weatther question, maybe its over

[michael marrs]

I am in central Mi., The last 4 days yields on my 70 taps, , were as follows, 65 gals, 45 gals., 25 gals., and yesterday 4 gals. We have been above freezing for maybe a week. All of the sap has remained clear. The weather shows in a week or so, the return to above, and below the freezing mark. will it run again, or should I just watch for cloudy sap? Thanks

[michiganphil]

If the freezing temps return, it should run again. But watch out for budding if you are tapping soft maples. Over here near Kalamazoo, a lot of silvers and a few reds are in full bloom.

[michael marrs]

you may have nailed it Phil, went to the woods yesterday, and they are full

[zandstrafarms]

Michael, where are you in mi? I'm 30 min north of grand rapids, we're in upper 20s two nights in a row but so only an inch n or so of sap inour 5 gal pails. Forecasting teens next week so fingers crossed. Everyone around us is outing taps, but our silvers are dropping buds/flowers so hoping it keeps running...

[michael marrs]

I am in the Flint area. if you check out accuweather. after fri., they are predicting above/ and below freezing temps for a couple weeks

[michiganphil]

I'm holding out for the end of this week, to see if we get those cold temps. I tap all sugars, and the buds have not even started to swell yet. If the cold comes back, so should the sap! If you tap soft maples, keep watching for buddy sap.

[Sue @ Battel's Sugar Bush]

We're in the Thumb and we're back in business again as of Sunday.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[michiganphil]

We're in the Thumb and we're back in business again as of Sunday.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It started to run for me Sunday as well. No record breaking numbers, but it's better than nothing.

[Sue @ Battel's Sugar Bush]

Exactly. We were at 1/3 production until this week and have customers clamoring for syrup so anything more we can get is great as long as it remains good quality.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Forrest hunters]

I have heard that the buds and flowers do not mean its over its just a timing thing for some trees that people look for when it does go bad. Some even speculate that maybe the warm weather warms the sap in the trees too much and makes it go bad. I wonder even in the trees flower and we get a good cold snap that maybe the trees will produce good sap again. We are having a cold snap here this week and hope to try some sap tonight when I get home.

Thoughts?

[Tweegs]

This close to the end of the season we drain our pans at the end of a boil and finish elsewhere.
Each new batch of sap gets a test boil, meaning we’ll take a cup of sap and boil it on the stove.
Smell the steam, taste the syrup. If everything is OK we’ll run it, else we dump it.
No sense wasting time or wood.

[zandstrafarms]

Same here.

Looks like our last week. I had a small run over the weekend while I was out of town, must have gotten warm enough one day as most of the buckets were spoiled.

Since it looks like a few more good heavy days for us, im doing a dump and scrub of all 150 buckets! Totally sucks, huge time killer but hopefully I'll get some great sap!

Sugar content has been averaging 1.5 to 2%, regardless of silver or sugar.

Done 5 batches to date and each has slight flavor variation but color is all identical! Very dark amber..

[saphound]

I think the next week is the last chance here too. This weather has just not wanted to cooperate..too warm,too cold, too warm, too cold. There are a couple days in the 5 day forecast that should be good, but I suspect my tapholes are about dried up and certainly not going to drill new ones at this point. Sugars aren't really that budded here yet, so maybe a chance. Supposed to warm up tomorrow to the low 40's after 2 days of below freezing. Sure would like one more boil... we'll see what happens.