Niter

[maple flats]

This season seems to show a rather different niter. I can only recall 1 other season with similar niter, about 10-11 yrs. ago. I have only had very loose, silty niter all year, nothing has hardened on the bottom. All I need to do is drain the front pan thru a pre filter and then pump it back into the pan. Have not had to clean the pan every day like most seasons.
Anyone else having the same type of niter?

[SeanD]

Niter caught my attention this year as well and I've wondered what it reflects about the trees. When I was getting a lot of Golden, the niter was very minimal and light which I guess is more about the reduced amount of time on the fire. I didn't notice if it was silty, but it did clean up very quickly out of the pan. Most of it came out with a rinse.

Then as the season progressed and the grades darkened, the niter in the filter was a thin sticky layer the color of dark chocolate. It wasn't a lot in each filter, but it was so sticky and thin, it clogged my filters faster. It was hard to even wash out of the filter.

Late in the season the grade flipped back to Amber and I got the stuff I'm used to - a tan/grey pudding-like mass that washes out cleanly in clumps.

I'm sure it means something about the trees, but I have no idea what.

Sean

[maple flats]

I'm talking only about the front pan. Most years I need to clean the front pan daily and it is a hard scale on the bottom of the pan, this year it has not scaled even once (yet).

[BAP]

I have had a lot of nitre this year and cleaned the syrup pan a lot, and have had a good year. In the past 40 years of sugaring, we usually noticed that if there was a lot of nitre it was going to be a good production year.