We haven't been losing the freezing nights with the warm spells, which hasn't been the case for a couple years. Last year the 40-50degree days were followed by 35 degree nights!! Here In the southern Champlain valley anyways!

[GeneralStark]

Done tapping here. Looks like we may get some sap this weekend and next week so it's time to put the sugarhouse back together and get ready to make some syrup.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Started tapping today. Have lots of help and should finish up my existing system by Sunday. then will button up my new system and hopefully be tapped by Wednesday.

[Shirefisher]

So here in Northern Vermont close to the border with Canada and I'm thinking I need to tap this weekend. 4 days of 40 degree weather? Is it going to begin? What do y'all think? Will I be making syrup this week?

[spud]

I’m on the border also. I plan to turn on the vacuum pump tomorrow morning. May see some sap later in the day and then better flow on Monday.

Spud

[Shirefisher]

I'm on buckets, and only max 40 expected this year. So I might wait this first run out...

[Shirefisher]

So I tapped 4 trees just to see what kind of run we may get the next couple of days. It's supposed to be sunny and 40 degrees here today. My neighbor was just finishing tapping his 500 trees on pipeline and said some out of the wind were trickling yesterday. I have a ton of snow in the woods, I tapped on skis which for me are a lot more efficient then shoes.. This is link to what i use, I have the 20 year old boots when they were, "Garmot" and the whole set up is awesome.... https://us-store.altaiskis.com/product/hok-mountain-package-with-scott-boots-updated-2016-skis/

[VT_K9]

I had a friend stop by today and help tap. We put on new taps and put 350 taps into the trees. The releaser for our old bush is setup and ready to go. We need to extend the new mainline and install more taps. Some of the trees were running by noon.

Mike

[VTfarmboy]

picked .30gpt testing just under 2% here in castleton, still coming in hard at dusk

[Ultimatetreehugger]

A few trees trickled here but no sap yet. Lots of headaches in the pump house as expected. setting aside the expansion until I finish tapping. Be sappy my friends!

[GeneralStark]

Got the releaser back together and the vacuum system working this am and once it warmed up and the sun did its thing the sap started to flow. Nothing too amazing but we'll take it. Cleaned the bulk tank and closed the valve this evening after running about 200 gal onto the ground to rinse the lines. Vac at 25.5" so more leaks to find tomorrow but should have the sap collection system dialed in with a couple more hours in the woods. Then it's on to the RO and putting the evap. back together...

[Mead Maple]

Got two runs hung yesterday with 3/16. Totaling 54 taps, will tap those this morning and set up tank. Plan to run two more lines and hopefully be around 100 taps by days end. It’s ambitious but we’re trying


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[tcross]

i had enough sap run yesterday to flush my lines. have a tiny leak at my releaser that's driving me nuts to find... think i found it by days end when things iced up. should get another somewhat run today with temps approaching 48 and sunny. hoping to get enough between today and tomorrow to fire up the evaporator for its maiden run!

[DrTimPerkins]

Modest run yesterday afternoon. Vacuum good in one woods, not great in the other. Most vacuum problems due to squirrels. I think we proved (once again) that squirrels like chlorine...which we were using in limited sections for 3/16" tubing cleaning tests. Wade is cleaning up the electric releaser this morning (first run sludge), then off to leak check this afternoon. We will get some sap but probably not a great run this week...trees need some time to thaw and then recharge for good flows. Depends on how well it freezes tonite I guess.

[Shirefisher]

Checked my 4 buckets and less than an ounce of sap in 24 hours...

[DrTimPerkins]

Checked my 4 buckets and less than an ounce of sap in 24 hours...

Takes quite a while to warm up a tree that was at -20 deg F a few days ago. ;^)

Secondly, it often takes an initial thaw and then a refreeze to "recharge" the system to get a good sap flow.

[smokeyamber]

I was pleasantly surprised when I test tapped a couple trees on Sat they were running well. So I tapped in almost all my buckets yesterday, everything was running very well. Looking forward to today's yield. Don't have the dumpstation buckets or the collection lines cleaned yet, but that seems to always happen. I can go a couple days with my buckets to give me time to get stuff cleaned and setup. 3/16 tubing will get tapped in next couple of days. Arch is apart getting some new firebrick added. Typical start to my season... oh and I need more wood :lol:

Cool thing this year is how many new trees I was able to tap as a bunch got big enough to tap. Guess that comes from doing this for long enough !

So we are off to the races !

[spud]

I got 4000 gallons in the last 24 hours. Sap testing 1.3%. I was able to get vacuum up to 26 inches. I hope to get it to 27-28 tomorrow. Sap still running 300 GPH at 6:00 pm.

Spud

[VTfarmboy]

picked .50 gpt in the last 24hr testing 1.5% still coming now in castleton

[GeneralStark]

No freeze here overnight and sap flow slowed way down. Was able to pull in over 1 gpt in 24 hours between 8pm Sunday and 8pm Monday. Not sure what the ssc is but may get to testing it today. Got around the woods yesterday and fixed a bunch of small leaks and the vac is up to 26.5 which is generally about the best I can do. Getting things ready to boil Thursday unless it really runs today....

[spud]

I got 1500 gallons last night on the upper trees. Lower section froze. Running at 130 GPH right now. Should pick up in a few hours.

Spud

[tcross]

i picked up about .5 gal per tap yesterday. once the sun went down the flow slowed quite a bit. ran till about midnight. it was running fairly decent at 9:15 this a.m... hopefully another .5 gpt day!

[to100]

I am at about 3/4 g/tap @1%.

[VT_K9]

We have our original releaser taps minus 75 taps (will be sent to the new releaser) up and running now. Lines are flushed and starting to collect. We are installing the last 200 feet of mainline (this will be hooked up to the other 75 taps) for the new releaser and then setting up the new releaser. Then off to add taps to the new section. Hopefully it will be a great year.

Mike

[VTfarmboy]

not much freeze last night picked .30gpt in last 24hr sap testing 1.5%, making med amber

[spud]

Sap slowed down yesterday but did run some. I’m up to 1.6 GPT and now testing 1.5%. Vacuum is at 26 in the woods. Still need to find one more inch of loss.

Spud

[Mead Maple]

I added another 30 on 3/16" yesterday. As I was tapping things were dry but as the day went on (and the drizzle started) things started to flow and eventually sap made it to the tank. Ran through the night from what I can see from a distance but didn't run up to tank and check if it was still dripping.

[steve J]

I boiled sweeten the pans yesterday and was a bit discourage that my sap was 1.9 but after reading here and seeing some where even lower I don't feel quite as bad. Hopefully it bounces up after good freeze this weekend.

[GeneralStark]

First boil was yesterday. Everything worked and made some nice amber rich syrup. SSC was about 1.5. I was impressed by how much sap came in wednesday night and thursday am when the temps rapidly spiked to 40. Was also impressed with how rapidly the temp dropped and the snow piled up while boiling. I was happy that the power stayed on given the winds... Time for a little break to tweak a few things and then we should be busy again next week.

[VTfarmboy]

picked .25 gpt testing 2.25, took a while to open up but now running the hardest I've seen in 16 years

[tcross]

we never got above 33 here last night... despite it raining all night we never got a drop. lines a full of ice! looks like we have some good sap running weather today into tonight though. hoping for a fairly slow warm up so my releaser doesnt' get flooded!

[spud]

I never got above 33 either. Sun is out not and sap just started running a bit. Let’s hope for a great sap day and night before it all freezes up again. Good luck everyone.

Spud

[DrTimPerkins]

Not much happened here overnight either...

Still working to get vacuum up in one section of the woods. Happens to be where we were doing 3/16" sanitation studies with Clorox. NEVER AGAIN -- **** squirrels.

[Mead Maple]

Not much happened here overnight either...

Still working to get vacuum up in one section of the woods. Happens to be where we were doing 3/16" sanitation studies with Clorox. NEVER AGAIN -- **** squirrels.

Well noted Dr Tim!

I had to leave the house at 4am and the sap had started to flow. Things are running hard now, installed vac gauges. Hoping to have sugarhouse ready to boil for tomorrow. SSC tested 2.5 on virgin trees (86 tree test)


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[hogisland42]

I have tree rat problems as well!!!!

[tcross]

starting to roll in now at a good pace. hope my forecast is right and it stays this temp till 3 a.m tomorrow!

[GeneralStark]

Sap continues to run well here. It took until this am to get going but once the sun came out it really picked up. Nothing historic but certainly quite good. Pulled in 1 gpt by late afternoon and will run the ro overnight and plan to boil tomorrow. No freeze in the forecast for tonight so I'm not taking any chances. Looks like potential for sap through the week with another boil likely friday after cleaning on thursday.

I finally got a chance to plumb in a sight tube for my head tank so I will no longer need to climb a ladder to check the tank level. There are a few other minor refinements I'm hoping to get done this season during breaks in the action... assuming we get some breaks before the end of the season...

[Mead Maple]

Sap continues to run well here. It took until this am to get going but once the sun came out it really picked up. Nothing historic but certainly quite good. Pulled in 1 gpt by late afternoon and will run the ro overnight and plan to boil tomorrow. No freeze in the forecast for tonight so I'm not taking any chances. Looks like potential for sap through the week with another boil likely friday after cleaning on thursday.

I finally got a chance to plumb in a sight tube for my head tank so I will no longer need to climb a ladder to check the tank level. There are a few other minor refinements I'm hoping to get done this season during breaks in the action... assuming we get some breaks before the end of the season...

General, how did you plumb in your sight tube?


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[VT_K9]

We had no new sap last night, just over 30 degrees in the Upper Valley. This morning it warmed up pretty quick. Found a few leaks and managed to get vac up over 26" most of the time and nothing below 24". I added a few taps to some runs. We boiled the 400 gallons of sap previously collected. I checked the tanks about 1 hour ago and there is a little more than 350 gallons from today on 350 taps. Not to bad.

Tomorrow we'll finish the main line run for the new area, finish the releaser pluming, and then add more taps.

Mike

[VTfarmboy]

gathered 1.2 gpt in the last 24hr! still testing 2.2, big sap! still making Amber rich

[spud]

I went down to the sugar house at 6:00am to shut the pump off but the sap was still running 125 GPH. Sap ran all night and I have another 1700 gallons in the tank. In the last 24 hours I have gotten 1 GPT and sap is testing at 2.1%. Tomorrow could bring a little more sap but maybe not.

Spud

[PARKER MAPLE]

The last two day’s we have gathered 1.2 gallons per tap on 2700 taps. Sugar has been as good as 2.2 and as low as 2.0.
Made two beautiful drums of LA and working on our third. This morning tanks are full again. Haven’t done the calculations yet but I’m thinking something like 1.0gpt.
Hookin up a pump in our permeate tank today with a line and wash ball so we can back our trucks under and wash out truck tanks easily.

[Shirefisher]

All right a trickle in my test buckets but I'm going to tap my 30buckets today as I'm thinking early next week will be the first run...and I don't have to show up to my day job today.

[Shirefisher]

Ok. I went all out and have tapped 35 on buckets... just a little trickle thus far but we'll see what happens the next few and then a goof freeze Saturday night. I'm thinking Tuesday night might be my first boil if I'm lucky!

[spud]

Sap trickled in all day yesterday and I got another 1300 gallons before it froze up. Sap is testing 2.2. Looks like we might get a five hour run today once the sun comes out. It’s 28 at the house right now.

Spud

[VTfarmboy]

gathered .25 gpt last evening testing 2, a few sap moths , frost coming out fast

[Mead Maple]

I had my first official boil on the new rig. Approximate average evaporation rate was 43gph, but that was a rough estimate. Was very happy with the rig and was happy to have one less thing to tend alone (firewood). Sap did not test the greatest despite a good freeze last weekend. We will see what today brings, was running still last night when I shut down at 10:30


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[GeneralStark]

General, how did you plumb in your sight tube?


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I just T'd into the 1" outlet with an SS T and 6" nipple then transferred to a 1.5" PVC Elbow and then used a leftover piece of 1.5" clear PVC for the sight tube. Works well so far.

Boiled yesterday and turned about 1300 gal of 1.6 sap into over 20 gal of AR. That was sap that came in from Tuesday am to Wednesday about 10 am. Pulled in another approx. 500 gal yesterday and overnight before it stopped. It appears that we did have at least a minor freeze here overnight so we'll see what happens today. Time to clean up and be ready to boil again tomorrow.

[spud]

Sap is running 450 GPH and climbing. Sugar down to 1.9%. Should be a good day.

Spud

[VTNewbie]

Collected 1.7 gallons per tap so far in the NEK Vermont since 3/1/20 1.9%

[spud]

Sap ran great yesterday for 5-6 hours. I got .62 GPT during the run. Sap is testing 1.9%.

Spud

[VTfarmboy]

.20 gpt yesterday still testing 2, not much freeze wed, today should be good hard freeze last night

[Shirefisher]

I collected 20 gallons of sap yesterday, My biggest "estate" Sugar maple trees really ran good yesterday and I bet I'll collect another 20 today. But it's going to have to be stored in the basement till the warm up back on Sunday and hopefully a virgin sap boil on the rig...

[GeneralStark]

Only a marginal freeze wednesday night so lackluster run yesterday. Still ended up with over 1 gpt since the last boil and with a hard freeze last night, ended up boiling over 1k gal and making 25 gal. AR this afternoon. Didn't have a chance to check sugar but making more syrup with less sap so trending in the right direction. With a hard freeze this weekend, looks like next week could be decent....

[VTfarmboy]

.50 gpt today still right at 2% , at .33 full crop, I think changing drops every year on 3/16 makes sense for me, amazing to see how fast it's been running

[Mead Maple]

.50 gpt today still right at 2% , at .33 full crop, I think changing drops every year on 3/16 makes sense for me, amazing to see how fast it's been running

I agree, the 3/16 does pull like a train once it starts filling the lines. However, I am testing 1.5% and am rather unimpressed. New rig is boiling great and chewing through the sap but definitely not much other than steam leaving the pans. Very drawn out process with this low of sugar


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[PARKER MAPLE]

Hey fello sugar makers. I have herd that when you have vacuum leaks. For every 1” of vacuum lost it resulted in X amount of lost sap yield. Dose someone have any idea as to how much sap is lost per inch of lost vacuum?

[spud]

Hey fello sugar makers. I have herd that when you have vacuum leaks. For every 1” of vacuum lost it resulted in X amount of lost sap yield. Dose someone have any idea as to how much sap is lost per inch of lost vacuum?

For every inch of vacuum loss you will lose one gallon of sap. Yesterday I got .75 gpt and sap is testing 2.1%.

Spud

[blissville maples]

So far were at 6.8 gpt. Started about 1.9, down to 1.5. need a nice recharge. We're at about 30% of last year's crop, hoping for a little better if I can keep woods at 27+ all season. Been busy that's for sure, finished tapping 2-23 and made it this far already!!

[Mead Maple]

So boiled until 11:30 last night. Only had two draws, definitely discouraging. Went and checked the tank at my other site and have 75-ish gallons of 2.1-2.2*. Probably going to go grab that later today and bring it home and boil and hopefully see a little gold come out of the syrup valve!


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[PARKER MAPLE]

For every inch of vacuum loss you will lose one gallon of sap. Yesterday I got .75 gpt and sap is testing 2.1%.

Spud

Thanks spud
Is that one gallon per tap?

[spud]

Thanks spud
Is that one gallon per tap?

Yes. :)

Spud

[sapman]

Hey fello sugar makers. I have herd that when you have vacuum leaks. For every 1” of vacuum lost it resulted in X amount of lost sap yield. Dose someone have any idea as to how much sap is lost per inch of lost vacuum?

The researchers say 5% for every inch of vacuum

[PARKER MAPLE]

Thanks guys

[Shirefisher]

oh boy, what is the weather going to cause the next few days. I have fears of not having enough storage for the sap that may run... What do y'all think?

[spud]

Sap started running at noon today. It’s been consistently running 350 GPH and should run all night and all day tomorrow. Testing at 1.9%.

Spud

[Mead Maple]

Sap started running at noon today. It’s been consistently running 350 GPH and should run all night and all day tomorrow. Testing at 1.9%.

Spud

I too am running at 1.9% spud.

Got an additional 3/16 line up and was able to add another 20 trees on that bringing my total tap count to 106. Was flowing quite nicely today!


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[VTfarmboy]

over .50 gpt in last 24hr now testing 2.2, still running hard, seeming like a fast and furious season, frost out in my fields, some mud drying up

[tcross]

figured i'd get a lot more sap over night than i did. it never really got going for me here despite being 40 most the day. it had been real cold here for 2-3 days, so hopefully the trees thaw out and pic up today!

[spud]

Woke up to 2200 gallons in the tank. Sap now testing 2.2% which is a nice jump from yesterday. I think the big mama maples are kicking in with there high sugar. Right now sap is running 260 gph at 6:00am. Should be a good day. The sight level tube on my oil reclaimer has a pin hole. Oil is starting to drip slightly. Hoping it holds till freeze up tomorrow night. I hate to shut the pump down. Good luck everyone.

Spud

[Mead Maple]

Had varying temps here. My (IBC) tank was 3/4 full already but my remote site with same tank and cold temps only had 50 gallons. Not disappointed though as those cold woods will be hammering the next couple of days. Will check SSC later and teport


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[DrTimPerkins]

Made 340 gal of syrup on Thurs (short boil).

Concentrated on Saturday so had 1,000 gal of 35 Brix concentrate in the bulk/overflow tank from Friday/Sat ready to boil. Sap started running mid-afternoon yesterday. Woke up to morning to 10,000 gal of sap (2.1-2.2 Brix) in the sap tanks (~2 gal/tap in 18 hrs). Looks like at least a moderate freeze last night (road was solid this morning), and the trees are really cranking right now. Wade started boiling a few hours ago...nice Amber/Rich with a really smooth flavor. Jed is trying to keep up with the trucking of sap from our remote site.

Only bad aspects are vacuum (low-mid 20s in both bushes) due to pump failure and da** squirrels (worst we've had in 20 yrs). Normally we'd have 4 pumps running, but only 2 going right now (one failed, VFD not right on another). Still have a couple of experiments to get deployed/started...hopefully by the end of this week.

Tapped a few trees on the east side this morning for an experiment....small ones were dripping a steady stream immediately. Larger trees were sluggish and dripping slowly. Warm weather today should get them ripping.

Overall though...it's going to be a good day. :)

[drewlamb]

Absolutely huge day here. Trees didn't give much up yesterday but with mild temps were primed to let go today. At 1.5 gpt at all our tanks and expect better than 2 by gathering time tomorrow morning. Expect folks in the northern tier of VT have done pretty much the same. Big loads and muddy roads will give our new 3000 gallon sap truck its first real test. Gotta admit I'm a little nervous. Good luck everyone.

[VTfarmboy]

gathered 1gpt in the last 24 hr, testing just under 2%, 1.5 gpt in the last 48 hr( all gravity 3/16). I think all down hill from here, hope for a real good freeze this weekend, will be at .66 full crop after tomorrows boil, canned first dark robust today, sap still nice and clear.

[GeneralStark]

Over 2 gpt in less than 24 hours here since the thaw on Sunday. Boiled today and made over 35 gal. AR. Looks like we're not having the best sugar content year here as still just under 2%. Sap still clear despite getting into the 60's today. We'll see what the next couple days bring....

[blissville maples]

Incredible run yesterday and overnight, tanks overflowing after emptying last night first time I've ever seen it happen!. Sugar content low average 1.5. the trees are really cranking collected just over 11k gallons in 36 hrs on 3500 taps!! Unbelievable run!!

[Ultimatetreehugger]

1300 taps worth of sap on the ground do to a brand new releaser switch malfunctioning... :cry: my other trees ran a gallon per tap.

[PARKER MAPLE]

Same story here. We gathered in 5050 gallons yesterday off of 2700 taps. Sugar was testing 1.5-.6 which is pretty average for us now. I’m not sure what the rain will do for us tonight, and we will definitely loose something of our snow pack up in our mountain lots which is needed.

[spud]

I got 1.3 gpt yesterday with sugar dropping back to 1.9. Sap ran all night and I have 2000 in the tank. Should run all day but slower. The rain today could help melt some frost and really get the larger maples rolling.

Spud

[tcross]

the trees up here haven't really woken up totally. had a halfway decent run yesterday, however i came home to find my float rod stuck up, shutting off my vacuum to my lines. no clue how long that had been stuck. **** little washer/clamp on the bottom of the float rod broke off so it wasn't sliding down, but the float was sliding it up... no clue how that happened. lost the over night flow due to having to take the releaser in over night to fix. hopefully this rain will thaw out the tree bases a little and get things going a bit better!

[smokeyamber]

I am officially out of storage :o .. not a bad thing, but looking at a some long nights this week working through close to 400 gallons with a rig that does a bit over 12gallons per hour... guess that diy RO will be on the list for next season. Arch is freshly bricked with a test fire last night. Looking like a fast and furious season :o!

[PARKER MAPLE]

I’m getting close to be selling retail. What are the general prices everyone is charging for sizes? I don’t like being way off but a general idea would help me out . Thank you

[VTfarmboy]

8hrs into a 13hr boil you start to feel like a fireman on a steam engine going wide open, bricks cherry red, sugar house 95 degrees! hope everyones keeping up!

[GeneralStark]

Sap temp. was a bit concerning so I decided to boil again today before a freeze tonight. Made some nice classic dark amber syrup right at 50% on the Hanna meter. Have processed over 3k gal. of sap in the last two days. A good run since the thaw started on Sunday. Sap still running but has slowed way down. The next week looks pretty good for sap weather....

In terms of retail prices, I suggest looking around your area a bit and see what folks looking for syrup would have to pay. Craigslist prices are the lowest, then Farmstand/Sugarhouse prices, and then farmer's market. Prices I see in stores are all over the map. It really depends upon your market and how you are selling it. I see $30-$35 gallons on CL and $65+ gal. in tourist traps. Roadside is typically about $40/gal around here. My prices vary depending upon the market but 6,10,16,25,45 for 1/2 pint-> gal. could be a good place to start...

[Mead Maple]

Still boiling here in Middlesex. Had a broken up day with the wifes schedule and grabbing the kids from school. Add on top of that a minor mechanical malfunction (oil apparently is not the silver bullet of sugaring) and it was not as productive as I would have liked. Fortunately I still made about 5 gallons of syrup so overall I am pleased. Time to go to bed and get ready for work.


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[Shirefisher]

All locked up here. Maybe some sap to boil by Friday afternoon.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

A much needed break in weather today. Slept the whole night for the first time in weeks. Got the conductor fixed and tied back, ran my heat tape on the releaser outlet, walked the new woods, and hooked up the electric transfer pump. Ready for a good day tomorrow.

[GeneralStark]

No break here... pulled in over 1/2 gpt yesterday between noon thaw and 6pm refreeze with filtered sun and 34 degrees. No snow in the woods here so doesn't take much to thaw the trees. Sap was a bit cloudy from the little bit left in the tank from before tuesday nights freeze and the ice scrubbing the slime from the lines after the warm couple days.

Was gone for the day today so missed the thaw after another solid freeze but had already surpassed 1 gpt at 7 pm. Getting ready to run the ro overnight as the sap will run all night and the main tank is almost full. Looks like it could be another big run... boiling tomorrow.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Excellent run today. Finally have all systems online. My new woods was running at 200 gallons per hour. I have no idea how many taps are on it but I'll be counting this weekend.

[VTfarmboy]

ran .33 gpt today clear sap testing 2%, plenty of moths in tanks and some ants around the hundred buckets we still have, rye cover crop starting to green up, hope to go another week

[JoeJ]

I emptied my tank at my remote woods at 3:00 PM and after finishing boiling at 6:30 PM, I went out take some sap out of the tanks around my sugar house so that they would not overflow. Then went to my remote woods to take out 1400 gallons of sap and left 1420 gallons in the tank. That was 1.2 gpt into the tank from 3:00 pm to 10:0pm, 400 gal per hour. The hardest run I have seen at those woods in seven years. To bad the sap is 1.5%.

Joe

[spud]

Woke up to 3100 gallons in the tank. I have gotten .8 gpt since noon yesterday. Sap testing 1.9%. Very good sugaring weather all next week. Sap is running 350 gph at 6:00am. Wind is whipping here.

Spud

[tcross]

the trees didn't open up here till about 2, but between then and 5 this a.m we got just under .5 gpt.... so they are finally waking up here. 32 deg here now... hoping the rain and 47 degrees will get those suckers running hard!

[Ultimatetreehugger]

2800 gallons since 1PM yesterday and still running strong. .

[DrTimPerkins]

Decent run starting around noon in one bush, around 2pm in the other. Ran most or all of the night. About 8,000 gal of sap in the tanks as of this morning (don't have a solid number yet on volume or sap sugar) to add to the concentrate we'd already banked up in the bulk tank and still running in well. Crew is boiling now (3rd boil of the season). Should be at about 0.25 gal syrup/tap by the end of the day, which is half way to what we consider a minimum target (0.5 gal/tap). VERY windy here. Weather looking very good through at least next week -- we don't bother checking the forecast beyond that.

[spud]

Power went out For a few minutes due to very high winds. I’m back up and running now. I’m glad I have CV2 spouts preventing the sap from going back into the tap holes. Sap is now running 325 gph and testing 1.7%

Spud

[VTfarmboy]

.30 gpt still right at 2%, didnt freeze last night, 3/16 is powerhouse this year with super long runs, next week forcast now looking good

[GeneralStark]

Power went out here this morning for 1.5 hours and changed my plans for boiling. For whatever reason the vacuum pump seized when it shut off so I had to disassemble the pump head and reassemble to get it back on line. Fortunately the sap essentially stopped flowing so I did not have to break out the bucket brigade between the electric releaser and sap tank....

Had to deal with some other weather related issues including a bunch of stuff blowing around in the heavy winds we had. Most of this stuff, including every cover on any wood pile as well as the top of a propane tank has never been moved by a wind storm previously... go figure. Fortunately nothing was damaged.

I did finally get to boiling and made 30 gal of the darkest syrup so far this season. 45% light transmittance. That was from over 2000 gal of syrup which means the SSC is seriously low. Every year I seem to say: "what a weird season" and this year it looks like it will be due to the lowest SSC I've seen from these woods. I think it will be a tough year to hit the .5gpt mark but who knows what the rest of the season will bring.

I'm sure everyone is up to their ears with Caronavirus news and despite the fact that this has already been brought up and lead to some "moderator intervention" I thought I might just put this here: https://vermontmaple.org/mohw

As a participating producer I have mixed feelings about this, but I suspect it is a good choice for many reasons.

[spud]

I emptied my tank last night at 8:30 thinking the sap would stop running anytime. I woke up to 1800 gallons in the tank and it’s still running just a little now. Hoping next week is a great sap week. Weather looks great for sugaring in my area. General I’m sorry to hear about your pump issues. I’m glad your back up and going. Good luck everyone.

Spud

[spud]

I was not expecting sap yesterday but it ran very good. It froze up at about 8 last night. I got 1 gpt and it tested 1.6%. Most of next week should be great. I’m at about 50% of my season target. If we could go a week or two into April then it would be a great season. Good luck everyone.

Spud

[PARKER MAPLE]

Same here spud, after the bad wind we had and the weather I didn’t expect to see much.
We had 2 full tanks one was over full. Must of missed it by a little bit. Our southern lot has dropped way off 1.0-1.1 but still running 1.5gpt our northern lot now is coming on. Running almost 2.0gpt and sugar is 2.0.
I think we are at over half way on syrup totals. But not quite 3/4. I’m not sure we will hit our goals this year unless it hold out for a few more weeks. April is getting closer as we speak
Big freeze coming this afternoon into the night. Forecast showed low teens for us. This should set the tree up again, as we have very little snow in one bush and none in our southern bush.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Over the last two days I trucked 6000 gallons sugar content around 2 depending on the woods. I'm at 25 percent crop.

[blissville maples]

I'm starting to see why everyone was posting about low sugar!! It's dropped off here, down to 1.2- 1.4 not impressive. Thank God added a recirc loop for osmosis!!

Just topped 850 gals last night which is .54 of last year's crop, mostly Amber but stared hitting dark couple days ago. Having some major runs this year, 10-15k gallons per 24-48 hrs. Although I feel it's just extra water for whatever reason, no frost just sucking water from ground?

[spud]

One section of my woods ran a bit today. I got about 800 gallons in the tank. I have added 250 taps the last few days. I still have a few hundred more that I will do before next season. Now that the kids are home from school I have put them to work. :)

Spud

[GeneralStark]

General I’m sorry to hear about your pump issues. I’m glad your back up and going.

Spud

Thanks Spud! Just a quick blip in the scheme of things. Fortunately I can disassemble and assemble the pump real quick. Pretty simple piece of equipment that is practically bombproof unless the power goes out...

Solid freeze-ups the last two nights here. Sap ran a bit yesterday and got going pretty good this afternoon. I boiled yesterday and made 10 gallons of nice dark robust.... from 1000 gal. of sap.... :-|

Niter is getting pretty bad so going to drain and filter the flue pan and rinse it with permeate.

Hopefully we have another two weeks here... weird times.

[Thegreg20]

I started at 2% and the last week its dropped to 1%. Wouldn't be an issue if I had more trees but I'm only working with 16 taps on my vacuum system. I get about 17gals a day. Would of called it the season if I didn't have RO but still it's limping away to get enough syrup for the year. I need more trees :cry:

[spud]

Sap is running 525 gph and should run all night. Looks like a good 10 day forecast.

Spud

[tcross]

didn't get a whole lot of sap flow yesterday. had 29 at the house this a.m... today and tomorrow should be good days up here!

[blissville maples]

Sap up to whopping 1.4 from three freezing nights. Was 1.1 so that will help. Just about at .7 of last year's, hoping to get thru next week. The end will come quick with no snow cover, looks like next week 50sand sunshine with warm nights, that will certainly kill it quickly. We wont get into April this year that's for sure. Flavor going to take a tumble once 50-60s appear.

[DrTimPerkins]

Sap ran a little on Wed late afternoon and evening, then again yesterday once it started up in the afternoon. Not a gusher day by any means, but good. Sugar still holding at around 1.9-2.0 Brix. Got 1,000 gal of 35 Brix concentrate chilling in the bulk tank and another 8,000 gal of 2.0 Brix sap in storage starting through the RO now, so should be a good boiling day. Have a few experiments to run during the boil too, so it'll be a busy day. Once all is finished (we might not boil it all out today), we'll likely be right around 73% of a minimum crop target (0.5 gal/tap). Should run all day today, tonite, and tomorrow, so should be well over 80% by that time. Based on the forecast, it'll be too cold for sap on Sat, Sun, and Mon, then will start up again next Tuesday. Another weekend off. :)

[spud]

Almost 2 gpt in the last 24 hours. Sap still gushing in and testing 1.7%. We should go well into April up here at the border.

Spud

[spud]

A crazy day for sure. Woke up to a tank full of sap that was testing 1.7%. I pumped that sap over the mountain to the neighbors. I then got another 3000 gallons and that tested at 2%. Sap is still running at 300 gph at 8 pm. Gotta love it.

Spud

[GeneralStark]

Decent runs this week with Wednesday -> Thursday being the highlight. No freeze here since Tuesday night... Boiled yesterday after cleaning out the rig and made about 30 gal. from approx 2700 gal. of sap collected since the last boil on Sunday. Very nice dark robust syrup. Definitely making darker syrup this season overall...

SSC is lowest I've ever seen here this season. At about .25gpt for syrup at this point so should be able to get over .3 for the season... Doesn't look like a bumper crop here like the last two seasons but I'll be happy with what I can get.

Sap running decent and have pulled in about 1 gpt since noon yesterday. Going to prep to boil tomorrow. Then it looks like we might get a break for a bit.

[drewlamb]

I've got a question and not sure where to post it but gonna start with you guys. Got a small amount of sap today - enough to concentrate and do a full RO wash/rinse. But for a boil, once the evaporator gets hot, we'll basically go right into shut down. What I'm wondering about is just concentrating and storing it in the head tank (200 gal cap), but I'm afraid it's going to go to ice, which would be real trouble. I know people store high brix concentrate but guess that's less likely to freeze. If I concentrate to 12%, I'm guessing that's still likely to freeze. Anyone have experience with this?

[drewlamb]

I should add that we're looking at teens the next 3 nights and around 30 during the day.

[VTfarmboy]

last 2 runs here .30 gpt testing 1.5 then .5 gpt at 1.75, still have a bit of wood would really like to keep going, some trees look a bit buddy, pulled reds and silvers off, today wasnt quite as warm as i thought it might be and hardly any sun, ill test some the turkey cooker to see if its buddy before i add it, if so ill boil out, near full crop for me of .25gpt syrup. Rye really greening up and popples look like they pushed alot, good luck to those still at it!

[n8hutch]

At 12% you wont freeze hard, might get slushy, think of your flu pan in your evaporator. Boiling Raw sap it would be pretty rare to average over 12% in your flu pan after cool down and everything evens out. Usually it has to get really cold to freeze up an evaporator. I think that you would be fine.

[blissville maples]

Sap ran very good today, best since Tuesday. Nice 25-30 degree temperature change really made pressure in the trees. about 1.5gpt in 24 hrs. Sugar on the way back down as anticipated but will rebound with the three freezing nights coming up. Looking like the last week of it here in the southern Champlain valley with 50s and some sun with no freezing nights after Monday- heard the first peepers today, that's a sure sign!!!

1098 gallons as of tonight, just about.75 of last year's crop and .32 gpt Can't complain given the poor sugar content.

[VTnewguy]

last 2 runs here .30 gpt testing 1.5 then .5 gpt at 1.75, still have a bit of wood would really like to keep going, some trees look a bit buddy, pulled reds and silvers off, today wasnt quite as warm as i thought it might be and hardly any sun, ill test some the turkey cooker to see if its buddy before i add it, if so ill boil out, near full crop for me of .25gpt syrup. Rye really greening up and popples look like they pushed alot, good luck to those still at it!

Haven't heard any peepers yet in Pittsford. Going to try to get a couple more runs.

[blissville maples]

They will be back in the mud and quiet after last night and tonight!! Haha

Well now they talking snow Tuesday and mid 40 temps next week, looks a little more promising than other days forecast.....maybe we'll make some April syrup after all. For me once the 50s and 60s start the sap quality goes down the tubes and get the strong toffee end of season flavor.

[DrTimPerkins]

Decent amount of sap this past week. After the last boil, and what we have in concentrate in the bulk tank and sap in storage, we're at 84% of a minimum crop (0.50 gal syrup/tap) and 72% of our average crop (0.59 gal/tap). Would be even better if it weren't for the darn squirrels killing the vacuum in one part of the woods -- although when they see/hear Brendan coming they take off quickly. He's been whittling their numbers down a good bit.

Sugar holding at about 1.8 Brix and still making a Amber/Rich on the high end of the light transmission category. Too cold to run this weekend (hopefully will bump up the sap sugar a little), but the forecast for next Tues-Sat is looking quite good.

Hoping to add 1,000 taps next summer (red maple vs sugar maple study by Dr. Abby), so we're going to need to do something about speeding up the RO and syrup filtering.

[GeneralStark]

Boiled yesterday.. about 1300 gal. from Wed. and Thurs... SSC was a bit better than I expected given no freeze during that period. Was able to make almost 20 gal. of nice DR. I was a bit concerned that the warm day on Friday may have triggered some red maple budding but I can't detect anything in the syrup flavor. This cold should help reset things.

I was quite impressed with how well the sap ran yesterday afternoon for a few hours. About 300 gal. came in. Cloudy from scrubbing Friday's slime out of the lines but I'll take it. Most seasons I can't make enough dark syrup so it's nice to be making it.

[GeneralStark]

I've got a question and not sure where to post it but gonna start with you guys. Got a small amount of sap today - enough to concentrate and do a full RO wash/rinse. But for a boil, once the evaporator gets hot, we'll basically go right into shut down. What I'm wondering about is just concentrating and storing it in the head tank (200 gal cap), but I'm afraid it's going to go to ice, which would be real trouble. I know people store high brix concentrate but guess that's less likely to freeze. If I concentrate to 12%, I'm guessing that's still likely to freeze. Anyone have experience with this?

You've likely already made your decision but if I were you I would boil it. It freezing would be only one of my concerns... Given the forecast for this week and your location, it may be several days before you have enough sap to boil again, but it may be warm enough for the concentrate to spoil. I've heard quite a few stories of people storing concentrate in the cold only to find that the syrup they made from it was not good...

[GeneralStark]

Didn't run nearly as well yesterday but no surprise given the 12F low the night before. Maybe we'll get something today but if we do get some sun tomorrow that should really get things going again.

[blissville maples]

Has been a slow couple of days, cold nights with marginally warm days will do that. The sunshine certainly helped made for a QT per tap run both sat Sunday and today!! Started running today around 11 am when it warmed to 36-38 then back down to 32 by 630 and releasers frozen.

Hopefully we get some use out of these freezing nights but nothing major over the weekend!! This week looking good all of a sudden, weather has been unpredictable

[VTfarmboy]

.40 gpt in the last 48hr, testing 1.5%, fairly cloudy but making really nice tasting very dark, a real sugar snow here keeping it going

[spud]

.40 gpt in the last 48hr, testing 1.5%, fairly cloudy but making really nice tasting very dark, a real sugar snow here keeping it going

That’s great to hear your still making syrup down south. Today should be the start of the second half to my season. The 10 day forecast looks very good. Its pretty safe to say the sap will run into April a bit. After this 4 day freeze up I’m in hopes the sugar content will be good for a while. Good luck everyone.

Spud

[spud]

Sap started running a bit at noon. The wind is not helping but I should get sap till about 11:00pm. I was able to spray all my apple trees with deer repellent today while waiting for sap. The deer are all over.

Spud

[tcross]

Same here Spud, not coming in real hard but it should pick up. good thing you got around to spraying your apple trees. i've been seeing betwee 12 and 36 deer on my 10 minute drive home from work each night for the past 4-5 days. they're ready for some new food!

[DrTimPerkins]

Sap just starting to trickle in a bit on the mountain in Underhill. Should run better a bit later before freezing up around midnite, then start up again before noon tomorrow. Nice looking forecast for making syrup.

[spud]

Sap is running 405 gph now and testing 1.7%.

Spud

[DrTimPerkins]

Running well up on the hill also. Snips from the H2O Smartrek system from two tanks. No sign of any slowdown in flow rate so far (no sanitation impacts apparent, but still early and we use primarily CV2s in our production woods). Tanks about 1/3 full right now. About 37-40 deg F in the woods at the moment, so should run until about midnite. Tanks will likely be about 2/3 full by that point, which will be about 1.3-1.4 gal/tap. At home, so can't measure sugar content. Should get a decent recharge and a quick thaw early (by noon), so tomorrow is looking to be a really good day.

21305 21306

[Sunday Rock Maple]

Very impressive, will the system alarm at a setpoint (say 90 percent full) as well?

[DrTimPerkins]

If we wanted it to, yes.

[Sunday Rock Maple]

Thanks, sounds like you designed your tank size to be robust in regards to overfill?

[GeneralStark]

Over 2 gpt since it thawed yesterday late morning. At the peak it was running the hardest I’ve seen this season. Hung a couple buckets with my daughter and the sap was coming out in a stream... looks like the ssc came up a bit as well.

It appears that It did freeze overnight but not sure for how long. It’s thawing now and the releaser is full of ice... getting ready to boil later today.

[spud]

We had a short freeze here last night with temps hitting 31. Should run very good today and all night into tomorrow. Tomorrow night is the last freeze that’s showing in the 10 day forecast. I hope that changes. Sap testing 1.7%

Spud

[DrTimPerkins]

Thanks, sounds like you designed your tank size to be robust in regards to overfill?

Main bush has about 2,500 taps and two 3,000 gal sap tanks (monitoring cam image below). These are connected via an overflow line. We have H2O Smartrek sensors on each tank, and Canary cams set up so we can see them if we want. If we are inside the sugarhouse, we also have security monitors near the evaporator and in the RO room with multiple cams showing views around the sugarhouse, and a monitoring box with vacuum and tank level sensors. We can keep an eye on most everything without having to leave the evaporator station.

There is also a spare 3,000 gal tank, normally used as a permeate overflow tank, that we can divert sap to if necessary. A variety of tanks, including this one, are connected via plumbing and pumps so sap/concentrate/permeate can be sent wherever we want it very easily. It was designed to be versatile and operated by one person with little running around...just turn a few valves and turn on a pump.

I can only remember one day in the last 20+ years when I walked into the sugarhouse and tanks were just starting to overflow. That got corrected fast.

It ended up running most of the night, but slowed down a good bit after 2am. Light freeze set us up for a good flow day today. Crew is boiling -- 5th boil of the year.

21308

[tcross]

we didn't get a great run here yesterday... bout 1/3rd gallon per tap. ran hard from 4 till 7 then slowed down and was done by midnight. it was 28 this a.m and is 32 now... hoping for one of those gusher days. we need a few for us up here to get a good crop at this time of the year! we're showing freezing nights for a while, so hopeful we'll get flooded!

[tcross]

well, we're finally getting the gusher run i've been waiting for. collected 285 gallons since 9 a.m on my 330 taps!

[DrTimPerkins]

well, we're finally getting the gusher run i've been waiting for. collected 285 gallons since 9 a.m on my 330 taps!

That's really good flow. Hope it keeps up for you.

Sap running well at PMRC/Underhill too. The crew boiled the concentrate we had banked up today (5th boil of the season) -- another 530 gal AR in the drum, slightly darker than last boil. That puts us at 93% of our minimum crop and 79% of our average crop. With the forecast, we'll have no problem hitting 0.5 gal/tap. With any luck we'll come close to or exceed our average. Would have been a great year if it weren't for the squirrels. Niter picking up a bit. Sap sugar running 1.9/2.1 Brix at the two sites.

[tcross]

yeah, it's a little much for my hobby releaser... she's getting one heck of a work out!

[VTfarmboy]

last 2 days were .25 and .30 gpt still at 1.5, and still making really nice color/flavor B, cant believe we are still going, grass is greening, rye is very green, going to start field work soon almost at full crop .25gpt , thought i could hear a few frogs singing tonight

[tcross]

ended up with a hair over 2 gpt yesterday between 9 a.m and 530 this a.m. i had 32 on the thermometer this a.m, be nice if that dropped a few degrees for a few hours. sap was at 1.9 and we're making some really tasty amber rich... today should be alright, but tomorrow looks like it could be another real good day. good luck guys and gals!

[hogisland42]

I had more sap in the tank this morning than I expected. Not sure if I had a flash freeze or what last night but releaser was full of slush this morning. I didn't think it got that cold here last night but I may be wrong. It had already thawed out and was running when I checked at 7.

[spud]

I cleaned out my tank last night. This morning I had 1700 gallons but the sap had come to a stop. It was 31 at the house this morning. I think it was a bit cooler on the hill though. Sap in the tank is 1.6%. The ten day forecast is still calling for 4 more freezing nights. We should have 2-3 more weeks of sap I hope.

Spud

[GeneralStark]

Boiled about 2400 gal. of 1.4 sap yesterday and made about 30 gal of DR. Had to boil with a bit deeper level in the syrup pans than usual due to all the niter but made it through without any scorching issues. Syrup is definitely filtering harder which is no surprise with all the yeast. Cleaned out the tank and the over 1 gpt that came in since yesterday am is looking clear.

No freeze here overnight but flow did slow way down. The 8" of snow that fell several days ago and the colder temps really seem to have temporarily reset things but the signs of spring are really showing up. The snow is all gone, daffodils are coming up, birds are showing up and the red maple buds are looking a bit swollen. Another freeze tonight should help.

I still have enough wood for several more boils so I'll keep going until it doesn't make sense any longer. We lost all our day care but fortunately my other job is flexible and I can work from home and my wife can work from home with a flexible schedule.

I hope you get another 2-3 weeks Spud.

[DrTimPerkins]

Nice run since yesterday afternoon. 10,233 gal sap from 5,100 taps. Averaging 1.75 Brix (1.8 in the Main Bush and 1.7 in the other). Another 425 gal of 35 Brix concentrate in the bulk tank. When boiled that'll put us at 0.498 gal syrup/tap for the season. Still got a few thousand more gal to run through the RO tomorrow, so that'll get us over the 0.5 gal/tap hump very easily. Sap should run until about 10-11pm tonite, then freeze up a bit, which should set us up for a big run over the weekend. About 25,000 gal more sap would get us to our next goal...our average season (0.59 gal/tap). That's still possible, but no solid freezes in the forecast through next Friday (except tonite), and not much snow in the woods https://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/data/latest/proctor.jpg so we shall see. The rain on Sun-Mon will keep things cool somewhat. Season still has some good potential.

Update: And just in the time it took to write this they changed to forecast to a few degrees colder, so it now appears that it might drop into the upper 20s next Thurs and Friday. That would be very nice.

[palmer4th]

have there been many blind taste tests with syrup made from such high %'s?

[DrTimPerkins]

have there been many blind taste tests with syrup made from such high %'s?

Research paper can be found at: https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m1217highbrix/

Matches what we've found previously with concentration up to 25 Brix.

My personal opinion...tastes great. Had some we made last year on my pancakes for breakfast today. Told my wife I thought it was some of the best syrup we'd made. It is definitely light (we don't typically make much dark syrup), but that is from a combination of things...including high RO concentration. If we wanted it darker we could simply run it really deep in the evaporator.

[VTfarmboy]

boiled out today as i am out off dry wood, full crop here .25 gpt (gravity 3/16) ave this year was 33:1. made the best tasting very dark we have ever made. Good luck to all those still going, the frogs are singing tonight!

[VTfarmboy]

i meant 43:1

[Mead Maple]

Im pulling an all nighter. Sap test at 1.8-1.9%. Couldnt believe it came back up that much. Plan to boil right through the night and ill keep myself busy and awake reading about everyones ROs....

Seem to be making dark currently


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[spud]

I hope your night went well for you Mead. Looks like I got 1700 in the tank this morning. We had a power blip last night so I checked on the pump at 3 am. Everything was running as it should. Sap should start running at about 9:30-10 this morning. Monday night will be our next freeze. We all should get a bunch of sap this weekend.

Spud

[Mead Maple]

Kids let me get a 3 hour nap before they let me know how late I slept in haha. Went well, cooled off quickly last night. Made about 7 gallons of what looks like dark robust. Everyone enjoy the weekend!


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[TapTapTap]

No hired help around with the virus stuff. My wife and i did it all by ourselves and learned a few lessons. We lost some potential production but didn't break anything! Lots of niter and heavy filter loads. Dark Robust for sure. Looking forward to the next boil so we can start to dial it in.