anyone getting sap

[chuckwagon]

Just wondering if anyone is getting sap,thought I might get more this weekend but not a drop,it's been in the twenties at night 35-40 during day,reds have bud out but sugars haven't yet,does no sap mean my season is over or could it still run.

[woodey24]

I have had issues with my taps drying up. Last weekend I moved some taps to new trees and sap was coming out of them. Newbie here so not sure if that's what happens or not.

[Tickle]

i went out today and most of my old taps were dry and some had a little sao in buckets ,i tapped some trees that i had not tapped this year and they were practically gushing sap out , now i hope the sap is still good , i will boil a small batch on the stove to make sure its still good before i go to the trouble of collecting and boiling it all , keeping my fingers crossed

[chuckwagon]

Thanks and good luck,I don't think I'll tap new trees this late,I'll just leave the taps I have in,supposed to get near 50 tuesday if that doesn't do it I guess I'll call it quits for the year.

[thackerymaple]

I just went out and collected 20 gallon off from 25 taps, 10 of the taps are not running, I believe they dried up, put the 20 in the evaporator to heat it up hopefully get another 20 to 30 tomorrow then Im done. Ended up with about 8 gallon about half of what we got last year. Ready to clean up and get the mowers serviced

[crawflyer]

Against my better judgement, I put in 100 taps in fresh trees last Thursday. With the temps in the 20's at night and mid to upper 30's in the day since then, I'm getting the clearest sap I've gotten all season, around 2.2% Made 5 gallons of the lightest syrup I've made all season. Great, somewhat mild flavor still... but I don't think my trees will be able to handle another warm spell. As we were boiling tonight we wondered if we were the only one's still at it in NW Pa? Strange year for sure.

[doocat]

we made about 30 gals today but syrup had a off taste. We are right up north of you. Think we are done. Don't like making junk....

[saphound]

Just wondering if anyone is getting sap,thought I might get more this weekend but not a drop,it's been in the twenties at night 35-40 during day,reds have bud out but sugars haven't yet,does no sap mean my season is over or could it still run.
My temps have been like your but getting very little sap. I was blaming it on the 40 degree highs not being quite warm enough to get things going, but after reading this thread, now I'm not sure. My taps have only been in for four weeks now..shouldn't be drying up yet, but it's possible I spose. *Usually* mine run best when it hits 50 or more after a mid 20's night. That should happen tomorrow...we'll see.

[crawflyer]

we made about 30 gals today but syrup had a off taste. We are right up north of you. Think we are done. Don't like making junk....

we were certain the syrup from this last tapping would be off. tasting every draw now...my teeth hurt. the wife will get this stuff for cooking anyhow, not going to chance that my taste buds are whacko.

[Cedar Eater]

I'm finally getting plenty of sap. If this keeps up I'll be pretty happy despite the low sugar percentage. My 16 tap sapline filled a 48 qt. cooler between the time when the line thawed around noon and the the time if froze again at 9 pm. My other three saplines are performing equally well. My jugs on droplines are still not doing very well. Some are doing okay, but most still seem frozen.

[chuckwagon]

I guess I'll see today supposed to be near 50

[doocat]

We are just north of you. sugar went up and cleared so we decided today to continue

[jasminesugardaddy]

lots of sap in some of my buckets yesterday

[cfenton86]

Tanks are filling up today! Weather forecast looks like syrup season will continue for a while yet!!! That warm spell almost made for an extremely short season

[billyinvt]

I thought it was too cold and windy to run yesterday, but it really flowed! Froze up last night and should be running again today. Can't wait to get home and check.

[chuckwagon]

Have to go check my buckets,crossing fingers

[michael marrs]

somebody had told me, that holes tend to start healing the minute you tap them. After the warm up, some of taps completely shut down. Today, while collecting sap, I re drilled , ( with a smaller drill), another 1/4 in. deeper and they turned on again. I was almost done, when this occurred, so tomorrow, I may do the other dry taps as well

[chuckwagon]

Mine must of stopped,I'm done for the year,not going to Re drill but thanks for the info.

[saphound]

somebody had told me, that holes tend to start healing the minute you tap them. After the warm up, some of taps completely shut down. Today, while collecting sap, I re drilled , ( with a smaller drill), another 1/4 in. deeper and they turned on again. I was almost done, when this occurred, so tomorrow, I may do the other dry taps as well

Hey Mike..I did the same thing today. Just made a post about it before reading this. I'm wondering why you used a smaller bit tho, I used the same size bit. BTW, it worked real well, Chuck..you might want to reconsider.

[chuckwagon]

Maybe I will go out now and try it,what the heck.

[chuckwagon]

Started dripping immediately

[Eds Constructors]

You can tell your hooked when you pull your taps, thinking and accepting the seasons over, surpassing your goal even, cleaning and mostly putting away things, only to get it all back out to get a few more quarts of syrup.lol I've done all this, collected about 10 gal since yesterday on 5taps. Most of all tap holes pulled seem to be flowing real well. Lack of cold storage made me stop collecting untill someone on here suggested using your pond (if you have one) Thanks for the suggestions, water temp is 42 that should work for a little while. Best of luck to you all, again.

[maple flats]

The sap ran the best today it has all season. However my season has been real low production. It look like it will run all night and tomorrow too. It started today, slow at 10:00 but it picked up good about noon. Finally! By the way, my taps have been in since 1/20 and they are running nicely on 3/22. The forecast looks like it may be good sap weather for another week at least. The Reds were taken off over 2 weeks ago but the sugars still have tight buds.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap's running good here too. Drained the muck out of the flue pan, put on my spare front pan and resweetened. Making golden syrup that looks more like water. No off flavors or aftertaste.

[saphound]

Excellent!..you guys are lucky. Our forecast went from good to bad from 2 days ago. Not "supposed" to dip below freezing now until the weekend...unless it changes again. Sap might run here all night tho..still drippin at 10:00.

[325abn]

Got about 180 gallons of nice clear 1.5% ,still running strong right now.

[Jim Coleman]

Best run of the season here in Strabane Not. (45 min north of Niagara Falls). Started slow on Monday and yesterday took of to two drips to a heart beat. I have filled all my coolers leaving some ice in to keep it cool. A rainy windy typical March day but it is beautiful boiling in the sugar house. I thought I was done at one point but a bumper flow last night and today, I am thankful.

Jim

[chuckwagon]

Not looking good,Re drilled last night started dripping lots thought I would have full buckets when I got home from work today only got about a gallon from 3 taps,I'll just leave them in and see what happens.hey sap hound are yours running good,I'm asking because I know your just a little north from me.

[saphound]

Hi Chuckwagon, Mine ran all night..got probably 1 gal+ per tree since I re-drilled around 2 yesterday. They did gradually slow down over night tho..and really slow right now. Maybe a drip every 3 secs or so. I blame that more on the temps than anything else. It was 50 degrees here when I got up around 5 this AM. Pretty normal for them to slow down if they can't recharge. Still, I got about 12 gals I wouldn't have without redrilling. If you're using 5 gallon buckets, that would be a lot to expect for them to be full. That takes an exceptional run. What was your low temp down there?

[chuckwagon]

I think it was 44 at 6 am not sure how accurate thermometer is,guess I just had a lot of hopeful thinking after i seen it dripping pretty good last night,looks even warmer tomorrow

[saphound]

I here ya..the weather just won't cooperate. Too cold for a week, a day or two good, too warm for a week, a day or two good..repeat, repeat. What ever happened to normal!

[chuckwagon]

I don't know,this is my first year tapping,I never really paid much attention to Temps like I did this year,I used to by cold,not to bad,warm and hot ,it's amazing how this got me to really pay attention to the weather.ill just leave taps in for now,looks like some cold weather coming next week which might change by then,not sure if trees will bud out by then guess we'll have to wait and see.

[saphound]

I know what you mean. Never thought I'd complain about warm weather EVER, until I started making syrup. It's a hard adjustment for sure. Looking around my woods today I'm seeing the reds start to pop..sugar maple buds still tight so there's still hope but gettin down to the nitty gritty.

[chuckwagon]

My reds are done sugars are also close,I leave taps in until next week and see what happens

[tmessier79]

Just got some snow last night in northern Vermont. I'm up on the mountain, so I'm finally just breaking open. It's freezing today and forecasted for 45 tomorrow, so I'm guessing it will be a good run.

[chuckwagon]

Lucky you,they're calling for some below freezing Temps here Friday night hope that will get them running before buds pop.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm still getting sap here. The buds haven't popped yet but the reds are close. The reds are probably going to bud this weekend and the sugars are still tight. The sap is coming in pretty clear now after being pretty cloudy last week. It's still making good syrup too.

[relseek]

Saphound, are you still getting good sap/ syrup? My last two runs turned out to be a waste. The first one I was unsure because I was thinking sap may have been siting in the lines too long before a good run because of the weather. So I thru it out after boiling( real bad smell and taste) the second run was boiled the same day as it ran ( clean tanks and pans) and it still turned out very smelly and distasteful.

[saphound]

Hi relseek, yes I am. Just got done boiling the last two days worth...about 25 gals..down to nearup. Sap I wouldn't have got if I hadn't redrilled my taps. I'll finish it tomorrow. I was a little worried cuz it was a wee bit cloudy, but the steam smelled sweet and the nearup tastes good too. I'm noticing the soft maples are really starting to pop..hard maple still pretty tight. There's a couple days coming up where we might get freezing temps, could possibly get a little more but I'm not counting on it.

[Bucket Head]

We are still getting decent amounts of sap here in central NY. A very strange season so far. I can tell you all I've never made so much syrup with the frogs peeping! Usually we are cleaning up by the time you hear the noise from the ponds and swamps!

[woodey24]

I collected about 90 gallons of sap this week. I had moved some taps from trees that had budded (not good enough to know if reds or not). Those produced like I hadn't seen all season. Keeping it cold till I can cook in a couple days. We have a couple of cold nights coming so hoping to add to it and do one last big cook. Buds still tight here in southern MI.

[Daveg]

Same experience here, reiseek. Collected; it smelled some when it came came to boil and had the classic "dirty gym sock" taste when it got to about 50% sugar.