sap flow on stormy 36 hours

[ash10383]

I'm trying to wrap my head around the possibility of our sap gathering yesterday: Summary, I'm in NW Ohio and the last couple days weather was
Sunday night froze
Monday was warm (50ish) and was continously warm all night with 1" + rain & thunderstorms
Tuesday was really warm: 57 when we gathered @ 5pm

We just put out taps (50 taps on 47 trees) on Sunday and sap gathered thus far:
30ish gallon Sunday
30ish gallon Monday
Tuesday: 110ish gallon!!!

We have 2 gallon buckets on most trees (w/ droplines to bucket) and most were overflowing, a couple that we had bigger buckets probably had 3 gallon in them. Yes our holes for our droplines is on the top but the hole is just big enough for the dropline and buckets slightly tipped for rain water to run off with out pooling on the lid. I think I've read that low pressure systems make for great sap flow correct, we just didn't expect it to run so heavy 36 hours....

Is it possible that it is all sap? vs rainwater?

[buckeye gold]

You bet it's all sap, cook it. I had a similar run Tuesday, that had many taps run 3 gallon of sap. It was a long day of boiling, but I got it all cooked and bottled. This was a perfect weather scenario for big sap.

[Ed R]

One of the reasons it ran so much better on Tuesday is the frost thawed out finally so the trees could really run. We may have a similar set up this weekend but I think it will run quicker with the frost out, depends how long its really cold. You get surprised sometimes about when it really runs. Some of my best days have been when It just got up to 34 degrees and ran like crazy off of icicles on the taps.

[katmike]

I recall a similar weather setup a few years ago when they were predicting a snowstorm for our area. The trees ran like crazy as the barometer dropped. Maybe that creates a large pressure difference between the inside/outside the tree which helps pull the sap out?

[MISugarDaddy]

A strong low pressure can have nearly the same effect as having your trees on vacuum. Essentially, having vacuum is creating a low pressure condition everyday.
Gary