In the summer tubing my woods

[Samuelvw1]

I need advice this summer I'm deciding if I want to tube my 1/2+ acre woods what the first step of the process after watching your tube videos it looks very over whelming I'm located in Shelton, Connecticut any advice would be grateful

Sam

[optionguru]

How many maples would you like to tap and more importantly how much time do you have to spend collecting and boiling? The answers to those questions will help determine if you should do regular buckets or if you'll want tubing.

[lpakiz]

First, might you have slope enough to get 30 feet of fall after the last tap? If so, look into 3/16 tubing. It's a totally different process compared to the system I am about to describe below.

A cheap and painless way to see how the prospective lines might run is to string them out with twine first. Easy to modify any incorrect route.

String the proposed mainline first, making sure you have slope. Recommended is 2% minimum, but I have 1.4% and it works. Make sure the mainlines are no more than 100 feet apart, unless there are no trees to be reached. Re-route the string as necessary until you are satisfied.
After mainline is decided on, string twine for the laterals, making sure none is over 100 feet long. This will be automatic if the mains were laid out at less than 100 feet. Ideally, for vacuum, laterals should have about 5 taps per lateral and saddle, but up to 10 is still acceptable. Approximate cost for just tubing is $8-10 per tap. Tank, pump, releaser, etc. will add up to more still more.
Ask here, most of us are happy to help....

[morningstarfarm]

Before anything else spend a day out there with a roll of flagging tape and tape every maple you can tap now as well as every one that you may want to tap in the future...then walk through and figure out where your slope is if any...then decide on which system to use...if you have enough slope you can do 3/16...but, if not then you will need to do a vac system...after the walk throughs figure out where your mains will run..as well as your collection point...hopefully you can run it right to your sugar house...if you use string be sure to use the fluorescent pink so you can see it from 100'...now Is the ideal time to do this....even if you are planning to do the piece next summer...it sucks trying to lay out a bush with leaves on the trees...good luck

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

You can use 2 or 3 different color flagging tapes and alternate between tubing runs. This way if you have all the taps on each line the same color it makes it even easier and faster and a better job running tubing especially if 10 to 25 taps on laterals with 3/16. You can get above then after flagging with different colors you can see to make few changes before running lines.