question as the time nears

[taken]

Hi guys. I found this forum last year which was my first year making syrup since I was a kid with my grandfather. Lurked around here, found some good info, bought 100 old taps on eBay, and made 8 gallons of the best syrup I have ever tasted. Having success on my first year, albeit on a small scale, I am quite pysched to get going again this year. Can anyone tell me if this years strange weather is affecting when you all with be tapping in MA? Thanks in advance and glad to be here.

[Fred Henderson]

Its going to be the best year in a long, long time. A bumper crop.

[mapleman3]

I think with the frost going deep now, and the snow hopefully still to come and cover we should have a good season...one thing is everyone is in the same boat. I'm looking forward to the first of march! thats when I usually get my first boil... we'll see if it's around that time this year too.

As another sugarer I know said... I'll let ya how it was.... in May !!

[taken]

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

[taken]

One more question guys. How do you feel about tapping reds? I have many more reds than sugars and didn't know just how much they diluted the sugar content of my sap.

[Fred Henderson]

The sugar content is very low in the reds. You will have to do a lot of boiling to make a gallon of syrup. Best thing is to borrow a refractormeter and check the sap from a few to see what I mean.

[taken]

Thanks Fred. I figured as much. I did abotu 60% reds last year and there was boiling aplenty. I think this year will be sugars only as it is only for personal consumption and a few gift bottles here and there.

[ennismaple]

I like your attitude Fred!

Unfortunately, we got snow about the same time as the weather got cold so we don't have much frost in the ground at all - despite almost 4 weeks of frigid temps. A day's rain to flatten the snow followed by another week of this cold spell would fix it!

[mapleman3]

Check through old threads there are plenty about tapping reds.... if you have them and you go by them with tubing.. tap them... I tap around 100 on tubing and they add a very good flavor I think!!

[Dave Y]

I have tapped a mix of sugar and reds. I do like the flavor thet give your syrup. I am lookin at some woods that is mostly reds. I will proably set it up next year. Low sugar content is not always true with reds though. I have a few that are 2.5 and most are 2.0 If thats low I cant wait till I find some sugars that are high. I do think your soil will have a lot to do with your trees andhow and what the produce. Just my opinion.

[royalmaple]

Dave you got it, my thoughts exactly. I know in different parts of the country you'll get different sugar content.

Taken-

I have seen brandon post about his sugar content last year and I think if I remember right it was less than 2% on average or across the board all season long, and I think he is mostly tapping sugars. Brandon can certainly give you some input when he has a min.

So when you look at my trees I tap here were running right at 2% just about all season long, I think the lowest they went to was 1.7 or 1.8, and That was all from reds. The sugars I tap were collected separately, just the way the collection route was and they were all 3+ % to a low of around 2.5%, and even in that stop I have some huge roadside red maples going into that sap %. So you can't just say reds are firewood across the board. If I had all the sugar maples I wanted out back and more than I could handle with them, maybe I'd be singing another tune.

I just went to another spot I got permission to tap, probably 100 taps, mostly tubing and only 2 sugar maples in the lot, but if time allows I'll still tap them. I might have 100 taps on sugars this year, maybe a touch more. And if I get to them all, I can set up maybe 800-1000 on reds. So I'll be boiling all night.

If you have pleanty of sugars you can get and that will max out your boiling time for the day with them, then take them first by all means. If you only have a few and pleanty of access to reds, go for it drill 'em and fill 'em. You'll have just as much fun boiling 1% sap if that is what they end up giving you. Just more wood and less time in the house listening to the wife.... Ha Ha. Glad she does not come on here.

[Russell Lampron]

I agree with Matt, It's a good thing his wife doesn't come on here. All kidding aside there are alot of reds that produce 2% sugar or higher. They normally run about 1/2% lower than sugar maples. The biggest problem with them is that they bud earlier than sugars and sometimes that is before the season ends. Like it has been said before if it is what you have then tap them, I do.

Russ

[taken]

Maybe a mix is in order again.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I know some of you think I am crazy but to me, the warmer the climate, the lower the sugar content, and the colder, the higher. Jeremy who is in Maine gets 3%+ from red maples and I am lucky if I run 1.75% from 95% sugars with huge crowns and mostly good spacing and little competition. I know guys in KY and VA who are a little warmer than I am sometimes have close to 60 to 1 ratio and I normally run 50 to 1. Last year was by far the worst I have seen it and it was 56 to 1.

I have very healthy trees and most are large trees with huge crowns.

[Russell Lampron]

The frost in the ground does have something to do with starches in the roots changing to sugar. We have some frost in the ground this year so we will see if the sugar content is better than in previous seasons.

The price of commercial syrup is on the rise so if the sap gets buddy before the end of the season I am going to boil all of it that I can.

Russ

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Brandon- Were all crazy to some extent=some more then others...Don't try and fool yourself too much-- But Genetic's would be the #1 factor i would want to think about first.. Think a dairy farmer is going to try and take a 12,000 Lb herd average and bump that up to 24,000 Lb on just a feed program/Not even close. They look for genetic's from other know producing herds to keep adding to their herd(I guess you could say DNA) and keep working at it until gets to where they want it. And it takes many many moons to do that.

Yes there are another multitude of factors but the "Base" is where it all take place. If you had more land of your own you could get some sweet trees and that could be a start i guess. And like we all say=work with what you got...

Myself i'm ready to shoot everything in the woods that is brown as of the 40 sweet trees i got a couple of years ago maybe 1/2 or less are living Cuz' those long legged &^$#%&**^% deer have killed them. Think i need a Bazooka guarding each one??