Tapped Today

[dsaw]

Got started late in the day (kid's swim meet), but got 46 taps in over about 3 hrs before it got too dark. Only one tree was running while tapping (should have been 33 according to WeatherChannel) , figured the rest were too cold. Not sure how hard I'll hit it tomorrow. I'm probably already over the limit of my 2x3 Smokey. I'm finishing up an RO, but not quite done yet. I might hold off tapping more until next weekend and spend tomorrow prepping equipment.

I live 1:20 away, and need to be home tomorrow for a dinner, so I'm sure it'll be running like mad as I'm heading out.

[Andrew Franklin]

I'm in the same situation as you - I live north of Indy and my woods is near Bloomington. I've held off tapping because I don't want just a little bit of sap to sit in my 250 gallon collection tanks [3/16 lines running to them] for too long. My thought was to wait for when things were really running, but please let me know how yours do over the next few weeks - maybe I'll jump in a little earlier!

[dsaw]

Ended today w/81 taps installed. About 1/2 were flowing on my random spot check about 4 pm.

[ericjeeper]

280 taps in east of Martinsville,about half were running good. Tomorrow should be a great day of flow. Temps not going to drop so low tonight.

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[ericjeeper]

Gathered 250 gallons today. Shut the blowers off with 110 left in the tank. All of my float switches are working great. All I have to do is feed wood.

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[ericjeeper]

I am having steam issues bad,my cupola doors run north to south.wind blowing hard out of the north. So tomorrow I will be fabricating aluminum hood. And aluminum duct up into the cupola.

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[dsaw]

Good luck with the hood. I boil under an open lean-to attached to my pole barn. My "steam deflector" (I built living qtrs in part of the pole barn, so don't want too much steam coming back in) is a piece of roofing tin attached only in the center to the lean-to rafters angled out; that way it droops down on each side forcing about 90% of the steam outside the lean-to.

I'm furiously trying to finish my RO; and it's not looking good. Base structure built and major components mounted, but the little stuff takes forever. And of course, I ran out of Argon for the TIG tonight. As usual, should have started earlier. I'll probably miss my hoped for initial run this weekend and will just end up boiling what I can.

[easterro]

North Central Indiana reporting in: Fresh woodpecker damage has been weeping a lot of sap. That, plus the 10-day forecast had us start tapping on the 26th. I'd like to have all taps in by the weekend.

All indications seem to point to an early start. I hope it's a long season.

[dsaw]

I didn't get out during the week, so had about 90 gal of sap today from 81 taps. Put out 39 more today. Still boiling down right now, will still be boiling it tomorrow. I brought the RO out, but haven't had a chance to mess with it. It has a few more tweaks I'd like to make, but may try to test some water through it tomorrow. I wasn't sure how much sap I'd have. If I had too much, I would have put some effort into getting it going today; but I was borderline so I decided to to boil and get more taps out. Put the kids to work cleaning buckets and feeding the arch.

[Andrew Franklin]

I went to my property Saturday at Noon and had about 75 gallons from 30 taps on 3/16 that had collected since Thursday night. Boiled until 3:30 am and came home in the late morning with another 15 gallons that collected in the early morning - doing that on a turkey fryer. Looks like it will keep running through Tuesday!

[dsaw]

Miscommunication with the wife, she left some buckets till today since I had too much to boil down in one day already. I picked up another 30 gal today and put out more taps, up to 120 total now. I let it "boil" overnight (really just kept heat on it), stayed up til 12:30 am, then added wood again at 2:30 and up at 7am. Just had to chuck a few logs to get it going again in the morning. One strange thing, the syrup is really dark for this time of year. I don't have much experience, but my 1st batch has always been my lightest in the past. It's too warm down here now, not flowing much if any. I suspect this week will be a bust because it's too warm. The next week is supposed to cool off again.

[Andrew Franklin]

Miscommunication with the wife, she left some buckets till today since I had too much to boil down in one day already. I picked up another 30 gal today and put out more taps, up to 120 total now. I let it "boil" overnight (really just kept heat on it), stayed up til 12:30 am, then added wood again at 2:30 and up at 7am. Just had to chuck a few logs to get it going again in the morning. One strange thing, the syrup is really dark for this time of year. I don't have much experience, but my 1st batch has always been my lightest in the past. It's too warm down here now, not flowing much if any. I suspect this week will be a bust because it's too warm. The next week is supposed to cool off again.

Thanks for the update - I was wondering if it was too warm - and tomorrow is going to be 60! I had planned on going down to boil all night, but assuming its not flowing much today I'll just make sure my tanks are cleaned out and take home whatever is in there to boil at home.

[dsaw]

I'll be heading back out next weekend late Sat. due to kid's swim meet; but don't expect much due to warm weather. More to clean out the buckets then any other reason. I might actually rig a tank of fresh water on the ATV to rinse buckets if I can manage to think ahead.

[dsaw]

My wife went out today to drain the pan. I had left fresh water in it to keep it from warping (out of sap). With tomorrow supposed to get to 25, didn't want that freezing solid. She confirmed that we've had very little run thus far this week with the warm weather; hopefully that changes with a few cooler nights. She also put in 20 more taps (good wife).

[Andrew Franklin]

I didn't expect much up until today - I see it got to 41 where my trees are. Hopefully some today and a good day tomorrow and Sunday...I'm heading down tomorrow afternoon to boil and will continue up until I have to head back to get to a Superbowl party.

[jvalentour]

Newbie here.
Tapped 10 Black Walnut in Dearborn County 2/6/16.
9 of ten tapes were dripping before I could rig up the buckets and lines. Seems like a lot of fun, looking forward to advise from the forum.

[Andrew Franklin]

I went down to my property yesterday at noon and built a cinderblock arch to go with my new 2x4 pan since I haven't had time to brick the real arch yet. Had about 80 gallons when I got there and it ran strong until about 9:00 pm and this morning up until noon... about 135 total. Boiled as late into the night as I could stay awake, but drew off so I could get some sleep with the pan full as the fire died. Brought home 5 gallons of almost syrup and 30 gallons of sap - not complaining, just wish I could have finished it off.

[dsaw]

I didn't expect much, and I was correct this past weekend due to the warm weather. I only got about 55 gal of sap. And this week I'll have the opposite problem, too cold. Not sure it'll be warm enough over next weekend to even gather any sap; the buckets will probably be frozen solid. I need to get a few more taps out, but didn't have time.

[Andrew Franklin]

dsaw, how are you set up...buckets, 5/16, or 3/16? I switched to 3/16 this year and my two lines with 30 taps each were pouring out sap last weekend. If you have the elevation change (30' from the last tap) it seems to be great - I got much more per tap from the 3/16 lines than I got from the 7 taps I have on buckets.

[dsaw]

Right now, I have about 10 7/16" classic metal buckets, and about 130 5/16" taps connected to probably 100 5 gal plastic buckets w/5/16" tubing. I need to do some system planning to figure out how I can connect more taps together and hook to several larger containers (55 gal drums?). My taps are fairly spread out, so I can't hook them all together; but most are in some sort of cluster. I have at least 30' elevation change in some areas, but not all.

[Andrew Franklin]

Not sure it this will help you, but I ran 3/16 this year and it saves a lot of time over buckets to have 30 taps run to my 275 gallon totes that are 30' down from the last tap. The totes were reasonably priced from a craigslist ad in Martinsville, and my start point is with a few trees that has the run going uphill about 20' and then going down over 100', so the sap is pulled up the incline and then down..creating a vacuum that has it literally pouring out of the 3/16 line at the collection point. My buckets have just a fraction of yield compared to the trees on 3/16.

[markcasper]

Not sure it this will help you, but I ran 3/16 this year and it saves a lot of time over buckets to have 30 taps run to my 275 gallon totes that are 30' down from the last tap. The totes were reasonably priced from a craigslist ad in Martinsville, and my start point is with a few trees that has the run going uphill about 20' and then going down over 100', so the sap is pulled up the incline and then down..creating a vacuum that has it literally pouring out of the 3/16 line at the collection point. My buckets have just a fraction of yield compared to the trees on 3/16.

So if you had say 40' of rise instead of 20' from your trees on the backside of the hill, would the 3/16 still be able to pull it over the hill considering you have 100' of drop???

[mellondome]

You will probably not get a tree to push sap that high to start. How tall are your trees? If you can "prime" the tubing, then the vac will overcome the rise.

[dsaw]

One question I have on setting several tanks in the woods to collect from a potential 3/16 system is how does one prevent valves from busting when it freezes? Keep the nipples short? I know I had a rain water collection system valve bust on me a few years ago, but I think I had a 6" nipple on it. Am I safe placing 55 gal drums and adding bulkhead fittings, close nipples, and a valve?

Also, in S. IN at least, wondering if the season is over. Next two weeks after tomorrow are all too warm.

[Andrew Franklin]

What makes mine work is that I have some trees tapped on the downward slope as well...the sap flowing from them establishes the vacuum and pulls the rest up and over the crest. As mellondome said, there could be a way to prime the line to get it going, but even a few trees on the downward slope should get things going.

[mellondome]

One question I have on setting several tanks in the woods to collect from a potential 3/16 system is how does one prevent valves from busting when it freezes? Keep the nipples short? I know I had a rain water collection system valve bust on me a few years ago, but I think I had a 6" nipple on it. Am I safe placing 55 gal drums and adding bulkhead fittings, close nipples, and a valve?.

Do not let sap in the valve and it will not break.just suck out of the top of the drum.

[dsaw]

That makes sense, I was wondering how people kept valves from freezing. I guess I need to add a 12v pump for sucking out tanks if I switch to 3/16".

[mellondome]

Or make sure they are empty with no sap left in the valve.

[dsaw]

I'm remote, so I can't get out but once or twice a week, so there is no way sap won't be on the valve if it's running.

[psparr]

Use the double valve method.
Put two ball valves in a row. With both closed, open the second valve from the tank to drain the sap from the valve itself and then close it. Now open the valve closest to the tank and leave it open. That keeps the sap out of the "ball" of the valve where most it the burst valve problems lye.

[mellondome]

I'm remote, so I can't get out but once or twice a week, so there is no way sap won't be on the valve if it's running.

It is about not having sap in the ball of the valve.

[Big_Eddy]

Drill the ball. A 1/4" hole drilled in the downstream side of the ball (closed) will allow the ball to drain when closed and has no effect when open. I disassembled the valve to drill the ball and made sure there were no burrs on the edge of the hole to damage the seal. Works well. Someone on here gave me the idea.

[dsaw]

Thanks, drilling the ball makes sense. Unfortunately, I don't know how much season we have left. I thought we were about done, or I would have ordered some 3/16" hose already. I see they finally changed the forecast today so there are now some nights dropping into the 20's for each of the next two weeks; so all may not be lost.

[dsaw]

Early results tonight were encouraging, most sap I've had so far for the # I was able to check in the dark. Got about 50 gal from 1/4-1/3 of my 140 taps. However, great variation depending on the area. Some areas had dry buckets, others all had 1-4 gal. If this holds tomorrow when I check the rest of my taps, I may need to dump sap if I don't get my RO going; I may not have time to process it all.

[dsaw]

Ended the weekend with 200 gal of sap. About 170 from the last two weeks, and 30 more when I rechecked the main area's this morning. I boiled it down to about 4-5 gal of near sap (50-65%). I've been refrigerating my concentrate and hope to finally fire up the finishing pan this week. Burned some syrup towards the end, I need to come up with a good way to drain a continuos pan because I lost a fair amount of sap trying to prevent more burning. Experimented with AUF (just put a box fan at one end) and dramatically improved my boil rates (2nd year with pan, and last year was a very short year; so still under a dozen fires). I never got above 6 gph before, but briefly got 12 and held 10 fairly consistently (I put my finishing pan on top of my 2x3 as a preheater). I welded up a quick on the fly grate gap cleaner so I could clean them from behind, and that made a dramatic improvement in the airflow. I think just keeping the grate gaps clean made the biggest improvement. I couldn't blow the AUF too hard or I'd boil over (I have a bottle of defoamer, but had never used it and accidentally left it at home). Almost wiped out the woodpile. I have some year old logs I'm now splitting as I burn. Not sure if I ruined some syrup with the burn, but other then that a productive and educational weekend. I'm too busy while I'm working to mess with the RO, so I think that'll end up being an over the summer project to make sure it's ready to go before the season.

[Andrew Franklin]

That's pretty good to get through all of that over the weekend! I had 120 - 140 gallons of sap (I fill 5 gallon buckets from my tanks, and lost count when I went in to the IU game last night) that I got all but 15 gallons boiled to near syrup. Big storm hit last night and my wood got soaked, so I spent about two hours this morning getting it going. I had to leave to head back to Carmel for my son's basketball game or I would have finished it off...looks like I'll be on the turkey fryer tomorrow. I had some bugs fly into the pan today...a sign the end is near?

[dsaw]

I think the season is done. Went out today and only had about 12 gallons. About 1/4 of the trees were completely dry.

I think I tapped too late. I never got the light early season syrup I normally get on the 1st run or 2.

[Andrew Franklin]

I think the season is done. Went out today and only had about 12 gallons. About 1/4 of the trees were completely dry.

I think I tapped too late. I never got the light early season syrup I normally get on the 1st run or 2.

Mine started running yesterday around noon, and since I didn't have anything to boil yesterday I put in another 30 taps. Wound up getting about 50 gallons by noon today, and it was pouring out of my two lines with 30 taps on each. Next to nothing in my buckets. The ones I did yesterday don't have 30' of fall, so the vacuum effect isn't there but they still were running ok when I had to leave to get home for my son's bball game.

[Mitchell tapper.]

Yesterday I boiled 77 gallons of sap from a three day run. 4 gallons from buckets the rest from 3/16 tube on pump. The buckets have not done well at all this year. The sugar content is lower on the pump. Taking about 70 gal to make 1 but it's worth it.

[Andrew Franklin]

Yesterday I boiled 77 gallons of sap from a three day run. 4 gallons from buckets the rest from 3/16 tube on pump. The buckets have not done well at all this year. The sugar content is lower on the pump. Taking about 70 gal to make 1 but it's worth it.

I finished mine up tonight - exactly one gallon of syrup from around 50 gallons of sap I got from noon Saturday to noon Sunday (I always lose count once I'm in the thick of it). Clearest sap I've gotten yet and highest sugar content - and easiest filtering, although the new prefilters and filter may have had a lot to do with that. Hoping the sap that accumulated Sunday and today survived the warm wather for me to boil down next weekend. Temps in the low 40's and below freezing at night Wed Thur and Fri (check local listings) could make for one last good run.

[dsaw]

Well, after everyone else's success, I may head out for one more run on Sat. Still not expecting much; so should be able to bring it home and boil it in my finishing pan.

[Eds Constructors]

New to the hobbie and the forum but in regards to your earlier statement about dark syrup, I believe I read that dark syrup is a result of long boil times as well as late season collections,scorch marks from letting the level in pan get low and then adding sap, not mai taining boil, and also bacteria from dirty buckets. I'm sure there are a few other variations involved as well. I guess be thankful, in my experiences most people prefer darker syrup. Best of luck to you

[dsaw]

I did end up heading out last weekend and had an ok run, ~40 gallons (a lot more then I expected). Several buckets were dry, and I pulled those taps. Not sure if I'll head back out this weekend or not.