First year tryin this thing.....

[sticknstring]

Got 20 tap kit on the way. Got some food grade buckets and a 4" stainless steam pan to cook in. Need to find some trees, but i have a friend that says he has a few sugars and a bunch of red maples on his mountain ground. My mom has a pretty big silver maple in her yard(probably 22-26" DBH), big crown and lots of direct sun. Will that tree be a good one to tap? I know its not ideal, but it will be very easy access and someone to lwt me know if the bucket's getting full. Thanks for any info!!!

[VTnewguy]

Tap it no problems.

[Russell Lampron]

Tap the silver but watch the buds. You may have to pull the taps on that one early. Tap the sugars if you or your friend know which ones they are. You would probably be wasting your time tapping the reds because they are very finicky on buckets.

[maple flats]

If those reds are on a good slope, try using a roll of 3/16 tubing and get a bigger collection container for sap to run into at the bottom. Be advised, if you only have 1 SS steam pan, you do not want to do 20 taps, 5 or 6 might overwhelm that pan.
If you do go with the 3/16 tubing, for what you can evaporate, just try 5 taps. Start up hill a good amount (rise in elevation) and try to end someplace where it would be easy to collect the sap. If you have a way to haul sap and have a producer close who would buy or produce on shares, you could tap more, then keep 3-4 gal a day max to boil and sell the rest. That way, you could use the whole roll of 3/16 and make some money (or extra syrup) off the excess to grow bigger in the future. To try 3/16 just do some research on this site, there is loads of 3/16 info.
Most important, keep it fun!

[sticknstring]

Thanks everybody. The info on the silver maple buds, what am I looking for to know that I need to pull the taps? I am assuming the sap gets to a point where it either isn't good or it just doesn't have the sugar content worth messing with?

The red maples at his place would most likely be on an incline above his house, so running lines would be possible, I am just not sure if he would be up for that with kids/dogs/deer/chickens running around most of the time.

As far as one evaporation pan, the place that I found really close to my work that sells them charged a little more than I was hoping to pay. I found another place that has them for 1/2 the price, its just a farther drive and very much out the way of my normal path of travel. I figured for this year, since I am just trying to figure it out a little bit, I would start with one and then if needed, I will go get another one or two.

I guess I am a little worried that I may be late to the game for this year. I have heard of a few people outside of this site that are already cooking hundreds of gallons down. Ive read that the ideal temps are 40 for high and 25 for lows, is that what you all say? Looking at the forecast, it seems to be warmer or colder temps than those the next week or so. How many day stretch do you need for good sap production? I would imagine a weather pattern that is up and down and everywhere is not conducive to production?

Thanks again for any help. This definitely seems like the place to be if you are gonna do this....:)

[BlueberryHill]

Tap it! If you are worried about bad sap just give it a sniff when you collect it. A little taste test never hurts either. Gotta stay hydrated!

[maple flats]

sticknstring, which state are you in, I see a Cumberland County in about 10 or more states. If we know better where you are, we might be better able to help.

[sticknstring]

Dave, I have edited my location.

I just looked at the forecast and the week of 2/5 its looking like daytime temps in the mid 30's to low 40's and lows averaging 21 or so for the whole week. That will be the week that I should be able to get tapped and really start collecting.

[Billinpa]

Sticknstring I am about an hour north of you and only have four taps out for now to keep an eye on the runs. I will be tapping in my 3/16 tubing probably second week of February. There is still plenty of time left in PA

Bill

[to100]

There must be a sugar house nearby, go see his trees and have a chat.
The only sure thing in sugaring is change, every year is different.
You can tap what you have and then find out what maple trees look like.
You can always pull tap on what you don’t want then tap maples.
Maple’s higher sugar content, alot less time and fuel.
Good luck