Mid 60s for a week! Ugh....

[katmike]

I tapped all my trees on Feb 11, barely a week ago. Forecast at that time was ideal looking a month ahead.

Now I've had 1 good run, the weather changes and a huge warm-up. My trees will likely be exposed to 60s from about the 16th through next Friday (24th).

What can I realistically expect AFTER the seasonal weather returns? No freeze in the forecast until the 24th.

I hoping for positive results... can some old-timers at least lie to me and tell me it's not over :/

I do have more taps on 3/16 gravity which I hope will save me. Also, all the buckets are on at least 2 foot drop lines but I fear no sap column will just open them up to the atmosphere. I've never cleaned out a collection tank mid-season but I guess I might as well. I will also collect the buckets and clean out so they don't turn into petri dishes.

[maple maniac65]

It ain't over until the grass is green and the black flies are out.

[bigschuss]

I hoping for positive results... can some old-timers at least lie to me and tell me it's not over :/

I

Well, I'm not an old-timer...but I highly doubt that it's already over anywhere in the country.

[motowbrowne]

Having your tapholes exposed isn't ideal, but as you know, there isn't anything you can do about it. If we get back to good syrup weather you'll have more sap, I'm sure.

Often it's tough to hold back, and I did the same exact thing last year with half my taps. I got excited when the forecast showed really nice temps for a few days at the end of February and put 150 buckets out. I ended up getting cold feet on the rest of the taps because the forecast looked very cold then very hot. So, long story short, come March 18th, half my taps were brand new and half my taps had been exposed to 8 days of cold weather and 10 days above freezing. Those taps had given maybe 3 gallons of sap per tap early on then ran okay for a couple weeks. At that point, they really started drying off. By the first few days of April the weather still looked like there was a lot of the season ahead of us, but half my taps were dead. So, moral of the story is it's tough to know when to tap. It's easy to jump in too early with buckets and end up with dry taps at a bad time.

[John c]

I am fortunate enough to have a good sized stand of maples and as a small time syrup maker (30 taps) I just move my taps (clean ones of course) to the next tree once they show signs of drying up. I generally do that 3 - 4 times each year. It seems to work well for me.