Good weekend

[5050racing]

150gal batch turned into 3.7gal of nice stuff!! Still running hard collected 50 gal this morning and going out to collect just before dark!1126711268

[sugarwoodacres]

Nicely done , collected 80 on Thursday night and 170 today. Boiling since noon. You never know when it'll stop . Playing catch up.

[Run Forest Run!]

If I had to evacuate, I'd be wanting to assemble right there. :lol: I'll bring the waffles. Wonderful job 5050! Congrats on such a super weekend, with lots more sap running hard.

[5050racing]

Another broken pole I had to fix thats where that came from,but it is a great spot to hide your FUNNY!! Just collected 85 gallons today not part of the 4gallons made today just bottled the rest out of filter and just over 4gallons syrup for the 150gal batch!! anything starting for you up there yet?? finished all syrup on the evaporator with just hydrometer temp gauge done need new one

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey 5050, we've got an extreme cold weather alert here for tonight. Needless to say, everything in my buckets is already rock hard and doesn't need -15C tonight to harden it more. That being said I don't really mind this slow start to springtime. The sap has never got ahead of me. I don't expect to see any sap flowing until Wednesday and hopefully it will really give me a run for my money for the rest of the week. I've got 1.6 gallons of gorgeous gold on my counter top so that's a good start. Send me some of your Jersey good luck so that I can drown in sap too.

[dcast99]

It ran good Fri, Sat and even decent today.On Thursday only collected 110 gals since last Sunday. Today collected 670 gals from 241 taps. Should be collecting a bunch more now that I fixed a bunch of air leaks. Even had some animal chew on one of my main lines. Will be boiling for the next two days. Guess I better get my butt in gear and get more quart jugs.

[sirsloop]

i dont get it... I have 10 reds tapped, three trees together produced about one gallon of sap over all of last week. I've collected maybe 5 gallons total this year from those three trees. They are huge maples too. The other seven trees have not produced a lick of sap. Getting worried nothin is gonna happen!

[5050racing]

Maybe post how n what you did in tapping these trees,maybe something we can help with but trees can be hard to figure out,u heard me thinking it was a bust now swimming in it.post materials used how deep n where u tapped,photos if possible? This is for sir slrsloop

[Cape tapper]

Sirsloop, what area of the state are you in?

[caoutdoors]

awesome weekend made about two gallons of syrup !!!! Sap was running hard all weekend love it when buckets are overflowing

[sweetmoomoo]

i did real good this weekend also, up till 2am this morning finished with 2.5 gal. of light syrup.

[sirsloop]

I'm in south river... I've got trees in morganville tapped

I'm using the 5/16" plastic spiles going in to 5gal buckets on the ground. I drilled in bout 1.5" on the south side of the tree. I got in to nice white wood, holes were free of debris when I tapped. 7 of the trees don't even have wet marks around the taps. Average tree diameter is at least 24"... big healthy reds. I tapped last week in February... so I'm concerned they may have dried up. I was considering retapping the 7 non-producers, but didn't want to waste the sap from the tree if those holes suddenly started to produce.

[Cape tapper]

I'm in south river... I've got trees in morganville tapped

I'm using the 5/16" plastic spiles going in to 5gal buckets on the ground. I drilled in bout 1.5" on the south side of the tree. I got in to nice white wood, holes were free of debris when I tapped. 7 of the trees don't even have wet marks around the taps. Average tree diameter is at least 24"... big healthy reds. I tapped last week in February... so I'm concerned they may have dried up. I was considering retapping the 7 non-producers, but didn't want to waste the sap from the tree if those holes suddenly started to produce.

That sounds like my situation. I am way down in Cape May county. This is my first year tapping. Reading everything I could, I figured the end of February would be the time to really start things up. I also tapped for the first time on 2/21. I did 24 taps on big reds. Some of the trees were running right away and some did nothing. For the next week of so, the runners were off and on and I collected about 10 gallons. The "dry" ones never did anything. I got talking to someone else in the area who has done this for a while. It looks like I missed it this winter. He was going strong in the middle of January. Things for me now are done. Trees haven't put out anything in over two weeks. Looks like this year was a learning experience. There are plenty more trees for me to tap next year; gonna get a bunch more taps and really go after it then. Also going to build a better boiler. I guess the guys in the northern part of the state have the elevation that delays their season and I'm drooling over their results. Good luck to the rest of you guys!

11300

[sirsloop]

the middle of January was like 0-10F no stop... that doesn't sound right

[5050racing]

That doesn't sound correct either, it was still way to cold in January,you didn't miss it then,even in south jersey you weren't that much warmer,something else has happened??

[Cape tapper]

I don't know what happened in my location. I tapped trees in three different locations; each a few miles from each other and all had the same result. Our average weather down on the cape is a little different than the rest of the state. We have the Delaware Bay on one side and the Atlantic on the other. This offers a pretty strong buffering effect to cold temps. The middle of February was pretty cold, but as you can see, January wasn't that bad. The picture of weather data is from the weather station that is at the school where I teach.11323. What do you think?

[John-NJ]

My suggestion is that you keep a daily log of what is going on. It will help as you figure out your trees and area.

I have 54 taps this year all in Red Maples, anywhere from 1 to 3 taps per tree. All going into buckets or bags. I tapped on Feb 22, and got a grand total of 15 gallons up till the 15th of March. For the last week it has been running a bit better, but I have been getting a paltry 14-16 gallons per day total. On Saturday, I got 47 gallons, but the last two days it is back to 15 per day average. One tap is a total dud. If I have gotten a cup out of it all season I would be surprised.

Location is near Flemington.

So right now I have 75 gallons collected in the last 2-3 days, so I am taking off work tomorrow to boil.

My theory is that it was too cold for a long time, and the trees could not get into the freeze thaw cycle necessary for the production of sap. Recently things have been a bit better, but now I guess we are going to get too warm again in the next few days. Tomorrow might be another good day, but I think we are coming to the end soon.

Good luck and keep at it.

John

[5050racing]

Hey john nj I'm right up on Jugtown mountain ,asbury your not to far,that's something .

[John-NJ]

5050, I am southeast of Flemington, on the way to Hopewell on Sourland Mountain. Your mountain is doing a bit better than mine this year it seems.

Just got done cleaning up, I boiled from 7:30 this morning till 9:30 tonight. Played hookey from work. Collected 12 gallons this evening around 5pm, discovered something interesting. I was watching one of my trees closely today. There was maybe a pint or two of sap frozen in the bucket this morning from 3 taps. Must have been from after I collected yesterday night around 7pm. Nothing additional in the bucket till about 2pm. By 5pm, I had around a gallon in the bucket which I collected. At about 8pm, it was still dripping and I had almost another gallon. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Cheers
John

[5050racing]

Worked late so I collected this morning before wow 65-70 gallons going to be busy starting Friday night on!,the new 3/16 tubing which is 7 taps on 5 trees produced 17 or so gallons!!!!

[Agb]

So far great year. 1 question. What is the best way to filter your syrup? I have used prefilters and the cloth type filters. They all just seem to block up very fast. Filtering takes for ever. Any hints?

[sirsloop]

ugh... since wed I collected 3/4 gallon from 10 taps! whoohoo NOT. I retapped four of the trees and moved three of the taps up on to the trees that are producing. They are large enough to support 2 and 3 taps each. Pretty disappointing... I guess next year I'll try to locate some different trees closer to home and run like 40 taps... then hope I get enough to actually make some syrup. Oh ya I was getting 2% sap now what pitiful amount I collected dropped to 1.5%. failboat...

[sugarwoodacres]

So far great year. 1 question. What is the best way to filter your syrup? I have used prefilters and the cloth type filters. They all just seem to block up very fast. Filtering takes for ever. Any hints?
I filter out of evap in cone shaped synthetic filters I paid about $15 each for from Bascom

[sugarwoodacres]

Worked late so I collected this morning before wow 65-70 gallons going to be busy starting Friday night on!,the new 3/16 tubing which is 7 taps on 5 trees produced 17 or so gallons!!!!
17 gallons of syrup is a lot of work in this short season. Sap is flowing well here also. Nicely done

[lyford]

could be wrong sugarwoodacres, but i think he meant 17gals of sap from the 7 taps on his 3/16th line

[sugarwoodacres]

could be wrong sugarwoodacres, but i think he meant 17gals of sap from the 7 taps on his 3/16th line
I think you're right . I'm dumb and tired, Lol. Thanks

[5050racing]

Sitting on more than 250 gal and running wild!!

[Run Forest Run!]

Awesome 5050! Send some of that up here!

[5050racing]

Cape tapper if you want some sap to finish the project with the kids let me know willing to give you 30 or so gallons let me know pm me things are crazy just collected As other 150

[Cape tapper]

Once again, thanks for the offer 5050!! That's extremely generous!! Unfortunately I won't be able to make it up your way anytime soon.

pm sent