Unplugged drop lines

[JoeJ]

One of the sugar house stops during this summer's Maplerama in Franklin County was at a 36,000 tap operation. During a conversation with the operations manager at a mainline beside the sugar house, I noticed that the drop lines were not plugged onto the tees. I asked him about the dangling drops and he said that they were no longer putting the drops onto the tees so that the drop line would dry out, not collect water and possibly cause mold in the bottom of the drop loop. Does anyone else do this? I know that in my woods, now matter how hard I try to keep water out of the
drops, some collect water and sometimes mold. I pull my taps with the vacuum on to try to remove as much sap from the system as possible, but there is always some drops that get liquid in them from the blow back effect when pulling the next tap down the line. I know that some say not to worry about a little mold in a few drop lines, but I really don't like relatively new drops having mold in them.

[NhShaun]

I've been curious about this subject as well. I've read a bunch but haven't seen many people mention leaving them wide open all year... Maybe for a couple weeks after running whatever type of cleaning concoction they are into through the lines, so it can air dry..Then cap them off. I think bugs and clogged lines would be a bigger concern with the method you are questioning. But hey they have 36,000 taps, they must not have a problem with leaving them hanging.

[GeneralStark]

I don't think there is any way to "dry" tubing. Even if it was dried at some point, condensation will occur due to temperature differential between the tubing and atmosphere. I suppose leaving the drop unplugged and dangling will minimize this as the water can drain, and the temp. differential is minimized. But, it is still going to happen, and where there is moisture, mold can form.

There will always be molds, bacteria, etc.. on the inside of a tubing system, no matter what is done, even if you can or can't see it. The only true method for reducing the impacts of this is to replace drops every year, or second best; use cv spouts.

In my experience, leaving tubing and drops open is just an invitation for mud daubers and other insects, and likely more microbes to take up residence inside.

[ToadHill]

We left ours unplugged one year and the mud wasps plugged 1/3 of them for us. They plugged them down into the neck of the spout. Forced us to cut them off the dropline and replace them.

[sugarsand]

Last year cut all the spouts off and injected vinegar and water in the drop lines using a meat basing syringe. After shooting the solution in we plugged the ends using short pieces of dowels.

Sugarsand

[spud]

I use the cup tee's and leave the old spouts on the drops all summer just plugging them into the cup. During Christmas Vacation when all the kids are out of school I send them into the woods to cut the old spout off and put the new CV2 spout on. We do not plug the new spout into the cup but just let it hang. There is no bugs at that time of year to bother spouts or drops. This also speeds up the tapping time alot. I ran this method by Dr. Tim before doing it and he said they have done this in the past.

Spud

[ennismaple]

I agree with the comments about bugs and mud wasps. This is a tough call. We wash under vacuum and yes we get some water in the droplines that looks a little green come spring - but it rinses out with the first run of syrup. If we were to do this method we'd have to go back around the bush after all the lines were washed and unplug the droplines from the tee cups, let them hang for a few days or a week and plug them back up again before the bugs come out in May.

[Maplewalnut]

Not sure I follow why a plugged spout is a problem unless you are not changing spouts every year. I am thinking drying out a couple weeks and them plugged by wasps and the like is the best of both worlds. Cut them off at Christmas like Spud does, change spout and start drilling

[NhShaun]

I think the idea was to not have to buy new taps every year. But I'm not too sure.