whats gonna happen?

[PATheron]

Wanna hear everybodys opinion on whats going to happen this season. I talked to my supplier today and I asked him if he thought we could still have a good season. He said yeah. I asked him if hes ever seen anything like this season and he said no. Now this guy can show me trees hes tapping that have been tapped by his family for 100 years so hes got some experience. Lets here it. Tell me whats going to happen. Im still optimistic. Are we doomed or are we going to make all our syrup in april? It looks like here were going to make all our syrup the first week of april and that's usally the end of our season. Whats the predictions? Its all over but the crying in a month. Theron

[bees1st]

My best guess is that this weather pattern will continue , but it will slowly start to warm. It can't help to , as the sun is so high now . I predict and average season overall. With intense runs at the end . We will be boiling 10 days later than normal . But as I like to say . " Hard telling not knowing ."

[maple maniac65]

been awhile since I heard of sugar makers making good syrup in May.

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Since we have not had a year like this in the 20+ years I have been sugaring and I cannot talk from experience, I will base my prediction on 2 things: the weather patterns this winter(no major warming trends and below avg. temps) and the frost in the ground and base of trees(alot of it). I think those on vac. with a tight system will have an avg. year and those on gravity and buckets will be slightly less than avg. I think the weather will warm up slow with below normal temps. for the next month or so and that will let everyone boil 10 -14 days longer than normal. That being said, I don't think we will get many huge runs because the trees are going to thaw slow being so frozen. That is going to hurt gravity producers. Overall, I think we will get less sap/tap, but the sugar will be at least a quarter% higher than normal making up for some of that.
Neil

[Dave Y]

I think we will have an average season. I am not in the panic mode because I have made more syrup to date this year than I had last year this time. While Everyone had a banner year last year I did not. I boiled till April 12th last year, My first boil was March 12th, this year it was Feb 24th.The tempature trends look better this year than last. Also I have made syrup until april 21st and I am in Pa.

[Cabin]

I think we will have an average season. I am not in the panic mode because I have made more syrup to date this year than I had last year this time. While Everyone had a banner year last year I did not. I boiled till April 12th last year, My first boil was March 12th, this year it was Feb 24th.The tempature trends look better this year than last. Also I have made syrup until april 21st and I am in Pa.

I think you nailed it. I had a bad year last year as well. My season in southern Monroe county ended 3 weeks before my coworkers in Pike county(of course I started before he did). If we are lucky it will still be 6 weeks or a very rushed 2-4 weeks. Squezed my first gallon of syrup out this week end and hope to be frantic this week.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm with Matt on this one Theron. I think you're hitting the panic button and want everyone else to give you some words of encouragement. I think it is too early to hit the panic button but there is reason to be nervous.

The closest to this season that I can relate to since I have been sugaring is 2005. That year I didn't start tapping until March 13th because it was too cold. That season it went from frigid to too warm and 2 weeks later we were all done. I have seen seasons where I would have pulled the plug at the end of March like others around me but didn't. One season it looked like we were all done at the end of March. The sap runs were small and the sap was cloudy. I left my taps in and we got a foot of snow the first week of April. I boiled until the 14th of April and made most of my syrup in those 2 weeks.

I'm thinking that we are going to have strong sap runs into April and that I will be boiling until the 3rd week in April. The extended forecast is predicting more of the same and that is better than having it warm up too fast.

[lew]

I won't hazard a guess as to what will happen this year, but I can refer back to 1988 or 1989 I believe. We were all tapped and ready to go y February 20 like usual. No sap until March 17 and the season was over by March 28. It went from winter to summer with only 11 days of spring. We made what we figured was 38% of what we would have called a normal crop. We had no vacuum then and were selling the sap. We figured an average gravity crop was 10 gallons per tap. Only made 3.8 gpt. Not a good year at all.

[DrTimPerkins]

Wanna hear everybodys opinion on whats going to happen this season.

Our standard answer to this question is....."Ask me again in May". If pressed, we'll say, "If you can give me a reliable weather forecast for the next six weeks, I can give you an educated guess on what the season will be like."

All we can do is work hard, be ready to go when it does come, and hope for the best.

[Mark]

This weather is great for the procrastinators, I finished tapping yesterday. Looks like I will have a week or more to get everything else ready.

[doocat]

I can tell everyone that I am a little bored....waiting.

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

From what I have seen so far, I agree with Neil. We are in southern PA and so far it been slow going, but we have made syrup. The gravity and bucket guys aren't doing much. This past Friday night it didn't freeze and we got the best run so far, 1-1/2 gpt of sap. Sugar content has been low, syrup is hard to filter, and syrup is dark but tastes good. It looks like it could hang on here for another few weeks or so, and if it does we could make an OK crop.

[sapman]

I'm a little nervous as the forecast here is for a week of above freezing temps end of March beginning of April. Worried that the soft maples will flower, and that's over 2/3 of my taps.

On the upside, I figure I'm close to 1/3 crop now.

[PATheron]

Russ- Im not looking for any reassurances. I know its all a crap shoot. Its fun to hear about other peoples past years and what everybody thinks is going to happen. Were all in the same boat and theres not much else to do now but shoot the breeze and wait. It warmed up today but felt cold. It ran everywhere but slow. Added some taps and tuned up a smaller woods with bubble patoll and mainline tweeking. Really is no end to the tuning the lines need. Just want to see some BIGSAP!!! Gonna feel nice when it warms up. Theron

[Russell Lampron]

Russ- Im not looking for any reassurances. I know its all a crap shoot. Its fun to hear about other peoples past years and what everybody thinks is going to happen. Were all in the same boat and theres not much else to do now but shoot the breeze and wait. It warmed up today but felt cold. It ran everywhere but slow. Added some taps and tuned up a smaller woods with bubble patoll and mainline tweeking. Really is no end to the tuning the lines need. Just want to see some BIGSAP!!! Gonna feel nice when it warms up. Theron

I was talking to my farther today and asked him if remembers a season like this in the past. He said that there was one season in the mid forties where my grandfather tapped the trees, gathered once and then it started raining and didn't freeze anymore. They didn't even get enough sap to sweeten the pans and they were all done!

[adk1]

That's true, my one boil this year was the end of fen during that thee day thaw. After that I drained the pans. Still need to rinse them

[325abn]

Hard tellin not knowin!

[Yellzee]

I predict there will (should be) be a large gathering of producers in April from both sides of the border to get together, consume beverages and complain about the year.. perhaps see which maple makers can win the most card games? Who would have thought we should have planned this for Middle of March??? Anyone have a bed and breakfast attached to their business that wants to host us?

[3GoatHill]

Has there ever been a normal year? I know it's been a while since I've been normal.

[Cabin]

Has there ever been a normal year? I know it's been a while since I've been normal.

OK would normal people get all worked up about boiling sap???

[maple maniac65]

I predict there will (should be) be a large gathering of producers in April from both sides of the border to get together, consume beverages and complain about the year.. perhaps see which maple makers can win the most card games? Who would have thought we should have planned this for Middle of March??? Anyone have a bed and breakfast attached to their business that wants to host us?

Isn't that referred to as an OPEN HOUSE. Seems there are some coming up towards the end of April beginning of May

[802maple]

I've seen years like this before, some ending good, some not, some fast and furious, others all the way through April and in to May. The 1st of June I will let you know how it turned out. I most generally always made most of, if not all of my syrup in April so I wouldn't get nervous about sugaring here yet, south of here maybe.

[GeneralStark]

Watch the video for NOAA's spring predictions. Looks like Equal Chances for the northeast.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2650