Trees budding?

[Hunt4sap]

My maples have had visible buds since I tapped em(1-20-18)silver, reds... I
So when people say trees are budding and sap is turning buddy are the buds just opening?

[Sugarmaker]

Reds tend to show a little bud compared to hard maples. Keep going till you can taste the bitterness in the syrup or the steam does not smell good.
Regards,
Chris

[bmbmkr]

We are in Lawrence County OH, the southernmost county in OH across from KY/WV- Mine haven't budded yet- I have 90% sugars, 10% Reds. We have about a 150 HUGE silvers along the creek on our farm that we don't tap, but they haven't budded either. My friends in southern KY have already pulled taps due to budding. Our forecast this week calls for 70F Tuesday and 80F on Wed- I've got today, tomorrow and Monday and I'm done.

[Kh7722]

Hey guys
We are in northeast Ohio as well, a few days wont hurt, we are all still just starting and am planning on another 4-6 weeks at least (or hope) of good runs. Scary to think it would be over already, last year was much worse as far as warm days goes and was still a long season, so we have plenty of time to go at it

[Hunt4sap]

I wasn't trying to say it is over, my trees are budding, just was wondering on my silvers and reds what I was looking for visually on buds that already exist that would clue me into them being " buddy" and to not waste my time collecting/ boiling that sap batch , and possibly mixing that "buddy" nearup into a previous nearup batch that was not "buddy"?

[bmbmkr]

Hey guys
We are in northeast Ohio as well, a few days wont hurt, we are all still just starting and am planning on another 4-6 weeks at least (or hope) of good runs. Scary to think it would be over already, last year was much worse as far as warm days goes and was still a long season, so we have plenty of time to go at it

I hope so! So far I've got 18 gallons of syrup and dumped 900 of 2400 gallons of sap. The first 400 was my fault- got taps in before I had my arch ready- moved sugar shack into a different building this year. I was boiling Friday ant it was spoiling as I was boiling, smelled bad and to add insult to injury, I scorched my syrup pan- it was 70F by the time I got the fire lit, had to go to town in the AM and didn't get back til after noon. I had ice jugs floatin in my tank but it wasn't enough, sap was 60 degrees, after it went through the RO it was worse. Went out and dumped 100 gallon out of my collection tank, my filter was all ropey. I bought a UV light last year, there aren't many people who have had good luck with it, but I'm thinkin I'm goin to try it anyway next year.

Last year was my first year with a real arch and pans, ended up with 11 gallons off 115 taps. Cleaned everything up about this time- we did get another cold snap and I got some more at the first of March- I pulled the ten taps I had in reds because they budded- spliced those drops out, We'll see, I wish you all the best.

[Russell Lampron]

What you are looking for is the leaf starting to pop out of the bud. The red maples can flower and still not be budding. If you are going to be mixing batches of nearup, taste each one before you mix. If there is one with an off flavor don't mix it in.

[buckeye gold]

I'm about done as well. I hope to get two or three more boils in. We have daffodils coming up and that usually means the end. A cold snap would reset the trees, but I hate dealing with the dirty syrup. I have already made a new high for me in syrup. I also lost some sap this week. i had more than I could cook, so I pulled the lines out of the tanks and let them run on the ground until I could catch up. bmbmkr you'll be ready for an early start next year. Heck I left my fall taps in and I am still getting some sap from them. I put them in December 19th, yup three months and they are still producing. I am only getting about .3 gallons a tap from them now, but they are running. It all adds up.

I put my regular taps in January 20th

[wnybassman]

I wasn't trying to say it is over, my trees are budding, just was wondering on my silvers and reds what I was looking for visually on buds that already exist that would clue me into them being " buddy" and to not waste my time collecting/ boiling that sap batch , and possibly mixing that "buddy" nearup into a previous nearup batch that was not "buddy"?

There are always buds on the trees, what you are looking for is when they begin to swell dramatically just before they open. I was still getting good sap out of trees last year when the bud was very "squishy" and actually showing a little green

[jetdoc]

Not liking the temps for this week and we haven't even started collecting yet.