how many taps?

[boondocker]

Just out of curiosity, let's just say I had the trees and they are a mix of sugar, whites and reds mostly on gravity.....a general idea of how many taps I would need to make approximately 800 gallons of finished product. I lost out on about a 150 to 200 tap bush this year that I normally tap and I am ready to step it up next year and go for broke. I have an opportunity to do it I just want my ducks in a row and a general idea of what I should plan on. I think 500 to700 gal. Is more in reach but I'm hungry and greedy. :)

[mudr]

I'm a rookie here, but in gravity you ate looking at a quart a tap. So, 800 gallons is 3200 quarts. So 3200 taps. You might need a bigger evap. :)

[brookledge]

A good year on gravity estimate a quart per tap. So that is 3200 But if you have access to that amount of trees why not go vacuum? You can cut you numbers in half. But if you need 800 gallons per year add a few more to cover for a bad year
I'm at .6 gallons per tap now this year. Which is a record for me. A bad year usually around .4 GPT
My vacuum pump is set to maintain 27"
Keith

[n8hutch]

If you could use 3/16 and get some natural vac you might be able to do 800 on as few as 2500 taps, maybe less. I have some 3/16 up the ones that have 25-30 feet of drop give me 2 gpt regularly in a 24 hour period. I would look into that if you don't want to set up for high vac with a pump. I am looking into setting up a 50 acre piece on 3/16 this year.

[boondocker]

It will be on high vac I was curious as to what it would take on gravity. My estimate was around 2300 so I guess I wasn't that far off. Yea figured it was going to be a stretch so I will do some more homework and do some walking when the snow decides to get out of here. Thanks again boys. I got some work to do!

[Sugarmaker]

Tghats a big jump. But with the right woods and the right equipment its very do able. Just a big material handling problem. Sounds like a R.O in your future.
Get the woods. The rest is easy.
Regards,
Chris

[sapman]

I tap a mix of maple species, and I think the non-sugars will bring your averages down, at least a little. This year at 2800 taps on high vac (26-28), and only 850 being sugar maple, I finally broke 1000 gallons, and should have made closer to 1200 (that's another story). Previously with around 2300 taps my high was under 900 gal. My biggest problem though is that 2000 taps are in a swampy area that has basically no pitch, so your average should be better than mine even with soft maples mixed in.

[PerryW]

I think the 1 quart of product per tap estimate is a little high if you are tapping predominately woods trees. My field trees and roadside trees will produce 1 quart per tap but with tightly spaced woods trees with small crowns it is more like one pint per tap.

Word on the street is a properly installed and maintained high vacuum system will double your yield.

[mellondome]

Woods trees should give 10 gal sap per tap on average year with gravity. Good vac should double that number. Open hedge row and roadside trees should be way higher.

Thw woods trees will be less if they are over crowded or in poor soil conditions. ( standing water.. compaction and root damage from harvesting.....)