Next weeks week long warm-up

[DonMcJr]

Well I tapped 43 taps Feb 19th...I have gotten 175 gallons so far. Looks like its gonna flow Sat, Sun and Monday then boom no below freezing Temps til maybe next Saturday but my weather app doesn't show past friday... I sure hope its not over I havent even gotten half of what I usually get...Thoughts?

[Hannah]

My thoughts are, you have been doing much better than most of us. I just got my taps in last weekend and have only collected, maybe, 40 gallons of sap. It's all froze and don't expect to thaw till early next week. But, I don't think it's going to end next week, it's barely March and we will have more cold days. I do think it's going to get warmer quicker this year and shorten the season. Just my 2pennies

[DonMcJr]

Thats my thought too but I know my 1st Season it was done like March 10th and I tapped around Feb 20th...similar this year for sure... hope not though...

[tcad]

I also tapped last weekend got 100 gal ,only ended up with just under 2 gal kinda dark for first run. I hope it dosnt end soon.

[TerryEspo]

Bush lot for sale 25 mins from my house.

30 acres, mixed with maples, $18 000 USA money.

Bring your arch, holiday 2 weeks every March in Canada, go home with gallons and gallons of Syrup !!

Season has not started here yet. :lol:

[DonMcJr]

Wish i had the extra money...

[PeddlerLakeSapper]

We tapped on 2/20 and are at 10 ounces of syrup per tap right now.

If you use the rule of 1qt. per tap, then we are about 1/3 there.

[Snappyssweets]

I tapped Jan 29th.
Total gathered so far is just under 200 gallons. Out of that though I have finished 6 gallons now. Sugar content has been higher then last year. Its only my second year doing this. I am extending out about a fifteen day forecast and its all above 35 for the lows. We could dip with luck just to the freezing point which would make it a tremendous boom and run. Or it could stay warmer and be a bust. Lets hope for the first.

Either way it will soon be crappie season and I expect the suckers will be running next week or so. Time to get to the fishing I guess.

[maple flats]

Tapped 1/20, to date I have not gotten enough to start. It looks like next week will run great a few days and then slow considerably with no freeze for too many days. If those temps prove to be forecast just 3-4 degrees too high for the overnight lows, it will run for at least 7-8 days.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Tapped 1/20, to date I have not gotten enough to start. It looks like next week will run great a few days and then slow considerably with no freeze for too many days. If those temps prove to be forecast just 3-4 degrees too high for the overnight lows, it will run for at least 7-8 days.

How much do you need to start? Do you have to dump sap because it spoils before you get enough?

[billyinvt]

The forecast have all been trending slightly cooler. If it keeps heading that way we could be in for some serious sap.

[ehausinfrats]

I fear what's going to happen and have heard stories about early season warm ups. I tapped 2.19.16. Got about a 1k gal so far. My 15 day weather shows above freezing for 10 days straight. And in the upper 50s during the day. Will be lucky to get half a normal year if the trees bud out. Which I fully expect.

[CampHamp]

Either way it will soon be crappie season
Never heard of anyone having a good crappie season! :lol:

[Cedar Eater]

I tapped some before Valentine's day and some before 2/20 and seven more today. Sap total still at 5.5 gal. Supposed to hit 61 on Tuesday. Lows above freezing next week. My trees haven't really woken up yet and it's not looking good.

[MISugarDaddy]

Tapped 480+ trees yesterday (Mar. 4th) and our trees here north of Gaylord are still partially frozen. Hopefully the temps will go back down in a week or so and give us a fair season. Good luck to all.
Gary

[austin357]

tapped 2/19 20 taps and so far my sap total is sad only 15 gallons only 3 of my trees have produced sure hope the rest wake up this week

[DonMcJr]

Wow I am having a better season than most...43 taps feb 19th and I've gotten 175 gallons of sap...where ya at in St. Clair County again austin?

[DeciMaple]

Boy am I glad that I tapped early, I was worried that if the season stretched out that the taps would start to close up, but with the looks of the extended forecasts, sugar season will be over next week for me. I put all 65 of my taps in January 30th. So far I have collected 292 gallons of sap. Hoping for a really good run this weekend!

[austin357]

don im in st clair township

[DonMcJr]

Ok Im in Columbus...
It looks like it might end here...after Sunday night no below freezing as far as next monday...boo I hope they are wrong! Cause if it ends this Monday then Ill need 625 gallons of sap in the next 2 days to hit my yearly average of 10 gallons of Syrup from 43 taps...not gonna happen!

[austin357]

i hope its not over that soon if it is this will be a sad sad season for me

[Snappyssweets]

Its pretty cool to hear people from where I grew up. St. Clair County talking sap and syrup with me. Even though I am now up here in Sanford.

I am seeing the same thing looking at things. My only saving grace may be a two or three day extra limited sap pull due to the amount of snow those two systems gave us. Could keep the temps down on the trees until its melted and gone by Tuesday or Wed. I was hoping to get to 20-25 gallons total this year. Then as things began to progress I lowered that to just twelve again. With the fact we have six completed I am thinking now ten would be good.

Also I checked my taps I have a couple that are healing up already and that is an ill sign also.

[Sanford MI Mapler]

Put in 63 taps today hope I didn't miss the run, not looking good for high temps this upcoming week. Started same week for the past 4 years, crossing my fingers.

[Cedar Eater]

Put in 63 taps today hope I didn't miss the run, not looking good for high temps this upcoming week. Started same week for the past 4 years, crossing my fingers.

I don't think you missed any significant runs. I've been paying attention to the latitudes of reported runs and I haven't heard of anybody at your latitude having any great runs. We had a minor run here, 5.5 gallons from 28 taps. The real problem is that we might only get one run and that might be a short one. We have to hope for multiple dips back below freezing before the buds pop.

[Greenthumb]

Not looking promising here- since we tap reds and silvers I'm sure by next weekend in livingston county our trees will begin to bud. Week forcast shows 50s. Will start out well with a good run and I'm sure shut down. Problem will be storage since we are weekend boilers. (Darn job ). Only regret was not getting taps in a week earlier I think we missed the first run. This year just looks to be one of those short yesrs. Down side is we have lots of friends and coworkers wanting to buy this year. Icould have possibly covered some cost.

[BoarsNest]

Bought a new arch this year and it looks like that was a mistake. I hope to use it at least a few weeks.

Some of my buddies tapped 100 trees 1-1/2 weeks ago and we have about 200 gallons of sap frozen in the bags. Yesterday we put in 200 taps and it was starting to run. We typically boil weekends only but it looks like I need to go up to my cabin tomorrow night to boil or I will lose whatever is in my buckets. So far this is the strangest season I've seen in my short time doing this.

[Jeff S]

I'm here. In Kimball township, I put in 20 taps (16 sugar and 4 reds ) on Jan 31 and pulled all of them on Feb 29 just before the storm.In total I collected 209 gallons.I never wait for a certain date to tap trees but rather pay attention to the weather ,for those who wait till March to tap will be sorely disappointed with this year's results. I did tap 12 walnut trees this morning just so I could make a small batch from this 2 - 3 day run we are expecting.

[Hannah]

We put 44 taps out 7-10 days ago and got 20 gallons during last weeks warm up. With the slight warm up here and there and then cold temps my buckets are full of frozen sap. Not sure if I should dump them so I can collect when it starts running tomorrow or let them over flow till I can get to them in the evening and hope they are thawed enough to get what I can and toss the ice that's left behind? I would hate to dump 80 gallons of sap/ice though. Not sure how long it will take to thaw out. We were looking forward to our first boil this weekend:cry:

[Jeff S]

I would definitely dump th ice and collect the sap that's left other wise you will miss out the next run.We did not have the hard freezes we did last year ,I was able to take 2 percent sap and increase it to 5 percent after removing the ice after 3 hard freezes.

[billdean]

Well I see they revised the forecast, for today anyway. It was suppose to be in the low 40's. Now the high is projected to be 37*. I am hoping they are wrong for the rest of the week also. I just came in from the wood lot and I have 2 or 3 trees dripping. Hopefully they will all start up and run through the night. These slow warm-ups during the day are killing me. It takes till 1:00pm to get above 32* and by 6:00 its back below freezing. I might have collect a couple of gallons yesterday. Still hoping for a great run for tonight and tomorrow.

[austin357]

most of my trees did nothing today got about 3gallons from 2 trees on a good note the low tonight was 34 and its 32 now hope others did better than me today

[MidMichMaple]

Put my taps in on January 30th and I'm going to pull them once the flow stops this week. Had some really good sap runs in February. Now I'm ready to be done and move on to other springtime things. I feel for the bigger producers who can't just throw in a few taps in January and see what happens. Worked out perfectly for me but I know it's not that simple for others.

[mitten mapler]

I have 200 taps out in st Helen and have collected 35 gallons of sap since Feb 21 not a drop this weekend. We have a brand-new arch just sitting in the shack still feeling optimistic though I think

[Jabe Thomas]

Put in 15 taps into sugar maples on Feb. 20th. Got about 55-60 gallons of sap so far. Nothing much since last Monday. Sap started running a little today, but it took forever to warm up. I put in five more taps today... hoping to take advantage of the next day or two. Next weekend's boil down may be it.

[Too Tall]

It's been a slow season over here too. 60 taps have produced 6 gallons of syrup so far. Looking forward to a big run tomorrow and maybe Tuesday before it gets too warm. We decided we are going to leave our taps in for the big warm up in hopes of a late run of good sap when it inevitably cools back down toward the end of March.

[toquin]

The large lady is singing in S.W MI

[austin357]

not lookin good for me have only pulled about 10 gallons the last 2 days very sad to only get that from 22 taps most of my trees have not even leaked a drop this is drivin me crazy

[BobMac]

collected just shy of 100 gallons today from 35 taps,buckets and tubing.
tomorrow might be the end mid 60's and the rain is coming.Will be boiling Wednesday
for sure

[billdean]

Best day so far. 27 gallons of sap collected today. Some trees are close to shutting down and some are still running fairly well. I hope for a good morning collection tomorrow. After that who noes. It was a beautiful day to be in the woods sapping!! I hope everyone did well today.

[austin357]

anybody else have trees that have not ran at all yet

[Snappyssweets]

This was a good day. I just now at 11 PM ran a collection so no jugs overfill during night. I pulled 53 gallons today. Its still flowing at 11 PM so we shall see what happens tomorrow.

[TrapperX]

I tapped a few trees back in January when we had the warm up and made 3/4 gallon, then Feb 20th had all 16 trees tapped with 35 taps and pulled 220 gallons and made 4 1/2 gallons of darker syrup but delicious. Yesterday I collected in the morning and night for a total of 71 gallons and just checked on medium running tree and the bucket was about 1/3 full so I expect another 30 gallons possibly today.
The syrup I collected yesterday is all buried in a snowbank and I will start boiling today as I am setup at work to boil. One good thing about owning the business ;)

[gbwaterski]

I collected 185 gallons yesterday from my 168 taps. My sap was still crystal clear and some sack still had ice in them. None of my tress are slowing down yet.

[MIMapler]

This is my fourth year tapping (Van Buren county) and I've been running around 50 taps and two wood ovens. Lots of trees have good sap flows, but with this crazy and sustained warm weather (looking at the 5 day forecast), I'm guessing that the trees will be budding soon. Overnight I collected 100 gal of sap and boiled down and bottled two gallons of syrup, all from sugar maples. Seems to be more of the "maple sand" than I recall in past years, but maybe I just blocked it out. Filtering that out is a pain, and I end up losing good syrup. Still nice to be outside at night with the wood smoke and the smell of steaming sap.

[austin357]

dont get it most of my big producing trees from past years have given me nothing n my sap total from 22 taps this year is 20 gallons 15 of that was the last 3 days im about ready to cry

[MidMichMaple]

Well this is quite the run we are having. Jugs overflowing again after work today. Even with the warm day the sap is clear and smells good. I'm boiling the stuff that sat all day in hopes that I get it boiled before it goes bad.

[adk1]

Not the same for me. Been 50's last two days and not getting the rush of sap I thought I would get or have seen in the past from my trees yet. Still thawing out I expect. I am guessing tomorrow I will get a serious run

[Marshalljt]

Put in 56 Taps on 2-18-16. Got 49.25 Gallons yesterday and 64.5 tonight. Bring me to 276 gallons total. Cooked 150 gallons last friday down to 2.5 gallons syrup. First time cooking and first time using my homemade evaporator. Lots of fun. I think I am hooked. Planning on cooking on friday again.

[billdean]

My trees, mostly reds, are giving up some but nothing like last year. I collected 19 gallons of sap this morning all on buckets. Total for this year is about 100 gallons of sap.

[Snappyssweets]

Lets see how do I put this?

Begins humming the old band Exiles song of woke up in love with you.

Uhumm Uhumm.

"Woke up to hear pee eep pers, oh what a horrible morning.
is it the end of my toil, Oh no I still can boil.

Okay okay I hate poetry and I suck at singing but anyhow. The dogs were out doing their morning routine and as I stood there the peepers were a singing.
Okay sure my property is pretty much all low land and such so I hear them earlier then some but I have heard it said if the peepers are singing. Well you all know the rest.

[Michigan Maples]

Very very tired today and may go out and collect again. 55 gallons of sap on our 24 taps yesterday. Boiled until I couldn't stay awake any longer. 5 of our buckets were full to overflowing. Good looking sap, nice and clear, but I really doubt with this prolonged warm up it will stay that way. But I'll collect as much as I can for as long as it's good.

[Tweegs]

Plagued with problems from the onset.

Leaks in the RO, mainly, rendering it useless for a couple of days, meanwhile the sap was pouring in.
Have plenty of wood cut, just not split, was spending too much time working on the RO and other shack refinements.
We were caught unprepared for this for this early warm up and resulting sap explosion, even though we knew it was coming.

It’s been a race to keep enough wood split to feed the evaporator, get the buckets collected, and dial in the RO all at the same time.

The leaks are down to an occasional drip now and we worked to the wee hours getting caught up, but we are caught up.

Vacuum is still pulling in sap but the buckets pretty well dried up yesterday.
Sugar content has dropped from 2.5% to 1.7%

We started out Sunday making a very nice Amber (medium) with excellent flavor. Last night we were teetering on very dark (B) with a good flavor.

Local forecast is calling for 33 tomorrow night, we always run a few degrees colder. Looking at the hourly though, we’ll only dip below for a few hours. Not long enough to freeze up the trees. Another chance to freeze again overnight Friday.

We’re going to keep the vacuum on day and night ‘til it’s over, buckets will do as they will.

[Cedar Eater]

Slowly approaching our fortieth gallon of sap. Boiling on the electric evaporators sure beats propane. Putting trees on 3/16" tubing sure beats jugs. Very weird boiling in 60F+ weather. Having to scoop skeeters and gnats out of the boil.

[TrapperX]

Sweating out there during collection at 7pm lol
Been a long 3 days with working, collecting and boiling.
Monday collected 71 gallons, Tue 48 gallons and yesterday 32 gallons for a total of 151 gallons.
The sap is running anywhere from 1.75 to 2.75, so good so far. With this batch finished I should be over 8 gallons of syrup.
Glad it slowed down, so I can catch up. I converted my propane over to natural gas and love it.
I think I will be pulling taps on Sat.

[BoarsNest]

Tapped 200 trees Saturday (March 5) and gathered 400+ gallons Tuesday. Ran the sap we brought from home 330 gal and the 400 through my new arch. Took it easy for a couple hours Tuesday night to get a handle on it. Ran it hard for 7 hrs on Wednesday and pushed with water at the end. We ended up with about 11 gallons of slightly higher density syrup hope to get total of 15 gallons out of it. I left the buckets in the woods, ever hopeful that this isn't the end. With this lousy weather forecast, I hope what appears to be a 5 day season is the shortest I ever see.

[TrapperX]

This is only my second year tapping and went from 8 tress to 16 this year.
My question is if the season ends now will this drive the syrup prices up? I am not tapping to sell mine but was wondering.
My wife and I have a combined 12 brothers and sisters so this years syrup is going to be summer camping/Christmas gifts.

[Tweegs]

Boiled every night this week, will be boiling again tonight.

We were running hard last night around 8 PM.
Hot in the shack, doors and windows open. In hops a peeper who makes it behind the wood pile before I could grab him.
Shortly after, he begins to serenade us and continues throughout the night.

Not another peeper singing, the little wet area he likely came from is still half covered with ice.
We made for a captive audience, I guess.:lol:

If it weren’t for the omen of a peeper singing signals the end is near, he'd have been a more welcomed guest, but we were amused with him nonetheless.

[billyinvt]

Market prices are primarily determined by what happens in Quebec. There may be some variation in local prices if there is strong demand for local syrup.

[Snappyssweets]

I have still not gone out to look in any buckets today. Boiling furiously to catch up.
Prices locally if you have the market may or may not be effected depending on the people whom are your customers and the amount you charge.
I admit I charge more then a lot. Yet I still do well and sell a fair bit of what I produced last year. For instance I made 12 gallons and sold 8 of that. The rest was our use and gifts. I had a couple people tell me they could buy it cheaper in the stores I laughed told the go ahead. I also had a few tell me they knew other people who sold it cheaper. Yet in the end everyone who purchased it from me raved about how good it was and how they will be back again. Which they did.

So if you do sell it just know your local market and stick to your plan. You know the work you have into it the investment you have and what you can or will accept as payment. In the end though I think all of us other then commercial operations would agree we do this because its fun as hell. Gives a wonderful end product we all love. If we did it for the money. Well lets just say I was a Trucker for years. If I got paid by the hour I think Maple pays more then trucking did. LOL

[bryce]

a bit over 325 gallons of sap collected. Ran it all through the RO. Now down to about 50 gallons of sap to boil. Will boil tonight. Much lower sap volume than last year. Interesting year so far. Maybe I can still get some clear if the nights stay a little cooler.

[michiganphil]

Hot in the shack, doors and windows open. In hops a peeper who makes it behind the wood pile before I could grab him.
Shortly after, he begins to serenade us and continues throughout the night.



I had a peeper hop in last night too. First time that's ever happened.

[Snappyssweets]

Sugars are running today most the reds are dry or trickling.
Will pull taps tomorrow afternoon collect what they will give today and overnight from there its over for me. Will be close to last years production I think when its over.

[tberryer]

Pulled all my taps yesterday after a brief 1 week run. I should have tapped them at the end of January, but it just didn't work out this year, but I did get a few extra buckets and tapped my mom's trees this year too. I collected 24 gallons out of 6 taps and it varied from 1.5% to 3.5% producing just over a gallon of medium amber. Looks like I won't be giving very much away this year, but am glad I have my gallon. Here's to a beautiful Michigan spring!:cool: