How much syrup per tap, realistically ?

[bowtie]

I have 300 buckets and will make about 30 gallons of syrup this year if we get another decent run. I know this is off year but find amazing that some guys are getting 1/2 gallon of syrup per tap. I know high vac will get this or more sometimes but with buckets I think 1/6 or 1/8 gallon is more realistic especially when tap more than a few dozen trees, especially with lots of reds like I tap. I have yard trees,sugars, that average over 4 percent and run great but mostly woods taps, 1/4 sugars and 3/4 reds.

[heus]

On vac I will be at half a gallon per tap this year. On my sap saks that werent destroyed by squirrels maybe one pint per tap.

[Revi]

Woods trees give a lot less sap per tap, but they are more easily hooked into a pipeline, so they earn their keep. On a good year we are about like you Bowtie, as we have just gravity and some buckets. This has not been a good year for sap, but we have had fun.

[wnybassman]

Last year I had nearly a half gallon per tap on buckets, but nearly always get over a quart on average.

[woodchuck]

I mirrored Bowties numbers last year. 100 buckets made 25 gallons. This year added 200 different trees on vacuum, so far these are are pulling great volume but 2.2 average sugar. I suspect the buckets will kick in this week.

[PerryW]

With mostly woods trees with small crowns (all sugar maples) on gravity, I get between one pint and one quart of product per tap.

[Bentley Wood Maple]

Just under a qt per tap on all forrest trees. Sugar usually runs about 2.4 -2.6 on good runs. This year will seriously decrease our per tap avg. Made 3 1/2 gallons on 350 taps...

[COMSTOCK MAPLES]

Bentley woods I'm in the same boat as you not a big yield this year. What's your status on pulling taps?? Weather here in Comstock not looking good. Thanks

[Clinkis]

I usually consider it a good season if I can get a litre per tap. This year I switched some taps to vacume in hopes of increasing this but right now I'm looking like I will be lucky to get to 1/2 litre per tap. Luckily my suger content has been slightly above average and syrup quality has been excellent but still been a disappointing season.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I shoot for a quart per tap on gravity. Lot of smaller trees and steep slopes without moisture.

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

I made 0.4 gallons per tap. That is a little better than a qt and pt per tap. 201 gallons from 500 taps. This season was slightly above average and was the year of high vacuum. If you don't have vacuum down south this year you didn't do too well. its that simple. If you have high vacuum you likely had a good year.

[Dave Y]

I dont buy in to the syrup per tap game, You can have poor trees and good vacuum and only make a qt or pint per tap. But you have done every thing you could to produce more syrup. Or you could have low sugar content but produce a ton of sap. your syrup numbers will be down . If you want to judge your set ups production it should be sap per tap , not syrup.

[maple marc]

All buckets, and I aim for a half gallon of syrup per bucket. I'm lucky, though, because most of my maples (all sugar and black) are yard or fence row trees with big crowns). Some trees are along the shore of a beautiful pond, so the trees are always well hydrated, even in drought years. This year was down for me, at about 30 gallons on 100 buckets. It was just too cold for too long. My sugar runs about 2.5-2.8%. One advantage of being a small producer on buckets is that I manage my trees like a baseball team: you don't produce and you get benched (not axed). The next year I tap another tree nearby. It's rewarding to be as efficient as possible, and selecting trees is part of that. Someone on tubing never really knows how much individual trees are putting out.

[bowhunter]

I did about 30 gallons per hundred taps last year and about 24 gallons per hundred taps in 2014. I tapped 108 trees this year. I also tree to manage my trees and not continue to tap trees that don't produce the previous year. My trees are all forest trees with small crowns. The sugar content runs around 2.5%.

[Bentley Wood Maple]

Comstock, usualy pull taps when can't get it through the filters. This year don't have that cue to guide me.
: (
One nieghbor pulled this weekend, another shares my point of view. Taps aren't bothering anything. Leave em in see what happens. Still have a foot of hard pack snow and ice here. Do I think we're done for the year? Yup. No doubt in my mind. But 6 weeks ago I was getting ready the best year we ever had..... so occasionaly I am mistaken.
Where are you compared to the prison? I am on Bentley Road , about 3 miles from McDermotts.
Get in touch with me sometime, we can swap war stories or different sugarhouse ideas.
Mike

[COMSTOCK MAPLES]

just a couple miles past prison. are you located right near Farley rd?? I grew up on greenbarn rd maybe get chance this weekend to stop by. probably pull taps next week I'm thinking HEY ALLEN post your next boil and i'll stop in.. GOOD LUCK TOO ALL

[COMSTOCK MAPLES]

HEY Bentley check out the Washington county theard on tapping NY I check there more often

[Labwalker]

Every tap is different. I tap all sugar maples and every year the same trees are either great or not so good. I try to tap straight above a major root and this does make a difference. This year was hard to do because of the 25+ inches of snow. I will mark some trees to make sure next year the tap will be over a major root. If a tree does not produce enough sap I pull the tap and try another tree.

[Russell Lampron]

I tap a lot of red maples and have them on vacuum. I try to keep the vacuum at 25" and am running 24.5" right now. The reds on vacuum don't produce as much sap per tap as sugars would and they aren't supposed to be quite as sweet either. Mine usually run around 2%. sometimes a little lower but this season a little higher. I consider it a good season if I can get a quart per tap. That won't happen this year but I have passed a pint per tap and have 700 gallons of sap plus what came in overnight to boil tonight.

Reds on buckets and being woods trees too I would consider a pint per tap good.

[lyford]

This being my 2nd year only I dont have much for records, but this year on 51 taps all buckets (48red/2sugar/1silver) i made 13.375 gallons. If my math is correct thats .26 gallons per tap. I'm very happy with that but I do see a vac. system in the not too distant future.

[spud]

I dont buy in to the syrup per tap game, You can have poor trees and good vacuum and only make a qt or pint per tap. But you have done every thing you could to produce more syrup. Or you could have low sugar content but produce a ton of sap. your syrup numbers will be down . If you want to judge your set ups production it should be sap per tap , not syrup.

I agree with you Dave. As a sap seller I shoot for 25 GPT and always hope for more. I have very little control over what sugar content I get throughout the season. Some people have super sweet trees but I am not one of them. A 1.7% sugar average is what I hope for by the end of the season. My sugar has been 2-2.2 until the other day. Now it's dropping to 1.8

Spud

[KevinS]

I am really lucky this year at nearly .5 gal per tap on buckets. I personally have never seen it this high and I am thankful for it. The much higher sugar content mid season than is normal for us, sure helped a lot.

[bowtie]

We'll today was my last day most buckets were a little cloudy so they got dumped. I stopped collecting when I had 120 gallons, still had about 125 buckets left but decided not to bother. I will end up with a little over 30 gallons on 300 buckets. I would consider it a down year around here, only had what i would consider decent runs on 4 days. Some days would only get 50-75 gallons from all my buckets. I would like to make more next year but gathering buckets is very time consuming and if I up my taps to 500 it would take 5-6 hours to collect on decent runs. Not sure what to do, maybe look for a some more land to purchase with decent sugars, and easier to get at. I am going make a video showing my trip up and down from my buckets. I would love to have 100 more yard taps, I have 11 taps in my maples in yard and get super high sugar from them, one as high a 5 percent, I could make 125 gallons of syrup from 300 yard trees but I just play the cards I am dealt. Though I said I would look into tubing, i might to make collecting faster. I like the work of the buckets but it takes a lot of boiling time away. Will have final count tomorrow or Thursday, might just tap a few birch?