2018 Missouri Tapping Season [Archive]

kgingerich

01-05-2018, 11:51 AM

Well this is my third year as a hobby sapper and I just now found this forum. First year I tapped 10 trees, second year 25, and now I plan to tap all 85 sugar maples on my property using 5/16 tubing on a gravity setup. Most of my trees are on the side of a very steep hill so I'm planning to gravity feed them down to the bottom of the hill and collect in 5Gallon buckets. I'll then use a homemade sled with a long rope attached to my ATV to pull up 8 buckets at a time on the sled. I'm located in Defiance, Missouri which is about 45 minutes west of St. Louis.

Last year I didn't tap until the 4th week of January and it's looking to me like I should probably start tapping the south facing trees in the coming week. I wonder how many days it'll take to thaw our trees out after this multi week cold spell? Is anyone else thinking we should start tapping soon?

esetter

01-07-2018, 05:59 PM

In Tennessee. Thinking about tapping a few tomorrow. I was thinking the same thing about the trees needing to thaw.

kgingerich

01-08-2018, 07:33 PM

I got antsy and installed about 20 taps today. Only 2 of the trees were running and only barely. I'm going to try to wait a little longer for the rest of the trees unless I see some good flow soon. The ground here is still very frozen.

Am I the only one with no patience in the state?

kgingerich

01-10-2018, 08:15 AM

Goggleeye

01-10-2018, 12:39 PM

Its slowly warmed up over the past two days and we're in the 50s today. I just checked and only got about a qt of sap total from the 20 trees i tapped a couple days ago. The only two that were running were on the top and bottom of my hills. All of the trees on the sides of the hills haven't produced a drop. Looks like I was too soon on my taps this year and I'm waiting to tap the other 60 trees until after this next cold spell.

You weren't too soon. Typically won't flow well until 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th day of warm up when your trees have been frozen like they have been the last couple weeks. Even if you don't get much sap, there's no harm in having them tapped. As long as the wind doesn't get too crazy, I'd say you'll have a fair amount of sap to collect by Thursday pm.

And with 85 trees, you had better be ready. If this is only your third year, I take it you've never experienced a BIG sap run. I've had trees average well over 2 gallons in a 24 hour period when the right type of warm-up hits. Just a couple hours ago, I collected sap with one of my classes (I teach HS Science) and gathered about 3.5 gallons from 6 taps, 3 of which hadn't run much at all.

kgingerich

01-10-2018, 07:03 PM

esetter

01-10-2018, 07:35 PM

Poked three reds today out of curiosity. 1 dripped decent , the other two didn't at all? Gonna give it another shot next week.

Goggleeye

01-10-2018, 07:59 PM

Thanks for reassuring me. Why does the wind play a factor?

I only have maybe a third of my 85 trees tapped currently because I wasn't sure of tapping this early. Today a couple more trees started to flow and I collect about a gallon of sap. Not as much as I had hoped considering the nearly 60 degree day we had. Tomorrow we have a little more warmth and then it's going back to deep freeze for a week. :(

Last year I used a turkey fryer pot over a flame to boil my sap and this year I purchased three stainless steel steam pans to use in a concrete block evaporator setup. Hopefully I'm able to keep up.

Good luck to you this year!

Don't know if it's been shown scientifically, but I would say that the wind increases movement of twigs and branches, and the dissolved gasses in the sap diffuse through the surface of the twigs instead of creating pressure as they expand, the pressure that normally drives the sap down and out the tap hole. What I do know through my experiences is that high wind (above 20 mph) seems to decrease sap flow. Anybody out there sure about the science behind it?

I didn't have near as much sap as I thought I'd have this evening. I think things may still be somewhat froze up, and the wind hasn't helped things. Maybe tomorrow.

As for your set-up, I think you may find yourself wishing you had a bit more boiling capacity when you get a big run. When I started with my homemade arch and fabricated pans, I had 15 sq ft of boiling area, which was about right for 120 taps. I think I have some pics of past set-ups here. (http://gihringfamilyfarm.com) or here. (https://www.facebook.com/pg/Gihring-Family-Farm-350409381696/photos/?ref=page_internal)

Oh, and if I were you, I'd get them all tapped. But then I'm a little OCD about never missing a drop of sap. You know, wringing out dead squirrels that drown in your sap buckets. Things like that. If you don't understand yet, you will soon!:lol:

buckeye gold

01-10-2018, 10:04 PM

Esetter, Reds are notoriously moody trees. Many won't run at all on simply a tap and some will gush. If you have any sugar maples they will tell you what is happening.

Ray_Nagle

01-12-2018, 09:48 AM

So did your trees start gushing sap yesterday before it re-froze?

Goggleeye

01-12-2018, 01:43 PM

We ended up with about a gallon per tree. Not what I was hoping for, but a good trial run for all the equipment. About ready to make the first draw off the evaporator.
Uh-oh. Wife just came in from sugarhouse and caught me on the trader and watching McLintock!

kgingerich

01-13-2018, 11:18 AM

Most of my trees didn't produce a drop last week. I got maybe 2 gallons total from the only 3 trees running. I haven't tapped most of these maples before so hopefully this isn't a sign of a whole lot of bad tapping trees. I'm hoping the roots are still just frozen and the 3 days above freezing weren't enough to thaw them. Better temps coming next week so good luck to all!

Kyle

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

johnnyf

01-17-2018, 09:31 AM

In the 12 years I have been doing this I have always tapped in the first 2 weeks of February. I may try putting taps in a little early this year see how it goes. I am also in Defiance not a a lot of syrup makers in Missouri. With 85 trees tapped kgingerich if we get good weather you are going to be busy!!

John

oldcabin

01-17-2018, 11:45 AM

I have joined up in hoping my comments may help the community. I read your guy's posts and try to see if my plans are close to what more experienced people are doing. Last year I tapped 60. Started late, and finished early when the weather skyrocketed warm. This year I plan on tapping Jan 21st. A neighbor down the street has had his in for over a week. He's been doing this quite a bit longer so maybe he knows something I don't. Only doing this 3 years now. Boy, I have sure learned alot so far.

StoneHillRidge

01-18-2018, 08:19 AM

This will be my fourth year. I have 24 taps. I have just been using the weather as my guide. My understanding is the flow is related to when the day time temperature if over freezing and the night time is below freezing.

The weather forecast for next week looks promising, so I plan to install the taps this weekend and see what happens!

Rslun

01-19-2018, 02:32 PM

This is my first year. I've been watching the forecast for the temperature fluctuations and will be starting my taps this weekend. I only have 2 trees - 1 at my parents' house and 1 at my in-laws house. With everything else in my life, I think that's enough to keep me busy. Good luck to you all that have dozens of trees! :)

kgingerich

01-19-2018, 03:42 PM

I put in about 20 more taps last night late and collected sap just now. Out of approximately 40 taps I got 4 gallons of sap. 90% of that sap came from just a few trees up on the top of my hill. All of the trees on the sides of the hill and at the bottom didn't have much if anything in the buckets. I'm glad to see the sap flowing but can't wait for the rest of the trees to kick it into gear!

I think now is the time for tapping though... temps looking good for the next 10 days.

Good luck to all!

unclejohn

01-20-2018, 01:56 PM

Looks like this coming week will be good for sap flow once this warm spell passes. Tapped 47 trees on Thurs Jan 18 but there was no flow as trees were too cold still. Im going to tap the other 155 trees tomorrow and Monday and get the pans set up. Please all Missouri producers share your progress and experience or questions. Looking for Skinny in Callaway County to join in and give us his status.

Rslun

01-20-2018, 05:57 PM

Turns out the in-laws have 3 trees that can be tapped. Anybody know a store near St. Louis where I can get a few additional supplies?

Maple_Creek

01-20-2018, 06:39 PM

The weather looks good, so I tapped 12 of my trees today. Will see what the sap gods want to give me.

unclejohn

01-20-2018, 08:14 PM

Hey rslun, maplecreek, kgingerich,stonehillridge, oldcabin, welcome to this site, I don't recognize your names from previous years. Why not go to your "profile" in mapletrader and create a "signature" that describes your operation and will appear with each of your posts? And please notify any other Missouri producers and hobbyists about this site. Ive sent the word out to some folks I know to visit this site regularly to see what the Missouri weather and production is like. Maybe if we get enough interest we can meet this summer to swap stories about the 2018 season or equipment.

Rslun, I don't know of any Missouri store that sells maple sap collection stuff. Perhaps you have some tubing or pipe around the house you can use; but there are mail order firms in Michigan and Wisconsin that with a credit card order will ship to you in about 3 days.

If you have questions, feel free to visit the many topics on mapletrader.com; you can learn a lot. John

Maple_Creek

01-21-2018, 05:50 PM

John, Thanks for the info. I have updated my signature, so hopefully it comes through on this post. I would be up to get together and swap stories. I don't have much sap running yet, but my trees are in a valley by a creek so may need to thaw a few more days.

oldcabin

01-21-2018, 08:54 PM

I got about 70 taps in today. Only 4 were running. Do you collect every day? If not how often?

oldcabin

01-21-2018, 09:08 PM

What temperature range do you feel is ok for sap to stay out ?

unclejohn

01-21-2018, 09:48 PM

gettin a big rain tonight in jeff city. gonna be muddy in the bush when i tap tomorrow, but the cold front is coming. i dont collect every day, only when we get a good batch worth the effort. its ok if sap freezes, it wont spoil and we can harvest it later. as for warm weather, i like to treat sap like i treat milk. if it gets too warm it will spoil. today it was 62 degrees and sunny which could be a problem but the sap got cold lastnight and cold sap was coming out of the trees and tonight will be down in the 40s so im not worried about it. several warm days in a row would compel me to collect and either chlll it or go ahead and boil it. not all of the trees were running today.

Rslun

01-21-2018, 09:50 PM

My signature is updated, too.

I installed 3 taps this afternoon. 2 of them started flowing (dripping) right away.

Based on a tip from someone on here, I got some 5-gallon buckets at Firehouse Subs for $2 each (including lids). I washed them and rinsed them with bleach water, but they still smell like pickles. I'm worried they're going to taint my sap. Any thoughts on getting the stink out? Or should I abandon those and grab some new buckets from Home Depot? (I saw online that they sell food-grade buckets.)

Goggleeye

01-21-2018, 10:13 PM

Use them. When I started out, I collected a lot of sap with pickle and bbq sauce buckets, cleaned much like you did. I'm rather picky on taste, and I never was able to notice the flavors bleed through into the syrup.

Goggleeye

01-21-2018, 10:25 PM

What temperature range do you feel is ok for sap to stay out ?When it gets above 45 or so, I try to get the sap heated to a boil within 2 -3 days. Above 55, 1-2 days. Below 40, I don't get too worried until day 4 or 5. Just make sure it doesn't get cloudy on you. If you notice cloudy sap, get it cooked ASAP. If it's starting to smell fermented, it's almost too late. Depends on your liking though. My brother and a few other customers take everything I make near the end of the season because they like the flavor of the syrup made from the semi-fermented sap!

oldcabin

01-22-2018, 03:18 PM

I tried the pickle buckets 2 years ago and after them sitting out and even using them for tomato plants they still smell like pickles. Best bet for 5 gallon buckets is to go to your local donut shop and see if they have any available. They get stuff like filling and icing and it cleans up easily. Plus it comes with a great lid with a rubber seal that you can remove. Easy to sanitize too. And they are food grade. Unlike a Home Depot or Lowe's bucket.

buckeye gold

01-22-2018, 03:52 PM

And their food grade. Unlike a Home Depot or Lowe's bucket.

Lowes sells a food grade bucket. Look for white buckets with a yellow "food Grade" sticker

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Encore-Plastics-5-Gallon-Commercial-Food-Grade-Bucket/3694238

StoneHillRidge

01-22-2018, 03:58 PM

Collected about 3.5 gallons from the 24 taps before the weather turned warm again Went out today after we got a heavy rain last night and had to dump a few containers that were obviously fully of rain water, not sap.

esetter

01-22-2018, 07:01 PM

They won't effect the sap smell or taste at all. Remove the rubber gasket and give it a good cleaning. Don't worry about it. Ive been storing in those buckets and you can't tell a thing.
My signature is updated, too.

I installed 3 taps this afternoon. 2 of them started flowing (dripping) right away.

Based on a tip from someone on here, I got some 5-gallon buckets at Firehouse Subs for $2 each (including lids). I washed them and rinsed them with bleach water, but they still smell like pickles. I'm worried they're going to taint my sap. Any thoughts on getting the stink out? Or should I abandon those and grab some new buckets from Home Depot? (I saw online that they sell food-grade buckets.)

Ray_Nagle

01-23-2018, 07:13 PM

Well, I reckon my tapping days are over. I was getting ready to tap last week and got a call from my well driller. He needed to meet me at my new house site. That led to a couple days of work to get ready for him, and made me realize I don't have time for the maple syrup this year. In the middle of a house build, I just won't be able to spend full days boiling down syrup. Bummer. And the new property doesn't have any maple trees, so once we move out there I'll be just another syrup buyer.

If anybody's interested, I'm filming the construction of my log cabin kit. When it's done I'm planning to go over all of my costs, which should be kinda interesting. https://www.youtube.com/user/Sqeptick

Twohungryblackbirds

01-24-2018, 04:15 PM

Goggleeye

01-26-2018, 01:48 AM

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah and this is my first year tapping. I tapped ten black walnut trees on the 19th and have only gotten about four gallons of sap so far. I know they don’t produce as much sap as maples, so I’m just assuming I’m going everything fine. Our weather is fluctuating like crazy in Kansas! I’m probably going to start boiling on Friday.
Welcome to the trader, Sarah! Got anymore sap off of those walnuts? You'll have to let us know how it turns out. I've always wanted to tap walnuts, but I'm too busy with maples. Don't hesitate to ask any questions, and there are a handful of folks here on the trader that do tap walnuts, so they may have some advice to offer there.
MG

oldcabin

01-26-2018, 01:34 PM

I was able to collect this morning. I got 38 gallons from my 65 taps. Still trying to get my evaporator up and running.
I had one tree produce about 1/2 a quart of darker,but clearish sap. Didn't smell. Any ideas what thawas about?

unclejohn

01-26-2018, 08:36 PM

last 2 days have been great due to warm days and nights in 30's. got 140 gallons in 2 trips through the sugarbush. had family help me because its hilly and muddy. started boiling yesterday afternoon and continued today. will stop the boil before bedtime tonight, and finish in the kitchen tomorrow. hope other mo producers have been enjoying the good flow.

Rslun

01-27-2018, 09:22 AM

Thanks for the info on the buckets everyone. If I get too concerned with the pickle smell, I'll hit up the local donut shop. I feel weird just going in and asking for buckets when I don't even buy donuts there. Maybe I need to buy a dozen to ease my conscience. :)

Thursday night I collected the sap and had about 2.5 gallons from my 3 taps. Will be boiling today.

skinny78

01-28-2018, 07:39 PM

Just got home from a trip to Texas and will be tapping soon. Wish we had more moisture in the ground here but we will have to make the most of what we have. May not tap all of our trees unless we get some rain. Guys take a look at the sap sacks, we used buckets for years before we found out about sap sacks. They save a ton of time and require very little clean up. Good luck all!

Rslun

01-28-2018, 08:34 PM

I processed my first batch. Ended up with just shy of 2 pints. One jar is clear (it's beautiful!!!!!), but the other one is cloudy. Same batch...what did I do wrong? Also, neither of the jars self-sealing (I make apple butter and am used to the jars sealing on their own .)

unclejohn

01-28-2018, 09:56 PM

got 4.5 gallons of beautiful amber delicious syrup from the first 140gallons of sap. then saturday pm i collected another 30 gallons of sap and with the cold snap it will keep well till the next boil. due to recent warmer days the ants are visiting the buckets.

regarding bucket sources, also visit your grocery store bakery- if the decorate c akes they throw away lots of icing buckets.

skinny - this is my first year using some sap sacks hanging on a small pvc pipe section that mounts on the spile. found the idea on a youtube video. so far i like the sacks, well see if the varmints bother them as much as the buckets.

rslun- if syrup is cloudy maybe you need to buy some of the filter material- i believe its called pellon. most of us use a conical pellon filter liner inside a conical wool filter but for small volumes like yours maybe a small piece of pellon in a colander would work. check the websites of the syrup supply houses for filter material.

Maple_Creek

01-29-2018, 07:49 PM

Rslun, I often run small batches and get some that are cloudy. I just let them sit for a day or two in a mason jar, and the cloudiness settles to the bottom. I then draw off the top portion with a syringe or turkey baster. The cloudy portion still tastes just fine to me. I just don't like to give it away.

Twohungryblackbirds

01-30-2018, 01:13 PM

Walnut tapping update: I have gotten about 9 gallons of sap so far (tapped 10 trees on 1/19) I boiled down 6 gallons today and got 24 oz syrup. It is sweet and nutty and delicious! I didn't filter it though and I probably should have.

The weather is still going to be nice the next couple weeks, so hopefully I'll get another batch or two!

17337

Maple_Creek

02-05-2018, 05:42 PM

I've collected 26 gal so far from my 12 taps before temps fell again. I have about 1/2 gal of finished syrup. I had forgotten just how good fresh syrup is. How is everyone else doing?

unclejohn

02-05-2018, 09:22 PM

nice going Maple Creek. No doubt you will have more trees and taps next year. In our 2nd boil we got another 5.5 gallons of great tasting syrup from 140 gallons of sap. Before this cold snap hit we harvested another 100 gallons of sap, and we're keeping it cold until the sap runs again. Trees are asleep now, but they might run on Thursday if it is sunny, and next week looks promising. john

Sugarbush Ridge

02-07-2018, 10:34 PM

WOW,,,, 5.5 gallons of great tasting syrup from 140 gallons of sap. ....About 25 to 1????

skinny78

02-08-2018, 10:02 AM

We got some trees tapped last night, 112 taps so far and just in time to catch the run today. Hopefully, we will be sweetening the pans tonight!

johnnyf

02-08-2018, 01:17 PM

tapped my usual 50 this morning and there dripping away. next week should be a good one if the weather holds true to forecast. new this year is a float box and head tank hopefully a little less work keeeping the pan full.

John

unclejohn

02-08-2018, 07:33 PM

Hi Johnnyf and Skinny.... glad you got 'em tapped. Next week looks like good flow conditions. Today the trees weren't making much; still kinda chilled from the previous 2 cold nights. We've started a boil of 80 gallons of sap and will add tomorrow's collection to the boil.

Sugarbush Ridge- maybe I counted our totes wrong but I think it was a 25:1 ratio on the 2nd batch. I hope you have the time to make some syrup, but I know you are dealing with some challenges. Your nearby syrupman Goggleeye north of Jackson MO has been busy, I wonder if he has time to post and give us an update. John

Goggleeye

02-08-2018, 10:16 PM

50 gallons so far, sap running at about 1.5%, maybe a little more. Hopefully it increases with the next runs. Syrup has good flavor this year, not a lot of niter on the pans, but they are soaking in vinegar right now. Hopefully we get a bigsap tomorrow. Feel like we're very behind. Several years ago, we had made 90+ gallons in January alone. But then the year we made 200+, we only had 25 at the end of January. As long as the temp graph looks like the stock market over the past week, we should be good.

johnnyf

02-10-2018, 07:51 AM

Collected 80 gallons off my 50 taps last night. Setting up my evaporator and getting everything ready today for cooking next week. Sap was crystal clear should be some good syrup hoping for good runs next week

John

unclejohn

02-15-2018, 06:52 PM

colossal sap flow this week in mid missouri and the trees were flowing well today at 70 degrees. we have made 13 gallons of great syrup so far. we are in our 4th batch boil now. should get about 4 gallons from this batch. plus i collected about 100gallons of sap today and we will do our final collection on saturday 2/17 and then pull taps out then have boil #5. we anticipate running out of jars and firewood after batch #5, at about 20 gallons. lets hear from other Mo producers!

Goggleeye

02-16-2018, 08:08 AM

colossal sap flow this week in mid missouri

Now that's an understatement. We averaged 6 gal of sap per tap over the past 48 hrs, a few trees I have on buckets at the school I teach overflowed 5 gallon buckets, twice! And those are only tapped once. All I can say is, WOW. Never have I seen the sap push that hard. Now the race is on to get it processed before it goes bad. Hopefully the wind and rain is cooling all that 70 degree sap. Haven't checked the concentration, but we've been at about 35 gal of sap per gallon of syrup so far, so the sugars seem to have really concentrated.

johnnyf

02-16-2018, 09:24 AM

been doing this for 12 plus years and this is a record for us. we tapped 2/8 and already have 400gallons off 50 buckets. its going to be a long weekend and i hope i have enought wood.

john

potatopie17

02-18-2018, 12:04 PM

Just put in 12 taps yesterday afternoon and they are all dripping. The 2 big mama trees are dripping heavy so hopefully it keeps up.

Maple_Creek

02-18-2018, 04:27 PM

With my collection today, I am over 100 gal of sap collected. Definitely a record for me with only 10 trees tapped. I have over 1-1/2 gal of finished syrup. Currently boiling sap and still have buckets full and waiting. What a year!

unclejohn

02-19-2018, 09:53 PM

congrats to all of us missouri producers....yesterday we removed all taps and collected 120 gallons of sap and added it to the boil started on saturday. had to get up in middle of night to add sap and firewood. today i watched over the boil while cleaning totes and buckets and dodging raindrops. we took batch 5 off the arch this evening and brought into the kitchen before the big rain hit. this batch looks really dark but tastes great - will probably be over 5 gallons after finishing, bringing our total to about 22 gallons. im exhausted but happy with our harvest.

Goggleeye

02-20-2018, 12:03 AM

We began clean-up as well. Still need to finish out some syrup, but it looks like we should end up with about 130 gallons. And ours got dark at the end, too, but the flavor is still good. Ditto on the exhausted. We're going to have to do something different next year. Probably an RO.

Sugarbush Ridge

04-08-2018, 04:41 PM

Sap flowing like crazy now. Actually I never taped this year. Because I'm still working on my house and having to take care of my mother's trust.
I've had surveyors out surveying mom's trust, (which I'll be getting about 35 more acres of woods.) Thursday they cut a 2" limb off a scrubby 6" maple trying to get a GPS reading. The sap came out at very steady drip.
No swelling of buds on sugars, in spite of that silvers have bloomed and dropped blooms. I may give thought to only taping part early and then save some for later.

Ray_Nagle

04-23-2018, 06:01 PM

As I mentioned earlier this year, I'm moving to a little farm that doesn't have any sugar maples. So I've got my maple syrup equipment for sale on Craigslist. If you live anywhere close to St Louis, let me know if you'd like to buy it. It's about $300 worth of stuff offered at $150. I'd be willing to entertain an even better deal to you folks here.

https://stlouis.craigslist.org/grd/d/maple-syrup-making-kit/6548311597.html