Life of a tap hole

[spud]

On any taps that I ever had I noticed that all I could get was 12 weeks of productive sap flow. I know the CV2 spouts will extend the life of a tap hole. Bacteria does not form when its real cold but is the tap hole still healing a bit during the cold months? Two seasons ago I tapped all my woods with CV2 spouts. I finished tapping mid Feb that year and I had a great season. I was still getting almost one gallon of sap per tap right up till April 20th. At that time the sap quality and sugar was poor so we stopped. What is the research saying about the life of a tap hole. PMRC uses CV2 spouts in most of their woods as far as I know. They also get great production every year. Dr. Tim has told me in the past that they tap about Feb 15th. This would give them about 9 weeks with the spouts. If a person taps January 15th instead but still want to go to April 20th will he lose production in April? If so how much loss? It's fun to get the January sap but is it hurting us in the end? If a person taps with any other spout but the CV2 is he forming bacteria even in January if the sap runs? If you only get a few days sap run in January then you freeze up for 4-5 weeks does that old sap cause major problems for the tap hole. There would be days when the sun comes out but the tubing stays froze.

Spud

[little bettah flavah]

I had a problem with the life expectancy pf a tap as well a few years back I watched the weather and saw a january thaw so I decided to put out all of my 50 taps or so at the time it ran okay bit later in the season when sap season general begins I barely gpt any production coming outta my lines and only ended up with about 3 gallons worth of syrup in the end live and learn cause I'm a newbie to this addiction but I'm learning every year

[Helicopter Seeds]

Jumped this year too, I have 30 in after I got some out of a 'test tree'. Now I am getting nervous, eagerly waiting answers to your question - primarily, how long before it 'heals shut'.
I will add a question too. As the healing shuts off flow, is the layer of wood small, such that I could open the same hole to a larger size and renew the flow, or is this one of those stained big 6 inch spots I read (and was confused) about?

[Teuchtar]

Spud, I'm using CV spouts also. My plan is to get my taps all set in early Feb. Previous years I had them set towards the end of Feb and into March, but now I'm finding I miss some good runs. I've found the weather warms up too fast in April for me, and I've had to dump sour or buddy sap. Granted my daytime job takes me out of town for a week sometimes, so thats a sacrifice thats got to be made. But this year I'm thinking I'm better set up to get out there early.
My place is between Brock and Sutton, beside east richford, so close to you in climate. I watch your postings, and marvel at your production per tap. I'm nowhere near to your syrup/tap, but maybe I'll catch up if I get better organize in early days of the season.
So in summary, I've never felt limited when using CV's that the taphole dried. Its buddy sap thats ending my season.

[spud]

Spud, I'm using CV spouts also. My plan is to get my taps all set in early Feb. Previous years I had them set towards the end of Feb and into March, but now I'm finding I miss some good runs. I've found the weather warms up too fast in April for me, and I've had to dump sour or buddy sap. Granted my daytime job takes me out of town for a week sometimes, so thats a sacrifice thats got to be made. But this year I'm thinking I'm better set up to get out there early.
My place is between Brock and Sutton, beside east richford, so close to you in climate. I watch your postings, and marvel at your production per tap. I'm nowhere near to your syrup/tap, but maybe I'll catch up if I get better organize in early days of the season.
So in summary, I've never felt limited when using CV's that the taphole dried. Its buddy sap thats ending my season.


I hope you have a great season. What are you running for a vacuum pump? If you set up with proper size mainline and short laterals with high vacuum you will pass my numbers with ease. I'm still trying to get .5gpt with my low sugar content.

Spud

[DrTimPerkins]

What is the research saying about the life of a tap hole. PMRC uses CV2 spouts in most of their woods as far as I know. They also get great production every year. Dr. Tim has told me in the past that they tap about Feb 15th. This would give them about 9 weeks with the spouts. If a person taps January 15th instead but still want to go to April 20th will he lose production in April? If so how much loss? It's fun to get the January sap but is it hurting us in the end? If a person taps with any other spout but the CV2 is he forming bacteria even in January if the sap runs? If you only get a few days sap run in January then you freeze up for 4-5 weeks does that old sap cause major problems for the tap hole.

All excellent questions. Unfortunately there are not any real good answers for most of these, but it is something I hope to get around to working on within the next few years.

That said, we have started tapping this week. Not so much that we think it might be an early season (nobody can predict that far out), but more because all the woods work has been done and it is just far easier getting out in the woods right now. So we decided to take advantage of it and have Wade start tapping the furthest reaches of the bush now while it is easy to move around. And if El Nino does have an effect and it turns out to be an early season....we'll be ready to go (which for us is unusual...with both tapping and setting up research projects we're always scrambling at that time of year). Hopefully we won't see any negative effects of the early tapping....but time may/will tell.

[Barkley]

A good concise explanation of what happens in a taphole is in this Maple Syrup Digest article by Tim Wilmot from Proctor. Also supports the idea of early tapping as being more of a work scheduling decision. Great having the Digest archives on online.

Vol. 20A, No. 2 June 2008 Pages 20-27
The Timing of Tapping for Maple Sap Collection, Wilmot
http://www.maplesyrupdigest.org/?p=527

A final note- the most experienced sugarmaker in our neighbourhood in the era of buckets talked about one farmer who waited until everyone else had been tapped for a couple of weeks before he tapped his own sugarbush. The feeling was that he ended up with almost as much syrup as if he had tapped early but had condensed his work into a much shorter time span.

[Helicopter Seeds]

Thanks Barkley, I couldn't get it from the link, but a search of the title found it on UVM website... I excerpt...

Conclusions
Under both gravity and vacuum, sap flow from tapholes drilled in January and February was comparable to sap flow from much fresher holes during the cooler part of the sap flow season. Toward the end of the season, when temperatures had exceeded 50 degrees F on several days, January and February tapholes yielded less sap than newer tapholes. In years when many of the sap flow periods involve relatively low temperatures, perhaps 40 degrees or less, the additional yield from early tapping may provide a significant advantage compared to tapping on March 1st. The results from these experiments are consistent with the interpretation that microorganism growth during warm weather is responsible for the cessation of sap flow from tapholes.

I have an idea. If the microbes initially produce a gummy blockage at the tap, I am going to try to re-drill to clean it out. Otherwise I can open up from 5/16 to 7/16, and change the tap. The article mentions sanitizing at the start, but another idea is to sanitize mid-season. easy enough to pull the tap, re-drill to clean, squirt some grain alcohol, and put the tap back in. If that is the difference of getting early flow, and still get the best late March flow, no-brainer. Besides, I already tapped this week!

[Super Sapper]

From what I have read on here, re-drilling the tap hole will not get you much more sap but will increase the wound to the tree.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

I have an idea. If the microbes initially produce a gummy blockage at the tap, I am going to try to re-drill to clean it out. Otherwise I can open up from 5/16 to 7/16, and change the tap. The article mentions sanitizing at the start, but another idea is to sanitize mid-season. easy enough to pull the tap, re-drill to clean, squirt some grain alcohol, and put the tap back in. If that is the difference of getting early flow, and still get the best late March flow, no-brainer. Besides, I already tapped this week!

Your drill bit will not have much effect on cleaning out the microbes. It will just spread them around, and I think you might be at risk for accidentally changing the shape of your tap hole which can cause an ongoing leak. I'm not sure about the effect of the grain alcohol but if the sap is flowing or the hole is not completely dry, it may not do much because the sap will keep diluting it. Contact time and friction is how topical anti-microbial agents work best. That's why when you have blood drawn they use an alcohol wipe with a scrubbing motion and allow it to dry. The saying is "dry time is die time". At least that's what they are supposed to do.

[Helicopter Seeds]

Hmmm good thoughts on the drill mixing it.

I have a steamer for removing wallpaper. If I just put the steam hose against the hole, surely that would kill any microbe, and condensate will rinse the gunk. But would it also kill the wood.

Easy to try on one hole I suppose, or swap to the larger tap.