Central Wisconsin 2016

[tpallen]

Tapped yesterday, running really good. I was pleasantly surprised to find half full bags this morning. Now with the high for today and tomorrow at 30 deg sap flow has shut down again. Looks to be a big run this weekend with a high of 47 on Saturday!

[Diesel Pro]

I did my 120+ taps into 5 gallon buckets Saturday afternoon. Some were dripping right away, some dry. Nothing to get excited about which is fine by me. I'm hoping to cook 2 weekends from now. Dunno if I'll get away with it, but rather than collecting and holding in tanks I'm going to try holding in the buckets and hopefully cook 2 weekends 2 weeks apart. Never seems to work out that way, but nice to dream.

[TomorrowRiverMapler]

I installed 82 taps on Saturday, Feb 27 and had about 50 gals by the end of the day Sunday. Based on last year I was not expecting that as the sap didn't start running until the middle of March in western Waupaca county. Of course I don't have much experience as this is only my second year.

[Diesel Pro]

Slow but steady, Thursday nights freeze had things going decent Friday into Saturday. Ended up with about 180 gallons from 60 trees/120 taps on a 2 week soak. Most of the run came Friday. Pre-brix showed 2.8-2.9. Nice and clear very little sugar sand/sludge in the pan and a bit over 6 gallons semi finished I've been finishing deeper these days so I expect 6 gallons plus finished.

They were still running Saturday but not very fast. Should freeze up again Wednesday night. We'll see what happens from there. Weather man tends to dangle nice ideal conditions then ratchets the overnight lows upwards as the days get closer.

[PloverTown]

Tapped 25 northeast of Rosholt Saturday morning. We picked up 22 gallons Sunday, but pretty dry since then. 2.1 on the sugar. Waiting for some colder temps to get things moving again.

13800

[PloverTown]

Everything shut down from 3/13 until today. Finally picked up 16 gallons on our 25 trees. Should roll pretty well over the next week looking at the forecast.

[treemonkey]

Filled a 400 gallon bulk tank with clear sap after 4 PM today 240 taps on vac. Didn't touch the 200 bags and buckets. Saddle up, here it comes.

[Diesel Pro]

Another quick 6 gallons from about 180 gallons sap. With all the rain I did take on a little rain water so the sap had a bit of a yellow tinge, but it seems to be plenty fine. Now I'm getting nervous about the buds. Hoping to hold things together for one more week and hopefully a 12 gallon run to close off the season. The way things have been going and the way the weather looks we'll probably see a 2 day drip Monday through Tuesday then who knows what with the snow and cold coming Wed/Thurs. Looks like Friday might go again.

Surprising how little residue there is left in the pan when we empty this year.

[Diesel Pro]

We had a good freeze Saturday night trees were slow getting going Sunday. Brother collected 140 gallons or so Monday. Neighbor collected another 70 gallons Tuesday so everything is in good shape for the snow. Looks like they may run a bit today (Wed) and then mostly dormant Thurs. Friday through the night into Saturday looks to be a good run which will be our final cook provided the rain stays away.

[PloverTown]

Rolled good until a bit of a breather today. Collecting a lot of gallons, but the sugar is running on the low side. 1.8 and 1.9 in the last two days.

[ScottP]

Its been a good year so far. We have a new Airtech Vacuum pump that works awesome. We have bee sitting right around 28" the entire season. We have somewhere around 580 taps in and have made 225 gallons. We installed 6 sap ladders throughout our woods and I was very skeptical about them but now I can say that they work. Looks to be at least another good week or two. good luck and keep boiling.

[ScottP]

Officially done boiling for the year. 380 gallons of syrup made on 580+- taps. Learned a lot this year about vacuum. We were able to stay between 27.5" and 28.5" at the releaser all year which I hear is outstanding. Sap ladders work really well for those of us flat landers. Our largest sap ladder has somewhere around 350 taps going through it. If you don't know what they are and are thinking of running tubing but say you cant because you are to flat go to youtube and watch some videos cause they really work. Also I had some skeptics in years past but We have a CDL hobby RO (200 gallons per hour) and flat pans and only cook nights and weekends and we made 380 gallons. It can be done you just have to have lots of wood. It was a long but good season.

[pls009]

Officially done boiling for the year. 380 gallons of syrup made on 580+- taps. Learned a lot this year about vacuum. We were able to stay between 27.5" and 28.5" at the releaser all year which I hear is outstanding. Sap ladders work really well for those of us flat landers. Our largest sap ladder has somewhere around 350 taps going through it. If you don't know what they are and are thinking of running tubing but say you cant because you are to flat go to youtube and watch some videos cause they really work. Also I had some skeptics in years past but We have a CDL hobby RO (200 gallons per hour) and flat pans and only cook nights and weekends and we made 380 gallons. It can be done you just have to have lots of wood. It was a long but good season.

This will be my first year with ladders - can you offer advice on how many 5/16 riser lines you used versus number of taps? Thanks - Paul

[ScottP]

We stuck to a maximum of 50 taps per star fitting. We did make sure that we had the smallest of a leak at the first tap after the ladder to get the sap to move. Our woods for whatever reason is extremely tight so if you have natural leaks you probably wouldn't have to create a leak.

[Boycedemery]

Hey everyone I just got a question how people are getting .5 a gallon of sap per tree per day. Is that running tubes? I'm in the Green Bay Area and I tapped 4 trees 4 days ago and I'm lucky if I've gotten even half a gallon of sap out of all 4 trees total! It's only my second year and the trees have been tapped only one other time. ( Last year). I'm using 7/16 aluminum taps with bags. Any help or ideas on why this is happening would be greatly appreciated. I've got many other trees to tap but I'm wondering if I should wait maybe on those, hoping things might loosen up with this heat wave? Thanks Again!!

[markcasper]

When they really let loose, you should get 2-3 gallons per tap per day. Its way early and I wouldn't put any more out until after this heat wave if your using open taps. Your trees are just waking up.