CT 2018 Maple Season Discussion

[BSD]

How are you looking for the 2018 season?

I told myself all summer i would build myself a sugar shack... and here we are on the last day of 2017 and i'm wondering if it's a feat i can pull off before our season begins. I really don't want to boil outdoors any more and i need a place to finish product other than my kitchen or my wife might kill me this year.

I'm all set to put out a mile of 3/16 tubing again this year on my borrowed trees on my customers properties. just need to get a few hands together to make it a little more manageable. I'm talking with another client about putting another line together on her and her neighbors property, maybe bring my tap count from 122 to 160-175.

[Stiets]

How are you looking for the 2018 season?

As of right now not to good. Still have to finish up the new oil tank evaporator, order bottles, labels, and a new pump. After not getting the boils rates I should be getting decided to make a new one. Bigger firebox and larger smoke stack with better airflow should help. Don't worry I also said that I will have it made before Thanksgiving, here we are now and not finished. Nothing like a time crunch for motivation.

Going into this season with the mindset of having fun with friends and family while making syrup on the old family farm. Last year had a great start but had a major setback after the second good boil. Had to dump my sweet pan and start again. After that it felt like the season was playing catch up and got burnt out trying to make as much syrup as possible. Going to see what this season brings and have fun doing what only a few lucky people get to this time of year....boil sap!!!

[markgm]

While we have near record cold in the forecast for this weekend, I see the 40s in the forecast for next week. I'm sure things will change by then, but the forecast in Plymouth for the 13th has a high of 43 and a low of -6! Last year I tapped on the 16th, so I'll be watching the weather.

[BSD]

i'm secretly hoping the tree's stay frozen for another 3 weeks. it will take some time for them with the temps we've had as well as the snow cover locking in the frost on the roots. i am no where near ready to go and hate to miss the beginning of the season like i did last year.

[Stiets]

i'm secretly hoping the tree's stay frozen for another 3 weeks..... i am no where near ready to go. Feeling the same way.

[BSD]

I must admit I'm tempted to put some tubing up and run some lines with the forecast, the problem is i'm no where near ready to process. The good news is my sugar shack is supposed to be ready by 2/1. It's going to be a painstaking wait. I'll have to get as much prep work done as possible so i can hit the ground running once i have a roof over my head.

[Helicopter Seeds]

Lost 4 trees, in-laws moved to Jersey. Sugar shack is repaired with stockade fence sides, the tarp got destroyed in sunlight. I am mixed. I have product left from last season, not so good at selling I guess. But I am looking forward to making more anyway. I may just make a lot of nuts and enjoy a snack every day.
I agree with the prep- I have some cleanup first. Not looking forward to that in the cold. My first boil may just be hot water for cleaning.

[BSD]

I got out with a buddy today and flagged some trees at a new property. I'm hoping to pickup another 50-60 taps here. I think we flagged over 80 though, not all easily put onto 3/16 though.
The tree's were running. saw a few wood pecker holes in a tree and it was gushing! the clock is running

17033

[markgm]

Gathered my first sap of the season, got about .57 gallons per tap (30 gallons in total). Brix of the batch was 1.2, which is low for me. A few of the 5 gallon buckets were completely empty, some where filled almost to the top. Running it through the RO now. I was amazed how dark some of the sap was. I probably would have had a few more gallons, but a few of the buckets were less than cooperative during wind and snow melt that left them on uneven ground. Looking at the forecast it seems the next run will be Tuesday and then Friday.

[Woodsrover]

Started stringing lines today. Will finish tomorrow. Plan to hang buckets Saturday morning. With luck we'll be boiling next Sunday? Time will tell....

[Cjadamec]

Just finished setting 51 taps today. I ran two runs, 1000' each, 3/16th tubing with 25 and 26 taps per line. My evaporator is almost done and I'm hoping I have it finished before my storage barrles overflow. This weekend looks like a good run and going forward the long-term forcast is hedging to a warmer than normal February.

[valleyman]

Lookin' good. Best of luck this season!

[killingworthmaple]

I was planning on waiting for Feb. 1st to tap but I don't know if I can hold out after I looked at the 10 day forecast.

[Cjadamec]

Checked this afternoon here on the coast we've been in the upper 30s all day both of my tubing runs had sap in the collection barrles. That's some strong motivation to get the finishing touches done to the evaporator. Nothing like burning the bridges to motivate the troops.

[PJTracy]

Second year into this. Put in 30 taps (check valves) on two 5/16" gravity mainlines yesterday anticipating a decent flow this weekend. Not sure if I'm too early, but it's worth a shot. Still plenty more to put in.

[BSD]

Second year into this. Put in 30 taps (check valves) on two 5/16" gravity mainlines yesterday anticipating a decent flow this weekend. Not sure if I'm too early, but it's worth a shot. Still plenty more to put in.you should be looking good for the weekend run!

[Mike Van]

I plan to start this afternoon, hope to be all tapped tomorrow. 10 day looks good here, beyond that they're just guessing.

[Stiets]

I plan to start this afternoon, hope to be all tapped tomorrow. 10 day looks good here, beyond that they're just guessing.

Happy tapping to ya Mike. Hope you are not affected by the ice dam flooding up your way.

[Woodsrover]

I plan to start this afternoon, hope to be all tapped tomorrow. 10 day looks good here, beyond that they're just guessing.

Ran lines last weekend and will tap tomorrow as well. Should have everything else ready to go by tomorrow afternoon. Look like a promising forecast!

Just up the road from you, Mike. Shout if you ever need an hand with something.

[Mike Van]

I got about 40 taps in this afternoon, about half were running. Not bad considering it was 8F this AM. Looking good through Tuesday, then next weekend as well. Here we go ...........................

[DaveB]

I see some guys are tapping. This year is looking like last year where some tapped in January. I wound up tapping in mid-February like I normally do and I boiled until April. I'm looking at some long range weather models and it looks like the pattern is going to change again in early February so the timing would be good. I plan on having everything ready to go this weekend and then tapping either the 3rd or 10th depending on how things look then. Good luck to everyone!

[BSD]

made some real progress on the new shack. got the roof on, cupola functional, still have to put in 6 more windows and a door and place the arch and cut a hole for the stack... so much to do, at least the weather is too cold and i'm not missing much sap action.

17383

I also remade the bottom of the arch to make a functional insulated ash-pan and AUF blower.
17384

[Cjadamec]

Nice work on the shack and bower box. Gotta be just about ready to fire that up.

Collected another 100+ gallons this weekend even with the animals that keep eating my tubing. The forecast is looking better now that last cold snap is behind us.

[BSD]

A big thanks to Scott D, Luke S and Mike k for helping me get tapped in today. we worked as a team and pulled out 3000' of tubing back through the woods i had setup last year. I have never seen my natural vacuum system pull this
hard on the gauges. 4 out of 5 lines were like this and the last one was at 26"

17522

Bring on the sap!! Will be boiling in a day or two! can't wait

[Cjadamec]

Who else had a huge run this weekend in the rain? I ended up with about 150 gallons from about mid day Saturday thru today.

[markgm]

Who else had a huge run this weekend in the rain? I ended up with about 150 gallons from about mid day Saturday thru today.
How many taps? In Plymouth I managed about a gallon a tap (52 gallons). This week looks like it will be a good one.

[Cjadamec]

50 taps this year all on 3/16 tubing with ideal elevation drops. I have two separate runs of 25 taps each run.

So far for the season I've collected 450 gallons of sap give or take a gallon or two. Tapped Jan 16th I think.

[mspina14]

I collected about 150 gallons in the last 3-4 days.

Boiled most of it yesterday. Only about 1%-1.5% sugar. I guess that's what you get from Red Maples.

Still haven't sweeten the pan yet.

Mark

[BSD]

I pulled in 360 gallons from a 48+ hour run saturday/sun/ into today. got the pan sweetened up and got the first two draws off already. I still have another 100 gal or so to boil tomorrow. got some kinks worked out today and will fiddle with a few things tomorrow or the next day while we wait for the next run.

[Calycanthus]

Collected about 275 gallons. Sugar was running lower than earlier runs.

[valleyman]

Collected about 275 gallons. Sugar was running lower than earlier runs.
Yes, I take the primitive cup the hand and taste the sap method and yesterday I noticed less sugary sap. Ill check with the hydrometer back at the shack. A couple of sugar moths too!

[Cjadamec]

What 25 taps with 90 foot of elevation drop looks like on a heavy day. All gravity.

[BSD]

been a busy few days here. have collected about 700 gallons since last saturday and boiled everything so far. I've been doing a lot of data collection this season to see get a better handle on things.

I now have a wifi enabled device that reads my tank depth via sonar from my main woods and sends information to my server at the house. i get text messages every 10% increase in the tank too. It has been awesome for reducing trips to check on the flow in the woods, it's only 5 minutes away, but it saves tons of time and anxiety. at a glance i can check the level and i can look at the recent history to get an idea how much time i have left until the tank is full and needs to be pumped out.
17641

We also put tank flow monitors in the shack, one to monitor volume going into the head tank (seasonal cumulative). and then i also have a flow rate monitor going into the evaporator. since i don't have an operational float valve. i control it with a ball valve. this gives me a good baseline to monitor real-time evaporation rates. I monitor the flow rates real-time in the sugar house via a tablet.
17642

The next phase is implementing another device to run temperature probes and monitor temp in the pans, it will support up to 5 probes. the end goal is to run an auto-draw off valve, but for now the plan is to have an audible tone to alert that it's time to draw off.

[Mike Van]

Busy here in Kent too, finally after almost 2 weeks off - Hope 70 on Wed. doesn't mess things up - 70, really? Well at least this snow will be gone - The ice finally left the driveways a few days ago, tough to get around on it.

[BSD]

Well, we hit 23 degrees last night, and the woods has been running since 9am. and in 8 hours i've only pulled in 28 gallons off 123 taps. what a dismal day! it is running at 2.25% but still, what a pathetic run for a nice cold night last night.

[Sugar Bear]

Well, we hit 23 degrees last night, and the woods has been running since 9am. and in 8 hours i've only pulled in 28 gallons off 123 taps. what a dismal day! it is running at 2.25% but still, what a pathetic run for a nice cold night last night.

I am surprised at your results. I'm about 10 miles south of you. My six tap run into a 30G barrel ran well today. At 10 AM it was nearly a constant stream. Breaking a little. Slowed a bit by early afternoon. Put those taps in on Jan 26.

Also have 5 individual buckets that went in on Jan 26. Of those 5, 2 are dry and not running. 3 are still running. 2 of those 3 have check valves.

Put 8 on buckets about 12 days ago all ran well today with at least 1.5 gallons each.

Also have a 10 tap run in Hopewell Junction NY that went in on Jan 25. It put out about as much or less then my 6 tap run in CT. Little miffed by my HJ grove.

I'm very surprised to see the amount of sap I saw today in CT. Especially on the 6 tap run that went in Jan 26.

I'll never figure any of this stuff out.

Boiled about 9 gallons of slightly cloudy sap off last night and it still made **** good syrup.

Will boil off at least 25 gallons or so of fresh sap tomorrow.

I think I'm sold on check valves and well sealed runs.

[Mike Van]

Well, we hit 23 degrees last night, and the woods has been running since 9am. and in 8 hours i've only pulled in 28 gallons off 123 taps. what a dismal day! it is running at 2.25% but still, what a pathetic run for a nice cold night last night. That 76 degree last Wed followed by 4 or 5 days with no frost really put a dent in my run too Matt - 130 on a run last week, not quite 50 yesterday. All on buckets, I can tell which ones took it the worst, those tapped on the sunny side. Ones in the shade still doing fine. I've got a bunch farther out I can tap, but for these I think the fat lady is singing. Got rid of the mud here, but took the sap too.

[PJTracy]

I've been checking the sugar content in my IBC tote and blue barrel and they have been consistently reading at 1-1.5% from late January until now, much lower than last year. Someone said it has to do with the gypsy moths stripping all of the leaves last year in our area and that has affected the content. Anyone else getting similar numbers?

[Mike Van]

over in Kent on the western side of the state, i've had steady 2% for weeks now.

[BSD]

I've been checking the sugar content in my IBC tote and blue barrel and they have been consistently reading at 1-1.5% from late January until now, much lower than last year. Someone said it has to do with the gypsy moths stripping all of the leaves last year in our area and that has affected the content. Anyone else getting similar numbers? One of my new woods is running at 1.5% the trees there are on a slope but have wet feet. never seen such clear sap before. the others are holding at 2-2.25%. I'm on the western side of the state, we didn't have gypsy moth problems here.

[BSD]

It's been a hell of a season so far. About to break my 3,000 sap gallon goal i had set out for the start of the season. at the rate it's going I think i'll hit 4,000. An unexpected problem is running out of bulk storage for finished syrup. I need to get to glass-bottling ASAP. A huge thank you to Brett H who lent me his spare RO. what a game changer! cannot wait to build or buy one next season.

[sr73087]

I am only running 8 taps on all reds. Seems like a few of them have been running. The rest literally almost turned off already. Anyone else having this issue?

[Stiets]

Most of my red maples have buds on them but I don't have them tapped.

[Gord]

All my new taps are running strong. Yesterday I boiled 36 gallons of crystal clear sap. Not a high sugar content, and a bit of sugar sand, but I didn't mind. Had fun all day!

[DaveB]

This weekend I collected about 2 gallons per tap from last week. Things slowed down over the weekend with the cold weather, including dealing with a lot of ice and frozen feed lines to the evaporator with temps down the single digits but the late March sun certainly helps.

This week looks like another ideal week and it looks to continue into next week but by then we are approaching early April. That's when I normally finish things off but I may stop after next week with Easter coming early.

[hodorskib]

My lines have been frozen since Saturday. I have only made syrup twice in April but there is a chance this year. We host Easter and since I boil outside in the driveway the family is hoping for a little time next to the fire on Easter Sunday.

[DaveB]

I think you might be able to boil on Easter. Next week looks like a repeat of this week. I've boiled a couple of times in April - once it was awful as I was trying to finish off that week's sap but it got really warm and the sap spoiled. The sugarhouse smelled awful! The next time was fine.

BTW, the RO I built from your design is working great. It's saving me at least 3-4 hours of boiling a week. Now that I have the design down, I think I'm going to build a larger one as I think I need a larger capacity but I just wanted to say thanks for the design ideas.

[hodorskib]

You are very welcome and if you go ahead and build a larger one I am sure someone in CT would be willing to buy the one you built I get asked all the time to put ones together for people. I have also had similar experience in April made some good stuff and some that looked like a swamp and didn't smell much better - that is when I realized why people call it ropey syrup:)

[DaveB]

While the sap was still flowing decently over the weekend and I'm sure early this week as well, I decided to make this past weekend my last. I've been boiling for 7 weeks which is a decent season and with Easter coming on Sunday I felt it was time. I'll take the sweet off the evaporator and finish that up but I think I'll wind up with one of my best seasons ever. The sap just flowed really nicely every week with the exception of a time in February.

[BSD]

i boiled a few gallons today and packed some more away. I'm hanging on for one more boil mid-late week. trees have pretty much quit running despite the proper temperature cycles. It was a great season here. learned a few lessons along the way, made some new friends, and make a ton of syrup. can't wait to get started on next years upgrades over the summer.

[DaveB]

After 7 weeks I called it quits for Easter weekend and this past weekend I've been doing more clean-up but I just couldn't help notice with all the cold and even snow that temps continue to be almost ideal. My lows continue to be in the teens and 20s. I didn't make it into the woods but is the sap still flowing as well? If so, this would have to be one of the latest seasons. I know one guy in town still has his taps in and boiled this weekend but I haven't been able to talk to him.

Edit: I just spoke with one of the guys I collect from in Woodstock and he said that he collected about 150 gallons and that the sap was still flowing well. I don't think I've ever seen it that late in Connecticut!

[master]

I'm still boiling clear sap in Orange County NY at an elevation of about 450'. Most of my taps dried up but several that I drilled later are putting out about a gal per day. Suppose to be 72 degrees on Fri. that will be it!! although I've been telling that to my wife for weeks:lol: