Tubing setup for 50 or so trees

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Hi everyone,
I plan on thoroughly reading through this section of the site to get an idea on my setup for next season. I used buckets on a stretch of trees at a friends house this year that gave me an average of 2gpt daily! I want to tube it all next year so I dont have to carry buckets anymore and can pump it all out of a holding tank. So a few questions:


Should I set the tubing up in the fall and leave it up through the winter?
What do you use at the start of the tubing section to hold it against the tree?
Along the same lines, what do you use to plug the end of the line?
Do I put the tap lines in now and cap them some how?
Is it ok to run the lines up and down the property or should I make multiple lines that end into the pump intake?


thanks in advance!!

[rayi]

New to this too but may have some fast answers. You can put tubing up any time of the year. I used steel tubing grabbers (they look like chinese finger cuffs) on the pipe. I then used high tensile fence line from that to a tree. It might be over kill for that short of a run but if you do that either use a non-maple tree or pretect it with wood and tubing. Some people will get a poly rope and put the mainline thru the middle and clamp with a hose clamp. Still others use a rachet strap wraped around the tube. To plug the ends I used a poly shut off valve because I can hook up a pump and pump fresh water thru at the end of the season. I used a tee at each tap. The tees have a pin type thing on it so the stubby fits over it when not in use. The main thing is the mainline needs to be very tight (no sags) and at least 2 degree slope (drops two feet for every hundred) I ran my 3/4 inch mainline on high tensile fence line with a fence tightner to tighten it up. It also makes it easy to attach lateral line that will help tighten it. Your best bet is to find some one close to you that has a tubing set up and go take a look at it. You may want to barrow a tubing tool when you start. They make things easier.

[rayi]

Now if you tell us a little more about the set up of you trees and the lay of the land the smart guys will get a lot more specific.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

This is the stretch of land, that entire long section to the right of the open field. It's 600ft and all flat and I could do over 100 trees I'm sure, but not sure I'm ready to go that over board and I was thinking one of those Surflo pumps would be what I used. Plan will be to put an IBC container near the road and pump into another container in my truck for transport to my house for boiling. many of these maples are quite large as well, I could easily put 2 or 3 taps per tree. My plan is to go in there and do some measurements and identify each tree I'm gonna tap and see what the typing layout could look like.

9598

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Also reading some of the other threads, will I be able to use this ShurFlo pump setup on a patch of land that is basically flat?? I keep reading that 3/16" tubing needs slope to work, but im guessing that is only for gravity systems, not vaccum pumped lines....