What to do with taps when away for a week?

[KRoberts]

Hi all. I'm new to the forum and this is my second year tapping the trees on our 5 acre property...I'm having a blast! We have 10 taps in now (Kaito Ridge with 5/16 tubing into gallon jugs) that were drilled on February 5th. We've gathered about 57 gallons of sap so far.

I have a few questions because we will be taking a trip out of town next week and I'm afraid we're going to miss some serious flow time. :cry:

What should we do with our taps while we are gone? Even if we found someone to collect it, we have no way of keeping it cool enough until we return. I'm wondering if we should just leave the taps in and remove the jugs?

I also read in another thread that the taps are only 'good' for around 6 weeks. Can you tell me more about the 'life' of a tap once you've drilled?

Thanks for your help!
Kelly
(I'll take notes and work on my cool signature line with stats.)

[Jdroberts]

Welcome newbie! Good luck in the sugar shack!:lol:

[dblact38]

Welcome KRoberts to this great site and welcome to the addiction. maybe if you up grade your 1 gallon jugs to 5 gallons, with some of the cold spells will ice up some of the sap which might help store your sap for I while. I collect my sap on the weekends and rarely have a problem of sap going bad until towards the end of the season Goodluck

[Big_Eddy]

Hi all. I'm new to the forum and this is my second year tapping the trees on our 5 acre property...I'm having a blast! We have 10 taps in now (Kaito Ridge with 5/16 tubing into gallon jugs) that were drilled on February 5th. We've gathered about 57 gallons of sap so far.

I have a few questions because we will be taking a trip out of town next week and I'm afraid we're going to miss some serious flow time. :cry:

What should we do with our taps while we are gone? Even if we found someone to collect it, we have no way of keeping it cool enough until we return. I'm wondering if we should just leave the taps in and remove the jugs?

I also read in another thread that the taps are only 'good' for around 6 weeks. Can you tell me more about the 'life' of a tap once you've drilled?

Thanks for your help!
Kelly
(I'll take notes and work on my cool signature line with stats.)


First things first - taps go in and stay in until you are done for the season. You only pull them out when you are finished with that tree for the year. So if you intend to collect more sap after your trip, leave them in.

As soon as you drill the hole, the tree starts to repair the damage. As the damage is "repaired" the amount of sap coming from your hole is reduced. So all other things being equal, a fresh hole will produce more sap on a given day than an old hole. That said - most of your tap holes will continue to give sap long enough to last at least until the buds break, at which time you are done anyway. We try to wait to tap until it looks like we will get good flows on the fresh holes, but it's a bit of a guessing game. CV taps extend the healing time. (If you want further details - search the archives - lots of good research)

If you're only going to be away a few days, leave everything as is, let the sap flow into the jugs, and if they fill, overflow onto the ground. You'll come back to lots of sap to boil :D
If it gets cold enough while you are away, the flows could drop off and the sap may freeze and preserve itself and everything will be good.
If you are away longer and miss a couple of good running days, followed by warm weather - when you return - just look at the sap that has collected and if it is hazy, dump it, rinse or wash your jugs and start fresh. You're no further behind.

BTW - 1 gallon jugs are too small - a good tree can overflow a 3 gal bucket on a good day.

[KRoberts]

Thank you both for the advice. This is SO helpful. We purchased additional 5 gallon buckets this weekend to cover all of the taps. We'll let you know how it goes when we return.

I'm also happy to hear that the taps stay in for the entire season. Whew!

Thanks again!
Kelly

[michiganphil]

we will be taking a trip out of town next week and I'm afraid we're going to miss some serious flow time. :cry:



That is why you can never leave during sap season! Stay close to the trees. Stay close to the fire.