Winter, WI

[OCHTO]

So what to do? Long range forecast shows a few good days coming. Too early? Thinking of tapping tomorrow. Or I can wait. With the collective insight of everyone in my area we should come up with the correct answer.

[Maple Man 85]

I'm doing half and half. Tapped half today and the other half in a week weather pending. Tapping today every hole I drilled leaked...

[Brad W Wi]

I tapped 125 on Sunday, going to put out that many today (Monday) maybe a few more. Oddest year I've done so far. I've been following everyone on here and I think it's a crap shoot. To this year we always tap around the 10th of March. Talked to one person that's on here a lot and he said " he would sure hate to be wrong and miss things by waiting".

[motowbrowne]

I'm tapping now but only because they're on vacuum with new taps. I wouldn't even think about buckets for a couple weeks.

[markcasper]

I'm heading out to tap NOW! Didn't make it yesterday....just got off my weekend 12's, asked for an extra day off next week, don't know if that'll happen. Will take me all week to tap. Looked at an old diary from the year 2000 and it was basically over by the 23rd of March and the frogs were heard on the 23rd that year. The ba@%&*!s changed the forecast again. This whole last 3 weeks has been trending warmer than what they have originally forecasted.

[danielschauder]

We took our chances and tapped 250 on bags on Feb 17th. Made 3 gallons of finished syrup Feb 20th. Our bags right now are about 1/2 full so it has been running a little bit. We are tapping another 250 on bags this week. It maybe be early but I would hate to miss anything. We are also fortunate enough to have more trees then time so if we have to move and re tap cause the first 250 dry up, we can do that.

[OCHTO]

I'm going to tap. Today and tomorrow look good then again this weekend. If you can put any stock in the long range forecast next week looks cold but the next week is too warm. I hope I land in the middle of this season. I'll give the long range forecast about a 60 % reliability. Good Luck everyone!

[sticky face]

Any sap run Monday in the winter area, or today for that matter?

[Austin351]

nothing to speak of on the bags, not much more on the vacuum.... tomorrow through Friday should be very good. (then shut down for the weekend and start up again Tuesday of the week)....

[mike z]

Same for just north of Tony on buckets. Not much flow for over a week now.

[sticky face]

Thanks a lot for the replies.

[sticky face]

nothing to speak of on the bags, not much more on the vacuum.... tomorrow through Friday should be very good. (then shut down for the weekend and start up again Tuesday of the week)....

Did you put those non producers on new trees last weekend? We tapped 40 more new trees (hard maples) on buckets Saturday. It will be interesting to compare new to old taps.

[mike z]

Yes, please keep us posted on the new taps vs, the older ones. I fear that mine will shut down soon, (tapped 3/11).

[Austin351]

Did you put those non producers on new trees last weekend? We tapped 40 more new trees (hard maples) on buckets Saturday. It will be interesting to compare new to old taps.

I did. We will see today how they do.

Update at 2:08 - Some are doing good, others are just doing ok. I guess every little bit helps. ("little bit" are the key words for this season.... :) )

[Austin351]

Collected about 50 gallons today off my 65ish taps (47? on 3/16 mechanical vacuum and the rest on bags). Lines were going good from 9:00am but have slowed a bit. Not supposed to get below freezing tonight so left the pump on and will see if some keep flowing overnight. Weekend will be used for boiling down whatever I have since it looks too cold for anything to flow. All new week looks very good.

[mike z]

I collected a little over a gal. per tap today. Most were running good. I could tell a few of the better runners have slowed down quite a bit though. Those were trees in the open and on south side. I hope the others can keep chugging along late into next week.

[motowbrowne]

Glad to hear that they're not dried up Mike!

[sticky face]

Yes, please keep us posted on the new taps vs, the older ones. I fear that mine will shut down soon, (tapped 3/11).

Trees were dripping good on wed. 4-11, so I kept track of gallons for comparison. All containers were empty on 4-7 and collected by evening on 4-11. 80 bags tapped on 3-10 with 2 year old 7/16 taps produced 54 gallons. 40 pails on new 5/16 taps tapped on 4-7 produced 47 gallons. It should be noted that of those 80 from 3-10, some still have not produced more than a cup of sap. No rodent damage to bags this time. New pails out produced old bags, but new taps always seem to run hard on their first run. Another interesting thing was a tree with 2 pails, north side pail had 4 gallons south side pail had 1/2 gallon.

[Austin351]

According to the 10 day forecast on Weather.com, we got about 9 days left in the season.... Syrup wise, I am sitting now where I was at the end of the season last year. I can't say this was a good year but last year for me was horrific...

[sticky face]

Lets hope the overnight lows for next week are lower than the forecast, or it could be a deal breaker.

[sticky face]

How much snow did winter get Saturday and Sunday?

[Austin351]

How much snow did winter get Saturday and Sunday?

Hard to tell since there was wind but, I would guess 12".

[mike z]

I'm at just over a half a crop based on 0.25 gal./tap. I expect (hope), to get a few more runs this week.

[OCHTO]

Well I'm going to try to get to the sugar bush this afternoon. Austin I hope your 12 inches of snow is close. My land is at the end of a mile long dead end. I will put chains on. Hope to get two boils this week then looks like pulling taps Sunday. The good thing though is I work construction and the building season is postponed. Broke but happier trying to make syrup on snowshoes and small runs.

[Austin351]

The snow really settled down today with the warmer temps. I do have the pump running today, nothing great but am getting some sap. I too figure / hope for 2 more boils and then guessing that will be about the end.

[Austin351]

Sap was running later Tuesday afternoon and then most of today. It was a pleasant surprise, didn't figure much with clouds and barely pushing 40 degrees. Thurs-Sunday "should" go like mad. I'm ready for it, assuming my wood supply holds up.

Talked with Brad W today. We both have high hopes for the coming days but figure this will be about the end of it. Another crazy year..

OCHTO - If you are around this weekend, perhaps I can find some time to stop by and see your operation. Or, if you want to come to mine, no problem.

[OCHTO]

Austin, Just got back from the cabin. Thursday was nuts. Don't have enough wood left to do another big boil. Boiled Thur., Fri., and Sat. Way to end the season with a bang. If I had internet at the cabin maybe we could have got together. One of these days.

[sticky face]

Anyone with any news on sap flow in the winter area so far for 2019. We tapped 80 at the cabin on Sunday,
but then we came home. Most holes were wet when drilled.

[Austin351]

Tapped 74 on Monday and then another 14 yesterday (all 3/16" tubing), checked around noon today, maybe 30 gallons... Don't think it got below freezing last night and is 36 degrees right now.

[sticky face]

Thanks for the quick reply, Austin351. Do you have good sun exposure and do you have hard or soft maple? Do you have enough slope to get decent vacuum on your 3/16?

[Austin351]

Thanks for the quick reply, Austin351. Do you have good sun exposure and do you have hard or soft maple? Do you have enough slope to get decent vacuum on your 3/16?

Good sun on about 30 of those taps, they are all hard maple. Slope is decent for 3/16" (guessing 25' from highest taps to collection). I haven't stuck a gauge on any of the lines yet but will before the weekend is over. Around half of those 88 were wet when tapping, the larger trees weren't warmed up enough to give much, if any at all.

[Austin351]

Tapped 44 of the soft maples today, not a drop...

[Austin351]

Tapped 44 of the soft maples today, not a drop...

Soft maples started up today, although only 1.0% for sugar... I have another 25 bags to put up, hopefully will do it Monday.

I had 88 sugar maples only doing 1.0 - 1.2% earlier in the week. hated to dump 75 gallons on the ground but wasn't going to boil it that low. The good news is that those lines are 1.4 - 2.0% sugar now and hopefully they go even higher. I have never had sugar content in the sap this low, doesn't matter if they are hard or soft maples.....

[sticky face]

We collected 33 gallons from our 80 taps on Saturday afternoon. Taps were put in last Sunday, so this was the first collection this year. Sugar was 2.1%--so nothing to brag about. It ran hard for awhile on Saturday afternoon, but by dark nothing over 2" in 5 gallon pails.
I don't know how Sunday or today was because we came home Sunday morning.

[OCHTO]

Bought a new sap hydrometer and it said I had 60 gal. of 3.4 sap in my tank. Never had that high. Hope the hydrometer is accurate. But I did get 2 gal. of very metabolic syrup. Hope it clears up. It was the worse ever. Good luck.

[Austin351]

I learned after dumping 75 gallons a week ago that my sap hydrometer was reading at least .75 low. I also was reminded you can check a hydrometer in a cup full of water, it should float at 0%

Looks like a week of good weather, after today's freeze up. After that, it looks a little warm.....

[OCHTO]

For the others in the Winter area, how is your syrup tasting? Boiled again on the 30th and made metabolic syrup again. Took it to 240 degrees two times to get that flavor out and the syrup was sweet but lacked any maple flavor. so far worst season ever. I think it would be better to not get any sap than to put so much effort into bad syrup. But I will keep trying. I am still hoping the flavor improves.

[shedhunter]

Made 4.5 gallons of nice amber colored syrup on about 160 gallons of sap from 60 taps. Tapped 40 on the 17th and the rest on the 23rd. Sap has been pretty slow overall, but still quite a bit of snow in the woods. Flavor seems to be pretty similar to other years. Hopefully things pick up towards the end of the week.

[sticky face]

For the others in the Winter area, how is your syrup tasting? Boiled again on the 30th and made metabolic syrup again. Took it to 240 degrees two times to get that flavor out and the syrup was sweet but lacked any maple flavor. so far worst season ever. I think it would be better to not get any sap than to put so much effort into bad syrup. But I will keep trying. I am still hoping the flavor improves. We boiled 1 batch from 120 gallons of sap and 1 small batch from 40 gallons of sap(Fridays run). The 120 gallon batch was extremely sweet, smokey, dark had sediment that looked like molasses, and it tasted good but almost chocolate flavored. The 40 gallon batch was good/normal. I am not sure what you are tasting. I had a couple of early runs from up there last year, that had an unexplained musty flavor, that I thought may me metabolic. Rileys from Eden Prairie MN. posted on here that they had some metabolism this weekend too. Did you add distilled water then after taking up to 240? Good luck I hope it turns around for you.

[Austin351]

Looks like I will pull taps on Tuesday. I have 225 gal to boil and expect another 300 by then so that will take care of my wood supply. Should finish the season with a little over 35 gallons of syrup.

Bought a Smokey Lake 2x6 w/ forced air over the summer so that took some time figure out the basics. Going from 12 gph to around 40 gph really changes the game. Sugar content has been pretty good this year so have been able to draw off a little over a gallon an hour. Added a 100 gallon head tank and also set the temporary shack (should be building a new 15x30 this summer) up on a piping system to where I don't have to carry any sap. Everything is moved to collection tanks, storage, head tank, evaporator, via tubing or pipes with transfer pumps.

All taps are on 3/16" tubing. 88 on natural vac and 44 on a Shurflo. (I did purchase 500 gallons of sap from a nearby bush that was getting low on wood).

[OCHTO]

How much snow have you gotten so far? You're having a good season. Mine hasn't been so good. Only 5 gal. so far. Want to get back up there Saturday but that depends on the snow.. My season could be over. I wonder how Brad is doing. Good luck in the snow!

[Austin351]

How much snow have you gotten so far? You're having a good season. Mine hasn't been so good. Only 5 gal. so far. Want to get back up there Saturday but that depends on the snow.. My season could be over. I wonder how Brad is doing. Good luck in the snow!

Maybe 1.5" of snow. I stopped by Brad's a couple days ago, thought he said he had bottled around 40 gallons.

[Austin351]

All done collecting sap for the season. Still have 250 gal to boil but should get right at 40 gallons of syrup for the season. Lowest sap sugar was from yesterday at 2.5%, otherwise 2.8%-3.0% was typical. I did have a 4 gallon batch of syrup that had an off flavor to it, not sure how that happened.