Early tapping this season?

[mantispid]

I'm wondering if the season is going to be really early this year... I think this is the first year I've seen flow cycling temps forecast for mid-January... Makes me wonder what February will be like... Hopefully things won't warm way up too soon like last year. Ugh, eccentric Michigan weather.

[PamZ]

I was just reading the Almanac today, seeing more rain/warmer weather in February. I'm going to try tapping between 2/14- 2/21. It's my 3rd year, and last year was so screwy, I don't want to miss another short run.

[mantispid]

Weather report looks like a lot of flow days in mid-January! That's really early... but, I may go ahead and start tapping if the extended forecast doesn't show a dip in temps again.

[woodey24]

I was looking at end of next week's forecast, for southern mi. If there isn't a drop in Temps forecasted for s while after that I may tap some for sure. This is our 2nd year, last year I think we tapped mid Feb and glad we did then.

[Tapline]

After seeing the 15 day forcast I was thinking about tapping next week if I can get my sugar shack put back together. I am putting in a new /used evaporator and a new storage tank.

[austin357]

Put 3 taps in my " indicator" tree today at 430 and all were dripping now this tree is in my brothers wide open yard have not taped any of my woods trees but I'm thinking very soon I will be

[Tweegs]

January thaw folks, happens every year.
Great time to get everything cleaned up and ready, but when it comes to actually tapping…not so much.

Here’s a little experiment you can run regarding that 15 day forecast:
Make a nice little spreadsheet, keep it neat.

Today, write down the predicted temperatures for the next 15 days and record today’s actual high.
Do the same thing tomorrow, and the next day, and the next…all the way through the season, if you like.

The goal is to see how close to right the weather guessers are to the actual temps, say on Jan 27th (if starting today) from 15 days out, 14 days out, 13 days….and so on.

Shouldn’t take more than a couple weeks to realize that sticking a wetted finger in the air, throwing darts, etc. will yield about the same degree of accuracy as that 15 day forecast.

From my experience, they only had a 50/50 shot at tomorrow being within 5 degrees of what they predicted today.
But you needn’t take my word for it.

[DrTimPerkins]

January thaw folks, happens every year.

Yes, that is pretty much the case.


Make a nice little spreadsheet, keep it neat....The goal is to see how close to right the weather guessers are to the actual temps, say on Jan 27th (if starting today) from 15 days out, 14 days out, 13 days….and so on.

Go to http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/ Under the "Recent Publications" column on the right side of the page, click on the "Long-Range Weather" link.


From my experience, they only had a 50/50 shot at tomorrow being within 5 degrees of what they predicted today.

Spot on. Not the forecasters fault....long-term weather is fairly....unpredictable. Since us folks in the maple business are dependent upon temperatures being just a couple of degrees above or below freezing, and because there are slight microclimate variations, it is very difficult to predict....even a day or two ahead, whether the sap will run.

[wishlist]

Couldn't agree more with Tweegs and the good Dr Tim . January thaw so be patient !

[Leadft]

Always get the blood pumping for sure !!!!!

[maplemas]

How early can you tap if using cv spouts ?

[Wanabe1972]

I have never tapped before the 2 to 3 week of Feb and don't intend to this year. I did however seem to catch a bit of the bug after seeing a few people tap. I put a tap in a sugur maple in the yard this morning just as a test and ended up with a fair amount of sap. Just for giggles I checked the sugar content and it was .5 on my refractometer. I thought the thing needed to be calibrated so I grabbeb my hydrometer and cup and confirmed .5 to .6 . is this normal for early tapping or
a sign of the season to come?

[austin357]

I always get the bug and tap one tree in January at the first sign of a warm up just for fun and it seems to me the sap tastes sweeter early on just my taste buds tho no refractomitor to be sure

[kipegan]

I'm running an experiment this year in the suburbs of Detroit.i started tapping 35 of my my trees on December 25 th. I have 300 maples on 6 acres with a swamp on the southwest part of my land and a lake in the southeast part. There is a hill with a 45 foot elevation change from the lake up to the "plateau" up top. the trees by the lake and the swamp are putting out 2-4 gallons per day at 1% sugar when temperatures rise above 45 degrees. I m allowing the sap to freeze each night for 2 nights and discarding the ice each morning. Sugar content after two freeze cycles is 5 %.

Needless to say boiling is s joy at 5%.

Couple of unique circumstances I think the lake and swamp are keeping the roots moist and warm which is helping and most of these trees are 100 year old monsters with enormous canopies

[Lethalbowman]

15055
I will be watching this January thaw closely to see just what the weather is actually going to do. As the picture shows I do have plenty of wood cut and stacked and ready to use this year. Spent part of this beautiful sunny day cleaning up my storage tanks and getting ready just in case. Need to visit my local sugaring supply dealer and stock up on bottles and bags so I am ready when the real season does start.

Dan W.

[Four D Acre Farms]

heard of a producer in northern Indiana that was tapped and gathered 4000+ gal of sap. not sure how many taps he has in or what percent sap is but with the weather forcast I am hearing in southern mi I cant say I would blame you for getting itchy tap drilling finger. expecially after last season you guys had:cry: The only for sure thing we have in Michigan sap season is at the end of april we will know how our season went. Hope You all have a good season when ever you decide to start drilling.

[woodey24]

One more week then it shows the Temps going back down. Gonna get supplies ready but gonna hold off now as far as tapping goes.

[Michigan Maples]

One more week then it shows the Temps going back down. Gonna get supplies ready but gonna hold off now as far as tapping goes.

Same here.......I was envious of the tappers that pulled out so much sap in the early warm up last year, but we'll wait. We still had a great season, and besides, I'm just this week pulling out all the supplies and getting organized. :cool:

[woodey24]

Last year we hit the early season and our taps dried up but still a good year. I didn't see a whole bunch diving in for the warm up or I may have jumped on the band wagon. Do you tap the walnut trees at the same time? We are looking at giving that a go this year.