Tapping dilemma

[Tickle]

I am up in Niagara county and weather is warming up ,not sure if its just to early to start tapping or not ,i only tap 50 trees all on buckets ,any advice or theory's on whether i should start or not would be great thanks

[backyardsugarer]

I am flushing lines this weekend and then going to look at the forecast. Seems too early for our part of the State. I did tap February 7th 3 years ago and I was so happy I did as the season was over by March 17th with 70 degree temps. Nothing crazy warm in the 10 day so I would say wait it out one more freeze and thaw cycle, but just my 2 cents.

[wnybassman]

Looking at the long range forecast on Accuweather it is showing favorable weather from now until the middle of March. If this is accurate (and I do trust it as far as I can throw it) I still want to wait a couple more weeks to be able to have strong taps at the right time. If it isn't accurate, then hindsight is 20/20.

I'm in limbo also.

[blissville maples]

hold on yet, be wary of weather that's 5 plus days out. also a one or two day warm up will do nothing, it takes a couple days to "unlock" the trees especially when ground is frozen up. good ole timer said, you don't get sap til you start getting stuck. meaning MUD. when theres mud there sap- one thing to never forget about sugaring

[Wanabe1972]

Im in the same boat. I have never tapped before my birthday Feb 21 and still feel we are going to get some cold. Im going to wait a couple more weeks for sure but hopefully I don't miss it. The area im in always runs a couple of degrees colder than my local weather man says and the extended only shows a few days here and there at a good running weather. I don't want to risk sweeting the pans then get a 2 to 3 week freeze.

[Tickle]

Thanks everyone for advice and insight ,I think the prudent thing to do is wait

[wnybassman]

Accuweather showing a pattern of a few warm days followed by a few cold days for the next couple weeks, then a week long cold snap. At this moment, it looks like Feb. 21st is go time. That puts it at regular tapping time for me.

[RC Maple]

A few days ago, it was looking like this weekend would be a good time to tap here in NW Ohio. While we do have a few days of warmer temps coming in the next few days, it's followed by almost two weeks of weather <32 degrees. It does look - for the moment that somewhere around 2/21 may be the time to go. We'll see...