To Tap..... or Not to Tap, Central Wisconsin 2017

[kennysluck]

That Is the question!
This is my first thread in any kind of forum, so I'll see how it goes.

I am torn since the local weather man is leaning towards mild weather through the rest of the month. Can anyone who is making that decision let all us in the area know what your doing? I pull vacuum to 600 taps and I am almost ready.

[Boycedemery]

I was just debating this issue myself🤔

[SkardaMapleFarms]

Might be a gamble but we are holding off... warm streak is too warm and doesn't look like it'll freeze at night anyhow. If we tapped now I think the only big day we'd miss is Friday. The rest of the week looks to be too warm at night for the sap to flow. If we tap now our taps with sap sacks may dry up too early in the season and what we'd make on Friday we'd miss out later in the season. You might be ok with tuning/vacuum lines. From what I hear they won't dry up as much as open air taps. I'm thinking we will tap in another week or so or until Mother Nature brings us some colder nights after the warm streak.

[markcasper]

I'll chime in here....I have vacuum, use checkvalves and only have about half my lines fixed. My plan last night was to tap these half and get going, and hold off on the rest. With several 50 degree days and a 60 on Monday, I'm leaning now to just say to heck tapping anything yet and just continue getting everything ready. My aim is not to make tons of dark syrup and thats what we're gonna get with 60 degrees. On top of that, I work full time and have no vacation until March. If your on bags, I absolutely would not hang them now. I'm sure it will get cold and being this unrealistically warm this early in February is not going to do any bargains to tapholes people have already drilled.

[Clem3]

I am in the same quandry. I have about 8 3/16 lines up (first time) with drops, but not tapped. I am afraid of the warm weather coming. Night temps above 40 and day temps above 50. The rest will be pails up to a little over 100 taps total. Last year tapped early and got some good runs especially after 5'' of wet snow. Then weather turned warm and everything stopped. Moldy pails and drops so I pulled everything and cleaned up. Then cold snap and everyone said it was running great, but I was done. According to weather forecast are we better off to wait for a while? Just made a new parrallel flow preheater and hood and am anxious to get going. La Crosse County

[Rhino]

Also going to wait to tap. Our local weatherman is leaning toward a cool down the following weekend. Will be beautiful temps to wash every thing though. If weatherman is wrong and warm temps continue like in 2012.... I won't tap like I did in that season. Hard to do but was the right decision.

[ScottP]

I have 600 taps on high vac. and we made the decision to go for it. We will have everything tapped by 10 am on Saturday. I hope we are making the right decision. Good luck

[markcasper]

I have 600 taps on high vac. and we made the decision to go for it. We will have everything tapped by 10 am on Saturday. I hope we are making the right decision. Good luck Will be waiting to here how things turn out. Rhino is right, will be great for washing things up.

[Ranger_Andy]

Its still only the middle of February...we are tapping all our tubing this weekend, but that was planned weeks ago...tapping the buckets in 2 weeks or so...We still have lots of Winter yet to go...

[PloverTown]

My rule of thumb is second Saturday in March, and it hasn't let us down yet. I've seen lots of people chase these early warm ups, only to end up retapping in March after they dried up.

[Clem3]

I tapped a hundred thirty trees yesterday. Only about 1/3 had any sap running. Hope they will all be running by the end of the weekend. 50 on 3/16 lines the rest on pails.

[ScottP]

Will be waiting to here how things turn out. Rhino is right, will be great for washing things up.

We have taken in somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,500 gallons of sap to date. Not awesome but I think we made the right decision. We will have a little over 50 gallons of syrup after its all done. 40 gallons done so far with 450 gallons of sap standing.