1000 taps

[blac]

There are so many variables but....what do you think a 1000 tap bush setup with new tubing on Gravity would yield?? (on an average season) faces easterly, has real good slope (15+) by the eye, and what size tank would you put at the bottom?

Thanks

[blac]

Sorry put this in the wrong spot.....long day

[motowbrowne]

Well, going by rule of thumb, somewhere between 250 and 400 gallons of syrup. I'd probably want 2 1000 gallon tanks at the bottom. That way you can switch tanks for cleaning, or have extra capacity for big runs.

[pennslytucky]

3/16 tubing would do pretty well i bet

[BreezyHill]

Gravity system will likely be in the 200 gallon production range to as much as 300.

If you have 30' of drop after the last tap and you use 3/16 laterals then you could get in the area of 400 gallons as you will then be working with natural vacuum. For that number of taps on a high vac system you would be looking at around 2-2.5 gallons of production per tape daily...now with the forecast I have right now of high for Wednesday of mid 40's and low of 35 til Friday night to freeze up in the teens It will be late nights running the RO and evap to have enough storage for an all night run and keep going thru the days with high of low 50's.

But tank at the bottom depends on how often you pickup and storage at the sugar house(SH). SH storage is far better than in the bush in the sun...tanks on the north and in the shade are king for sap quality in mid to late season.

Good cleaning is also a major plus and is usually easier at the SH.

15% is pretty darn steep so turbulence in the mains will be an issue.

[blac]

I was thinking gravity the first year then add some vac the next year i was just trying to figure out how much i was leaving behind without the vac. I dont have much experience with that many taps and was trying to figure out roughly what an average 1000 tap bush produces? (On gravity) It seems like a lot of guys here have experience with 1000 taps and larger bushes. I know there are a lot of variables...I am just trying to figure out if I keep puttering with what I got or move on to high vac and an RO...i like a challenge!

[BreezyHill]

Well from Dr tim and Steve childs from Cornell's data...not sure who was the original source of all these numbers so I tried to give credit where due...151% higher production for 15" of vac over gravity and each additional inch of vac is another 3-5% increase in production.

For me at 28" plus I can get a decent run on a sunny 35 degree day that is calm.

Variables...cant even count them all... we have just tubed a new section of our sugar bush that was never tapped due to it is in a valley and has to climb out to get to the ladder system to get it to the sugar house. This valley is so warm as it is protect well from wind. On a sunny day it is warm even when it is close to 30 degrees.

Last season the wind killed our production so I decided to tap this area to get some sap when it is 35 and windy and the exposed trees are doing nothing. It has been a success this season so far. First to thaw, best flow, but does freeze first as the cold settles in off the snow pack around it. 2 hours earlier one night; but the ladders cleared the lines out well and over all I would say it was a great move.

Working a brook bed with ladders is a challenge; but have different levels of mains...brook bed and rim lines. There will be times the bed will be frozen and the rim will be flowing still. I cross the brook several times to with rim lines and it pays off. No reason to run sap down hill just to ladder it back up. It may cost a little more in tubing but the return will be in more production and less sap that has to be laddered.

While I am a ladder supporter...If I didn't need them I would not use them. I would use a ladder over a pump because I don't have the time to baby sit pumps in the bush and have destroyed pumps by freezing them. It is a time thing for me. I have an International truck with a 2 tank Stainless Steel Main TANK system and a hydraulic driven pump that will do 500 gallons a minute on the 3" line and 350 a minute thru the 2" line. It has never touched a drop of sap in the last 10 years.

When we expand in a couple of years to off farm bushes she will be put into sap service. Not looking forward to it but it is the cost of expansion.

ben

[JoeJ]

I did not have 1000 taps to start but this is what my gravity system did. My first 2 seasons in 2004 and 2005 I had 465 taps and then 541. 2004 produced 104 gal. of syrup to average .22 gal per tap and in 2005, 98 gal of syrup for .18 gal per tap. In 2006, I added a vacuum system. My 587 taps that year produced 215 gal of syrup to average .36 gal per tap. The next 3 years production was .42, .48,and .59 (retubed that year). Since then, (until 2014) I had up to 984 taps and generally produced .48 to .51 gal per tap.

So from my experience, you are leaving 1/2 of the potential syrup in the woods without vacuum.

[Fiddlehead]

Great info provided in the last two posts. Thanks!!!

[peteinvermont]

I did not have 1000 taps to start but this is what my gravity system did. My first 2 seasons in 2004 and 2005 I had 465 taps and then 541. 2004 produced 104 gal. of syrup to average .22 gal per tap and in 2005, 98 gal of syrup for .18 gal per tap. In 2006, I added a vacuum system. My 587 taps that year produced 215 gal of syrup to average .36 gal per tap. The next 3 years production was .42, .48,and .59 (retubed that year). Since then, (until 2014) I had up to 984 taps and generally produced .48 to .51 gal per tap.

So from my experience, you are leaving 1/2 of the potential syrup in the woods without vacuum.

Wow, good data showing your progression. Nice work.

[Retsapper]

Am just getting in to making maple syrup again after years out of it. Had 130 taps this year and could go to 1000 if I wanted.I know nothing about setting up tubing, vacuum etc. Any suggestions on where to start and where to get basic information? Thank you.

[TheMapleMoose]

The last 3 seasons our vacuum system has averaged 17 gallons of sap/tap and the gravity system has averaged 5 gallons of sap/tap. food for thought. The payback on the vacuum on 1000 taps is pretty decent in my opinion

[Fiddlehead]

Went on vacuum for half my taps for the first time this year. Increase was nearly triple the sap per tap. I will be adding to the vacuum system this coming year. Ran a Gast 2567 21 cfm vacuum with a 1.5 hp motor.