Does tubing freeze????

[Rock Bottom Maple]

Hi, New to tubing (3/16). Does tubing freeze similar to ice in my buckets. And if so, how do you deal with it? Thanks

[Cjadamec]

All the sap in the tubing will freeze when it gets cold enough. Not much of a worry though because the trees will freeze too and stop running. When it's warm enough to thaw the tubing the trees will thaw too and sap will run again.

No need to do anything about tubing freezing. It the nasty critters chewing holes in the tubing you need to worry about.

[Haynes Forest Products]

The sap doesn't freeze up like clear water. It is a slushier type of freeze. With vacuum the sap will start to thaw and trickle thru breaking it up.

[Rock Bottom Maple]

Thanks. Sometimes I think to much.

[Daveg]

Hi, New to tubing (3/16). Does tubing freeze similar to ice in my buckets. And if so, how do you deal with it? Thanks

I've been removing the shade-producing hemlocks with the thinking the sun will thaw the tubing faster.

[Rock Bottom Maple]

I bought the darkest tubing. Thinking it would thaw faster. Thanks for all the replies.

[maple flats]

Sun does help if it can get to the tubing. I used to have another lease where I had to pump the sap from the tank and releaser 900+ feet to the road, thru a cold ravine. If that 1.5" transfer line did not get emptied completely and we had a multiday freeze that line cold take 3-4 days to thaw. If the freeze was only one night it didn't freeze hard enough to prevent pumping thru it after a few hours of sap flowing into the tank. That ravine was owned by a friendly neighbor and I did not have permission to do any cutting or most of the shade from the afternoon sun would have been gone. That ravine ran north-south with far too many hemlocks on the east side.

[DrTimPerkins]

A 2 Brix sucrose solution freezes just a very little below that of pure water (32 deg F), so sap will definitely freeze in your sap lines when the temperature drops below 32 deg F. Basically you don't need to worry about it. When the temperature gets above freezing again, the sap will thaw in the lines and the sap will thaw in the trees, and the sap will run again (until it freezes again, or until the pressure in the tree is dissipated during a long thaw, or until you shut off your vacuum pump).