Finding more taps to expand

[Guest]

Hi guys.


Just curious what experiences you guys have had locating more maple trees to tap off your premises? I will max out my sugar bush at about 250 taps on my property...maybe 350. I'd like to find a few places where I could add another 500 (or maybe 1000) down the road and am trying to estimate all of my equipment needs etc....that I can pretty much figure out.

Now I am sure it varies by location(I am in western mass), but in general, is there still decent areas to be tapped in quantity? How does one go about finding it? Do sugar bushes tend to get handed down the generations, or might it be common for every few years someone to go out of business and have a bunch of trees come avaialble? So many questions....any advice or opinions appreciated.

(Lastly, how much would you normally offer to pay(money or syrup) someone per tap in order to tap on their property?)

[mapleman3]

Hi Guest, whereabouts in weastern Ma. I'm in Belchertown, I do about 150 taps on buckets all along the roadsides, that along with 200 on pipeline, folks round here just like to get some syrup for letting me tap their trees...

[mapleman9000]

The way that I find a sugar bush is to drive around the country side right after the season is over. The trees have started to bud, and when they are open, they have a bright yellow color. When you see a lot of yellow on a hillside, it probably has a lot of maples. This will not help you find existing sugar bushes, but if you want to make your own, you know where to look.

Gerry

[saphead]

Hi guest. It depends a lot on where you live,unfortunately a lot of people are mis informed about tappng or have had bad experiences with having a tap happy sugarer overtap their trees in the past. I agree with Mapleman ,some will let you do it for syrup,for free or will work out a lease if it's a big bush. Up here in Colrain there's thousands upon thousands of untapped trees but getting to them or finding out who owns them is very difficult. There is one entire ridge about 6 miles long covered with maples but no sugar in the sap,starts out @1/2 % and goes down from there, many have tried it over the years and regretted it. Before you sink $ into a bush, check the sugar content, very important without an RO. Pick a name for yourself and register. Where you at?

[Salmoneye]

I am in the other boat...

I have too many to do myself...I will eventually top out at about 300 here, but my Father-In-Laws place is all set with 350 existing taps and lines and will be mine next season as the old gent that boils it now is 'retiring'...Then there are a couple hundred roadside trees I could tap within a mile or so of the house, and then there is a virgin mature bush at my Mom's place that would easily support 500 taps eventually...

I need a bigger shack, a 500 gallon tanker truck, a WAY bigger evaporator, and...

[guest]

OK, whats an RO? and what would I use to test sugar content of the sap?

I am in Goshen, btw.

I will sign up soon...this is one of the few sites I visit that doesn't require registering, so of course, I haven't...yet.

[Guest]

OK, now that I think about it for a minute, RO probably means refractometer...should have picked that up quicker...anyway, never have used one before....is there any way to test sugar content out of season? or does it need to be done while the sap is running...sure would be nice to be able to go out in the summer or fall and test trees when I am not so busy with other chores...

[mapleman3]

Actually an RO is Reverse Osmosis.. it's a big pressurized set of filters that seperate the sugar from the water, well not all of it baut the sap goes in at let say 2% and comes out at 6-8 or more % which in turn helps you to boil a lot less time to make a gallon. a refractometer is an easy way to test sap at the tree... the ro is big bucks and so is a refractometer.... the best thing to do is just tap some trees boil on something and start the whole learning process... it will either kill the want of doing it or it will bite you hard and the want to do it will grow and grow each year....it's alot of fun yet sometimes very frustrating like when the weather doesn't give you temps for sappin or something breaks... this site will show you all the ins and outs the god bad and the ugly part of it..... Me...I love it!!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Guest,

RO stands for a reverse osmosis. As far as testing trees out of season, you can usually test them in the winter or late fall probably, but you would need a Refractometer for it.

All the trees I tap are owned by someone else, so I give syrup in exchange for tapping the trees. There is not hardly anyone down here who makes syrup, so 90% of people don't even know what real maple syrup is.