The fat lady sang!

[maple flats]

Yesterday at the sugarhouse where I have some soft maples, the fat lady sang. The buds on my Reds and Silvers popped. I had to shut off the pump, Now I'm going down in a few minutes to remove the soft maples from the lines, turn the pump on and dump the sap in the system, then resume collecting the sap from my sugar maples. Fortunately, I have about 75% sugars and 25% soft maples there. My other woods is all sugars.

[littleTapper]

I've had good sap for a week after my silver flower buds opened (in 2015). It may not be bad yet. They're open here as well, so I'm hoping they freeze off and sap gets good again. Wish I had sugars (well, I have 2) the rest of my taps are almost all silvers. It sucks that they've opened so early.

[Ghs57]

Dave,

Don't your trees know its only February? Better hang a calendar out there where they can see it.

I'm barely started. Would be a big disappointment if the season started ending this early.

[SDdave]

Alright, I need a few questions answered on this topic. My silvers have flowered. Is the season done? What if there is a hard freeze for a stretch of 3-4 days? Please say it ain't so.

SDdave

[Cedar Eater]

Alright, I need a few questions answered on this topic. My silvers have flowered. Is the season done? What if there is a hard freeze for a stretch of 3-4 days? Please say it ain't so.

SDdave

The season is not necessarily done. Boil some sap down all the way to syrup and taste it. You'll know if it has gone buddy.

[maple flats]

I have never tried to boil the sap once the buds open. When the soft maples bud I just remove them from the system, that takes me about 1 hr. I still have about 750 or so (I'm still getting the exact total is I walk the lines fixing any leaks. This year I started using little hang tags with the count on each lateral, now I'm just recording those to tally) that are sugar maples and they keep me busy. It seems when I was removing the soft maples I realized my % in my original post were off big time. I removed 51 soft and I still have about 750 or so sugars on the lines. I've been doing far better this year fixing leaks which is helping quite a bit.
The buds on my sugars are still real tight and the cold weather to get here on Sunday will set them back in line for a longer season. Locally we had a record high yesterday, not good for maple season. It was super hot boiling yesterday, had to open all the doors and that only helped when I stood just outside.

[DaveB]

I have never tried to boil the sap once the buds open. When the soft maples bud I just remove them from the system, that takes me about 1 hr. I still have about 750 or so (I'm still getting the exact total is I walk the lines fixing any leaks. This year I started using little hang tags with the count on each lateral, now I'm just recording those to tally) that are sugar maples and they keep me busy. It seems when I was removing the soft maples I realized my % in my original post were off big time. I removed 51 soft and I still have about 750 or so sugars on the lines. I've been doing far better this year fixing leaks which is helping quite a bit.
The buds on my sugars are still real tight and the cold weather to get here on Sunday will set them back in line for a longer season. Locally we had a record high yesterday, not good for maple season. It was super hot boiling yesterday, had to open all the doors and that only helped when I stood just outside.

I had a boil like that to me in 2012. It was the end of March and a warm spring to begin with but it didn't help trying to boil in 80° weather. I had to sit outside the sugarhouse and go in to load wood when needed.