How many taps can you put on 5/16 without mainline.

[woodey24]

This is our 2nd year making syrup and we are hoping to run some tubing this year. Our first question is how many taps can you run when using 5/16 as technically kinda the mainline. Second question is how high do you can you start your furthest tap away from the collection point? We don't have a lot of slope. Thanks for the help.

[mspina14]

I have about 80 taps, all connected to 5/16 tubing. If you don't have slope like me, you'll need a vacuum pump.

I run the tubing from tree to tree and use rope and wire connected to fittings to keep it tight (see photo below). The furthest tap from the pump should be the highest. I have mine about 8 feet off the ground. As the tubing gets closer to the pump, just make sure the line has a slight downhill slope if you can. My last tap closest to the pump is about 18 inches off the ground.

15358

You can read many posts on this forum about different vacuum pumps. The most common on 5/16 tubing are diaphragm pumps like Shurflo or Sap guzzler. I use something that's called a LunchBox pump/releaser.

Mark

[maple flats]

Whatever slope there is will determine how many, no slope, just 5-8, big slope, a whole bunch of taps can be one it. Back before I had vacuum I had 1 section where I actually tapped a low spot off an extension ladder, the last 3 taps were about 10-12' off the ground. While that was certainly not ideal, I did get some sap from those 3 taps (2 trees). I think that line doing it that way had 7 taps and ended up entering the mainline with about a 1'5 slope on that lateral.

[McAllister farm]

This is our 2nd year making syrup and we are hoping to run some tubing this year. Our first question is how many taps can you run when using 5/16 as technically kinda the mainline. Second question is how high do you can you start your furthest tap away from the collection point? We don't have a lot of slope. Thanks for the help.

I wouldn't recommend no more then 20 taps per run!