NH Sap Outlook

[BlueberryHill]

Help me out here. Still not sure how this should go. I understand it's hard to predict and all but what should I normally expect for the upcoming days? Looks like tonight is cold (11deg) and by the time things warm up later on tomorrow (40deg) it'll probably be a slow sap day but Wed. will be up to 47deg so Wed. should be flippin' sap-tastic.

After that is where I am not so sure It only is supposed to get down to 36 on Wed. nite and Thursday is a rainy 54 deg. Still no freeze Thu. nite and Friday is a partly sunny 49. What should I expect for sap on Thurs & Fri?? I have mainly 3/16 gravity lines. Will it just keep on running after a (probably) good Wednesday?

Just trying to figure out which day(s) I need to try to get off from my day job. :o What are you guys planning?

Mon - Low 10
Tues - Hi 40 - Lo 19 - partly Sunny
Wed - Hi 47 - Lo 36 - Partly Sunny
Thur - Hi 54 - lo 38 - Rain (does it keep running??)
Fri - Hi 49 - Lo 22 - Partly Sunny (still???)
Weekend - Super Sappy!

[PerryW]

I would guess that it won't run much tomorrow because it's been so cold and the trees really won't get going till late in the day. Wednesday will be somewhat the same thing except the sap will keep running thought the night.

Assuming you have 125 taps, I bet you will have at least 125-150 gallons of sap to by thursday morning (maybe more if they are good trees). I also suspect that because the trees are frustrated, they will also run some during the day even though there is no freeze. Maybe 50-70 gallons.

If there is no freeze on thursday night, probably not much on thursday night and friday.

[Russell Lampron]

If the 3/16 lines produce a good vacuum once it gets started on Wednesday it will run until it freezes again. The rain will be a factor too. Sometimes it helps and makes the trees run good and sometimes it shuts them down. I'm hoping to boil 1 more time before I have to save the sap for Maple Weekend.

[red maples]

I wanna be boiling tuesday, wed, thursday and friday. I will save 100 gallons and simmer it I don;t care as long as I have syrup to sell. Will most likely be boiling sat PM and then bottling that too. darn slow start to the season stressing me out!!!

[Russell Lampron]

I was lucky enough to make 20 gallons so far and I have that all jugged up and ready to sell. I am on vacation this week and took today to make maple cream and maple butter. My wife made the nuts last week so we are all set for day 1. I am hoping to boil Thursday night and will save Friday's sap for Saturday.

[PerryW]

It was minus 1 degrees both this morning and yesterday morning, but I'm guessing be thursday the sap will start flowing for me. The lack of an overnight freeze on wednesday is just what I need to get things flowing.

[BlueberryHill]

Thanks for your opinions guys. Some good info to consider there. Still, as always, it's really just wait-and-see I guess. I am starting to get excited though! It's getting close! Best of luck to all of ya.

[Russell Lampron]

It's a balmy 19* here now after a low of 7* with a high of 39* in the forecast. If it warms up as fast as the forecast says I will be turning the vacuum on around noon. It looks like another low in the teens tonight before the warm up tomorrow. Tomorrow night's forecast is for a low of 35* so we will see. The temps here normally run lower than the forecast. I am hoping that we don't get a freeze until Friday night when it supposed to get into the teens yet again. They're forecasting a high of 35* for Saturday so it looks like I may not be boiling much on Sunday for the Maple Weekend visitors.

Next week the freezes look to be around 30* which for me usually means the ideal temps in the mid twenty's. I'll just have to wait and hope for the ideal sap flow temps that could happen.

[Shawn]

Had four degrees here this morning and ten degrees tonight, warmed up enough today that some opened up and some did not, I predict at this point when it comes its going to be hard and fast that we will work our butts off to keep up and then boom done.

[BlueberryHill]

Got about 1/3 gallon of sap per tap today, 60 gallons. Lame. Was hoping for more!! Sugar was about 2.5% which is awesome for my trees. Drew 3 gallons off the evap today. Pan was pretty sweet to start I guess. Sap was still running out of the 3/16 lines at sunset. One of these days I'm gonna hike down there and those drums are gonna be full. It has to happen at some point! Has anyone in Southern NH had a good sap day yet?

[handtapper]

I got about 350 gallons off of 275 taps in the last two days. I have atleast 75 of those being red maples that havent given a drop so its been all on the 200 sugars.

[Russell Lampron]

I had 400 gallons in my woods tank from 700 taps on vacuum. That is what has been collecting since Saturday. The sap was still coming in as good as I have seen it so far this season. It didn't run as good as I thought that it would with the sun and lack of wind today. It's not supposed to freeze tonight with some showers coming through. It would be nice to go down and find another 400 gallons in the tank in the morning. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Wingo87]

I'm up to about 40-45gal of sap from my last boil last thurs. My trees ran well yesterday and all night but mostly stoped now except for a few bigger sugars. Need a re freeze but looks like not till tomorrow night. Still will be a good boil Saturday. Steam, friends, cold beers, happy sugaring!

[Russell Lampron]

I don't know how others in the state are making out but I am pretty disappointed in the current run. I should have gotten more than I did yesterday because it was a beautiful sap day here. I was hoping for more than I got overnight too but got 200 gallons off of 700 vacuum taps in 14 hours. It doesn't help that most of my trees are reds but I have seen them run much better than they are now. I was out adjusting mainlines and checking for leaks today and noticed that the small trees weren't running while the big ones were. Hopefully after tomorrow night's freeze the season will take off. My woods are pretty much leak free now and the sags are graded out of my mainlines. I'm ready for big sap!

[AndrewsofBow]

Disappointed in Bow too! About 50 taps and collected about 30 gals today, last collected sometime last week and boiled about 40 gals on Sat. Hoping that the next two days of normal freeze thaw will get things going again.

[BlueberryHill]

In the last 24 hrs or so I have collected about 100 gallons off of 150 or so 3/16 gravity taps. So I guess I can say that things are finally starting to open up here. I'm hoping that things keep flowing tomorrow too. That would be a nice way to start the weekend. Hoping to get out of the day-job early tomorrow so I can light a fire and if I'm lucky, I'll have enough sap coming out to keep me boiling all weekend. Not the hardest thing to achieve when you top off at about 15 GPH evap rate, haha.

[BlueberryHill]

Yeah so it looks like the rain and fog that rolled in put a cork in my tap holes last night. Tanks were empty this morning so I am not expecting much of anything to be in there when I get home tonight either. That's OK, got a decent enough stockpile for Saturday and hopefully things will kick back up again on Sunday. Come on now!! Lets get this party started already!!

[Greyfox]

Bummed here too. I checked last night at about 7:00 and was disappointed; I expected more. Almost nothing came in last night. (sigh), what 'ya 'gonna do; it is what it is. Oh, and here's another joy of this season. Traveling the paths that I had well-packed with snowshoes and I'm now post-holing, almost up to two feet in spots. This will be a first; snowshoes in April. (end of whining, back to sugaring).

[Russell Lampron]

I was surprised to find that I had gotten 200 gallons overnight given how slow it was coming yesterday. I was hoping to find a full tank of course but am happy that I got as much as I did. Tomorrow's forecast looks good so it looks like I'll have plenty of sap to boil on Sunday too.

[BlueberryHill]

Yay!! It finally opened up here in Raymond yesterday. Got about a gallon per tap. Too bad I am stuck at work all week!!! Not gonna have a chance to keep up with night time boils. I have 170 gallons on hand right now, plus whatever squirts out today (another 170??) I leave for work at 6am and get home at 6pm. I evap at 15GPH. So you do the math. Anyone around here buying or trading for sap?

[jake22si]

Yay!! It finally opened up here in Raymond yesterday. Got about a gallon per tap. Too bad I am stuck at work all week!!! Not gonna have a chance to keep up with night time boils. I have 170 gallons on hand right now, plus whatever squirts out today (another 170??) I leave for work at 6am and get home at 6pm. I evap at 15GPH. So you do the math. Anyone around here buying or trading for sap?
I would have taken you up on that, I haven't got much sap this year but just got called in for 12 hour shifts for the rest of the week. Didn't plan on boiling much in April!

[blac]

Keep me updated on what you need to get rid of...I'm in Raymond everyday, I in boxed you the other day inbox me your number and I'll give you a call tomorrow.
Happy boiling
Derek

[BlueberryHill]

I found a home for my overflow, but I will keep you guys in mind for sure. Thanks.

[red maples]

ooopss ... sorry man I didn;t get the email until this morning. toooooo busy. If you have more we can work something out.... you need a flue pan man!!!

[NhShaun]

Things are starting to flow good here. Collected 120 gallons last week. 90 yesterday and another 75 today. Hoping for similar results tomorrow. It is my day off, wonder what i will be doing all day. I've got about 130 taps put in mostly woods trees with buckets. Doesn't seem like a bad yield so far. Still over 3 ft of snow in some spots.

[Ian MacMillan]

Things are starting to flow good here. Collected 120 gallons last week. 90 yesterday and another 75 today. Hoping for similar results tomorrow. It is my day off, wonder what i will be doing all day. I've got about 130 taps put in mostly woods trees with buckets. Doesn't seem like a bad yield so far. Still over 3 ft of snow in some spots.

Shaun mine ran hard thus week so far as well. Something just triggered in Wakefield Monday morning. Same 3' in spots here on this side of the hill. Makes it a tad frustrating if I accidently step off the path in the woods!

[BlueberryHill]

Steady stream of sap keeps rolling in here in Raymond. Not keeping an exact count, but the last week is averaging well over .5 gal of sap per tap daily (on relatively unimpressive trees)

Still having trouble keeping up. Made a couple trips to barter some sap (thanks Chris and Brad!) and I have been boiling all weekend as well as late every night after work. I like boiling, but this is getting to be a bit much. I knew heading into the season that I needed flues. But that didn't pan out, haha. Ok, lame joke I know.

So I might as well put it out there... I'm in the market for a complete 2x6 or even just a 2x4 flue pan. Really hoping to get welded SS, but open to any good deal. I'll probably end up ordering new instead of dragging my feet again, but for now still hoping that the perfect used pan will surface.

This site is awesome and thanks to all of you for everything!

[Drew Pond Maple]

Today here in Bridgewater my 150 gal tank was over flowing on 140 taps and 3/16" was running about 30 gal in 2 days with 20 taps. Here is a pic of 3/16 with 6 taps11639

My little evaporator can't keep up with these runs. I think it's time to upgrade

[CampHamp]

Busy week! I only track syrup production on bottle date (either same or next day) not my sap yield. I'm constantly pumping from barrels to head tank, so I need a flow meter to keep track of sap (which I do not yet have).

Below are the stats of this non-stop week for me (120 taps, forest trees, cheapo vac system, mix of 5/16" and 3/16" lines in Temple). Still a chance to hit last year's production.

11640

[BlueberryHill]

Syrup just got much darker and flavor dropped off too in the last couple of days. Might end up starting a bunch of batches of maple wine this weekend to use this up and also save on some boil time. Flow has been good and I have plenty of sap to keep me busy for the weekend, but a quick taste test indicated that my sugar seems to have really dropped off in the last day or two. I'll have to test it, as opposed to just taste it, tomorrow morning. Seems barely sweet at all, but at least there was no indication of any off tastes and it's still coming in nice and clear. Not sure if this is the end or if I'll have a couple more days of sap.

[BlueberryHill]

I'm at about 25 gallons of finished syrup for the season. My best year (because of ever increasing tap counts). After things cooled down a bit last night, I pulled 5 gallons of the evap to start a batch of wine. I was figuring that the season is probably done. I woke up this morning and the ground was crusty and there was frost on my windshield. Might get more sap today. This giving up early is a trend for me now. I need to smarten up!