Tapping UP Michigan

[northernlite]

Still too early, hang on. Average date 3/15, North of 47°

[grapestomper]

Tapped early last year. Not doing it this year.

[UPMaple]

We know it's early but it's hard to argue with the forecast weather for the next 10 days. Thinking we will be starting some test taps this weekend.

[Grand Marais Boiler]

Tapped 3/16/17 - Got 3 good boils before I got tired and quit. Didn't get any of the late dark syrup that we treasure. Will monitor you guys and watch the forecast

[UPMaple]

Decided not to tap yet. Snow is still not pulling away from the Maples here in Munising. Weather looks good for maybe this week.

Still early with two to three feet of snow in the Sugarbush.

[northernlite]

Will tap 3/5, got a couple warm days coming up. Last year up here was poor

[Plungerke]

Im going to use this sap tracker to record my sugar Bush collections, if you look at the maps it will allow us to see what’s going on in other sugar bushes.
https://www.saptapapps.com
Give it a try this year.

[nasion]

I'm waiting til March at least this year, tapped early last year and didn't get much to show for it. Waaaaayy too much snow out there, in the trees, on the trees, around the trees... at the very least I can start digging out my sugar shack and getting my stuff ready. Barely above freezing later in the week doesn't convince me yet.

[UPMaple]

Temps hit the mid forties here today. Snow is starting to pull away from the trees. Starting tapping some of the Sugars out in the open yesterday. Most holes were wet and dripping. Added some more today now have around 30 on bags most are dripping pretty good. Might start tapping some of the woods trees on 3/16 gravity tomorrow.

[Big_Country]

I'm way behind schedule this year so I have to hold out a bit before I can tap. I'm hoping AccuWeather is a bit more accurate this year. Hope to get up and running in a couple weeks.

[northernlite]

Thanks for posting we need to get a bead on flow.

[Big_Country]

Got a buddy a bit North of me on a South facing hill. He had very good flow yesterday.

[northernlite]

Snowshoed into sugarbush, WAH, lots of snow, 3 feet on ground. No pull back around trees. Was going to a test tap, didn't even pull drill out. Will wait.

[unclejohn]

we collected our final batch, pulled taps and washed out our buckets and totes on 2/18. Just in time to avoid a 5" rain. Had 5 nice batches that made 23 gallons of syrup. The last batch was really dark, had to use all our cone filter liners. I cant imagine snowshoeing into the sugar bush, but I would love to experience it. Good luck to all you way up north. I worked in the UP for CCI at Republic mine in the summer of '76. Had a great experience meeting and working with yoopers and enjoying the north woods. If I could only get a pasty around here I would pour my syrup on it. John

[Big_Country]

John, It is hard to beat a pasty. I am originally from Northern Illinois. This is my third year tapping in the UP and I finally remembered to drill my holes as low as possible (right on top of the snow). When the 3 feet of snow melts later in the season my buckets ended up 5’-6’ off the ground the last two years.

Northernlite, I could not wait any longer and went out and put a few test taps in yesterday. 8 taps produced 2 gallons in 24 hours. Still a bit too early for anymore for me.

[mcgyver]

Tapped in Foster City last weekend. Sap has been running slow all week. Hope to get a boil in on Sunday.

[mcgyver]

179281792917930

[Jeff50]

Just tapped 75 most are running slow. Probably a little early for Houghton county.

[Plungerke]

Tapped 100 trees today, not much moving still a lot of snow in the Bush!

[UPtapper]

Hello all, first time tapper here looking for advice. I live in Madison, Wisconsin, but I have a stand of maples to use and a place to stay near Foster City. I have never tapped a tree before, but my daughter has been asking to do it for almost an entire year, so we are going to give it a try. I will feel very successful if I end up with a pint of finished syrup.

I have 10 tubes and milk jugs, and 3 days to take off work. My tentative plan is to drill this Saturday morning, the 10th, and leave taps in until the evening of the 14th. I can push it back to another week if the forecast looks bad, and I am checking this thread every day.

I have a 10 gallon pot and a propane burner, both for beer-making, that I plan to use to boil.

Any advice or suggestions are welcome. I also was happy to see that 2 people posting here appear to be from Foster City, any local advice would be great.

[Plungerke]

Uptapper,
Are your maples on a south facing hill? If yes you may get some flow this weekend however the forecast isn't great for sap flow. We need sun and 40 deg days with near 20 deg nights and low to no wind.
My sugar bush is south of foster city 10+ miles and far from pavement but if you would like to visit you'd be welcome to visit and see what we are doing. Right now we don't believe that there will be enough sap to start up the evaporator but we will be fine tuning our new sugar shack and I will answer all the questions you wish to ask.

[Jeff50]

Tapped this past Saturday, and ended up with 60 gal of sap.

[UPtapper]

Plungerke, that is a generous invitation, thank you, I would love to stop by. I will PM you for details.

[mcgyver]

UPtapper I would wait another weekend longer or more, this weekend doesn't look the best and last weekend I only collected 100 gallons off of 232 taps. If you miss the sap run for whatever reason, I could also give you some sap. Do you have a camp on Ride Out road?

[UPtapper]

That is extremely generous, thank you. I am back in Bartles road, which is off of Finn Town Road, very close to Ride Outs.

Your sap numbers put it in perspective. I need to balance sap flow against rearranging my work schedule. I am going to watch the weather closely as Friday approaches and see what makes sense.

Thanks everyone for the responses!

[goose52]

Any advice or suggestions are welcome. I also was happy to see that 2 people posting here appear to be from Foster City, any local advice would be great.[/QUOTE]

UPtapper, i have a 40 a lil south of foster city on the high banks road. i will be putting out @100 taps this weekend and hope to have a boil going by week's end. i have held off tapping a week or 2 because i was getting tired of dealing with all the ice the past coupla years. you will probably drive past my gate on ur way up. stop in if u have questions, want to check out a different setup, or are out of beer. ;) there are 3 camps making syrup on the high banks.

[Plungerke]

Goose52
I’m not familiar with the High banks road, is there another name for it? I would like to make a sugar bush tour to see some other people’s inventions, if your open to a visitor?

[goose52]

Goose52
I’m not familiar with the High banks road, is there another name for it? I would like to make a sugar bush tour to see some other people’s inventions, if your open to a visitor?

plunger,
always glad to have company when i'm at camp. talking to myself gets less interesting every year! high banks road is exactly 6 mi north of us2 on the foster city road.... if ur coming down from foster, high banks is maybe 2 miles south of that cool cement bridge on the sturgeon river. right at the start of that of that long straight stretch with the 4 or 5 camps on the river, the high banks road snakes up a hill going east. there's a uninhabited brown ranch house with scorch marks on it right where the river runs alongside the foster city road. look for that scorched ranch- high banks is about 75yds north of it or so. i'm 2 miles in but we've really gotten after the road the last coupla years & it's in good shape even in the spring. poor reception at camp but i can usually get a text (715-938-4700) and i can meet you at the gate with my ranger and drive u in.

i tapped this past weekend & had a small run but came home to resupply. weather sounds great starting wed so i will head back up then and should get a boil in at week's end.

shoot me a text or a call & we can hook up. also interested in checking out ur operation as well.

mark

[UPtapper]

Goose52, I’d love to stop by and say hello. I am going to wait until the weather seems right to go up for a long weekend, I will message you before I go and see if you are around.

Late last week and weekend I checked with everyone I know in the central UP who does any syrup gathering, everyone said there is very very little flow right now, and people are just collecting a little ice in their bags and buckets. That is not a surprise in light of the nighttime temperature. I am going to keep an eye on the forecast and hope for better in the next weekend or 2.

[northernlite]

40 trees tapped Sunday, by the end of the day a few drops. This weekend could be 38 up here ar Lake Medora. I would encourage everyone to use saptapapp...its free and is phenomenal, check it out.

[goose52]

UPtapper, sounds good to me. i rarely try for the interwebs on my cell phone when at camp but texts generally work to get ahold of me (715-938-4700).

northernlite, i have fond memories of medora & zik's bar in the harbor. we used to make an annual pilgrimage to george's camp out towards caribou island every february til we got too old to fight all that snow. everything always seemed to me to be a lil more challenging in that rugged country. i imagine that's true for sugaring too.

[grapestomper]

I am tapping 50 trees tonight and 50 more tomorrow. Let the fun begin.

[Plungerke]

We collected yesterday, 8 gallons off 140 taps , only the trees that had a direct exposure to the south had sap. There is still a LOT of snow in the woods up here. Hoping for a Saturday flow. We did take the 8 gallons and give our homemade RO a test run, it performed way better than expected. Process rate was 18.75 gal/hr, we started with 3.5% sap and returned 8% concentrate. Very happy and we still have some tweaking to do before it's production ready.

[Plungerke]

18146
18147
18148
It rough around the edges but once we get it working smooth we will dress the girl up for the dance.

[KitchiGumee]

Last year I tapped March 2 (central UP in a Lake Superior snow belt)
2016 was March 19

Still within a reasonable window but out of the thirty test taps I have placed over the last 8 days I might have 3-4 gallons. Strange early spring, all up and down with no steady rhythm. It’s frustrating my trees.

May end up being a tight year as far as finding the time to collect and boil. I have a sinking suspicion that my schedule of 7-12s will be perfectly timed to be at work for the heart of the season. Quitting my job is an option but if I do that I probably need to tap about 3000 trees and go all in. Not likely!

[nasion]

I put in my 38 taps throughout the week as time allowed, now I'm just waiting for a run! Temps in the 40°Fs forecast today, maybe I'll be able to get enough to boil before the cool weather bounces back. Spring is taking its sweet time this year!

[mcgyver]

230 taps gave 130 gallons of sap Saturday 17th. Running slow for me this year.

[northernlite]

Still up here waiting, not so patiently.

[upsapper]

38 taps in on 3/13 . only one semi decent day so far. hope it warms soon .

[Ivyacres]

It's been a great year in South West Michigan, but will most likely end the beginning of next week. 280 taps and 6400 gals so far has been crazy doubling last year. Should end around 24 gals a tap on gravity (3/16th) Pulled some of my buckets, I have about 30 and the rest on the tubing. So good luck to the U.P. hope you get a bucket full of gold every day!

[regor0]

Could be July 4th before we get sap weather!

[UPMaple]

Hoping to start tapping the tubing tomorrow. Been a tough season so far. Weather wizards kinda dropped the ball the last few weeks.

[michael marrs]

i run about 75 taps, and this year sit at 8 gals. so far. the best i have done is just over 6. i think in a week or two, things should play them selves out. the last week has been about perfect, but really off and on in sap flow. some real bleeders, some seem to have dried up, so for the next few days, on sap runs a few buckets will be pulled

[grapestomper]

Have 83 taps in this year. Hardly running yet. Temperatures just to cold.
Have only gathered 55 gallons of sap. Looks like the flow will be better starting today.

[Stinky Bottom]

Hi All,

New to the whole maple syrup game - trying to make some syrup for friends and family...

Looking for some advice...

Put in another 4 taps yesterday, up to 13 in total but have nothing to really show for it.

We received 5 inches of snow this morning and after knocking the jugs clean on a walk around have maybe 1/2 gallon ☹ of sap.

Temps are in the high 30's but wind is pushing 15 to 20 mph and some of my maples are spouting these little stalk looking things from their tips.

What is going on?

Can wind impact sap production so much as to stop a tree from producing even in 40 degree temps?

Store told me to put plastic drop line from tap to bucket near ground but with 3 feet of snow it means my line is only 12 inches long to a hanging jug - could this be an issue?

I just do not understand how with temps finally in the good numbers the trees seem silent. Even earlier when the temp was 31 degrees I was collecting more sap, but then there was no wind and plenty of sun...

Frustrated and looking for some tips 😊

Thanks

[Ivyacres]

Hello and welcome to this addictive hobby.
It is said that 20 & 40 are the perfect revolving temps. A nice hard freeze and then a nice warm up, with good sun is even better. Were the trees running when you drilled them? The wind has never made a difference to my trees. You have a lot of snow yet, thats not something we have a problem with in south west Mich. If you just tapped, be patient, good runs are coming. I would always put longer tubing on and wrap around the tree one time, so as the snow melts you can adapt your bucket placement by setting it on the ground. The only drawback for a short tube is bacteria will get into it quicker and shut down your production sooner.
Good Luck!

[Stinky Bottom]

Hi,

Tank you for the reply.

Good idea on the tube wrapping, clever.

Most of the taps went in and were dry (3 of 9 were running) but they all had been producing every day (except for 2 stubborn 40 inchers, but figured it was too big to warm up yet) the temps got above the low 30's.

Yesterday it was 39 and I put in 4 more, 2 were dry. One wet one has already produced 1/4 gallon this morning but the rest are mainly dry.

It is about 34 degrees right now with climbing temps today and 50 degrees tomorrow - maybe its just a weather thing?

Ohh, is it normal for little stem like things to start sticking out of the bud tips and should I not tap these maples? I could probably tap another 10 trees, but seems wasteful if the ones I have already tapped will start running...

Seems odd as we have literally only had maybe 6 days over 30 in the last month.

[HannahL]

Stinky Bottom, give it a day or two for the tree to thaw out. Many times if the tree was running and you get a long cold snap it can take one or two days to start running good. A warm wind should help in most cases, the wind pushes the warmer air into the woods where it would usually stay cooler. Be patient, it is coming! As for the stem thing, I'm not sure what you are trying to describe.

[Stinky Bottom]

Thank you for the reply.

Certainly will give it a few more weeks - hopefully things start swinging in the right direction.

For the tree, I have attached a couple of pics. I do not have a tap in this tree, but I am wondering if anyone knows what the long stem-like things are and if it means I should not use sap from trees that start doing this. Is it budding out?1834418345

[michiganphil]

Hey stinky, that tree is not even close to budding out. Those "stem like things" are the buds, and are there all winter. In the spring they will start to swell up, and eventually open. When they start to swell, they will get 4-5 times bigger before they finally pop.

Mid 30's for temp is barely enough to thaw out the trees, keep waiting they will flow. Sunny and low to mid 40's is great.

[upsapper]

7 inches of snow so far today ....forecast is cool for all of next week . so far In total I've collected about 80 gals on 38 taps. is it getting to late ?

[Jolly Acres Farm]

7 inches of snow so far today ....forecast is cool for all of next week . so far In total I've collected about 80 gals on 38 taps. is it getting to late ?
Its never to late, until the buds start to swell. Traditionally 20 years ago, sugar makers in my area didn't tap until April 1.

[nasion]

So far I've only gotten 22 gallons on 38 taps, most of it from that one warm day we had earlier in the week. Only a couple inches of new snow at the base of the Keweenaw, still 1-2 feet out in the woods. Nice and crusty makes shooting squirrels easier. Now if only I could take advantage of the spring crust to collect sap with...

[Mark]

Back in the early 70's when I started in L'Anse we always planned to start on March 10th, don't think it has changed at all. March 10th is about the historical date that the average temps go above freezing. Looking at my records this late season has happened before. The problem is the longer this cold lasts the higher chance when it does change it could get warm and stay warm.

Maybe spring has been canceled and some morning we will wake up and it will be summer.

[fishman]

Got about 100 taps in for a week and got 75 gallons. Just about enough for the first boil. Doesn't look good for the next 5 days. When it does break we'll be real busy

[upsapper]

well I boiled my 80 gals of sap today . 4% sugar content. made 3 gals of nice med light syrup . pretty stoked about that.

It will be another week before we get anything close to a sap run . time will tell.

[Big_Country]

Finished up boiling my 64 gallons down to 1.6 gallons of the light stuff on Saturday. Have 26 taps in so far. Probably will add 10-20 more this weekend.

[Grand Marais Boiler]

Started tapping 3/26, 13 more today - 75 total. 1st boil 115 gal., 66 into the 2nd

[Grand Marais Boiler]

Started tapping 3/26, 13 more today - 75 total. 1st boil 115 gal., 66 into the 2nd

[fishman]

Time for my first boil of the year. 190 gallons to start with. I am usually done by now.

[grapestomper]

I pulled my taps last Wednesday. Had to go out of town this past weekend and now the walleye bite is going to pick up.
For the poor weather I dealt with I got a little over 6 gallons with a small batch left to finish off. Should end up with about 7 gallons or so.
More than enough for us this year. Bring on the walleyes now.

[regor0]

I still haven't even fired the evaporator yet. We have more snow today than at any time this winter. Hopefully will be able to get at least a few gallons this week?????https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180416/0e0422029049c4270608848a969d3740.jpg

[Grand Marais Boiler]

Need to get back at it! Less than 5 gal to boil off for 2nd boil (130g). Have 94 gal to get boiling brcause Fishman is right - it's going to get busy!

[fishman]

Finished up my last boil today in 70+ degree weather. Ended up the year with 13 gallons plus a gallon of sugar. Had times of 7-8 days with no sap. Not good overall but had a lot of fun with friends and family. Till next year.

[goose52]

This appleknocker had a UP experience this weekend that i'm sure many of you can relate to. i'm trying to keep my camp road open so i can tap in a month or so. i'm 2 miles off of blacktop and it's getting challenging in a coupla places. sugar snow snow on top of ice isn't helping. anyway i stuck my truck n plow going up a hill. called a neighbor n he pulled me out. i closed up camp n started home. my neighbor was backing up to a turnaround n slide off the road by a swamp. i pulled him out 4 or 5 times but each time he backed out he slide off the road again. then i stuck my truck trying to get him out. luckily caught another neighbor (everybody on our road was at camp shoveling their roofs) and this one has a 1 ton truck n 9'2" plow. took some time and some yooper engineering but he got us out. we paid him for his efforts and hired him to widen out our road so that we can have a sugar season this year. got home at midnight. btw, just because u have a tab on ur boots that says "gortex" it doesn't guarantee that ur boots are waterproof!

mark

i see 9-15" predicted for our area again this week... wonderful

[goose52]

Got a buddy who's thinking of tapping a lil north of foster city next week... temps look like there will be sappage the 1st weekend of march. i'm gonna run up to waucedah with the plow this week and start getting some bags ready to hang. will keep an eye and see if the predicted temps are close to accurate. if so i may tap in a week or so. problem with early tapping is the sap freezing solid in the barrels and making the boiling harder than it needs to be. anyway, it won't be long now.

[goose52]

So with the warm weather my friend wound up tapping yesterday. by the time he got everything organized he started tapping at 3pm. at sunset he hopped in the utv and checked on his bags. they all had sap; some had 1\2 gallon. warm temps still in the forecast so i'm thinking i will tap as soon as i can get up to the bush.

[Plungerke]

We tapped on Saturday, 162 buckets hanging. Sunday we prepared a new ridge for 3/16” gravity pipeline, had to trim beech saplings out of the way, discovered there is a lot more snow in the woods than we thought, 16-18”, we will get the tubing hung during the week and then wait for the run! The pipeline is new for us as the area around the sugar shack is fairly flat, we are excited to give this gravity suction a try!
Good luck sugar makers.

[Plungerke]

Did you guys make it out this weekend?

[Plungerke]

So with the warm weather my friend wound up tapping yesterday. by the time he got everything organized he started tapping at 3pm. at sunset he hopped in the utv and checked on his bags. they all had sap; some had 1\2 gallon. warm temps still in the forecast so i'm thinking i will tap as soon as i can get up to the bush.

Did you make it out this weekend?

[goose52]

I did not. I have a doc appointment this morning n will drive up afterwards to do some prep work today n will tap tomorrow. My bud up by the swan Peterson flowage got @40 gal Friday out of 60 taps but no run on Saturday. Were you at camp this weekend? Any taps in? Good to hear from you btw.

[goose52]

[QUOTE=Plungerke;391874]We tapped on Saturday, 162 buckets hanging. Sunday we prepared a new ridge for 3/16” gravity pipeline, had to trim beech saplings out of the way, discovered there is a lot more snow in the woods than we thought, 16-18”, we will get the tubing hung during the week and then wait for the run! The pipeline is new for us as the area around the sugar shack is fairly flat, we are excited to give this gravity suction a try!
Good luck sugar makers.[/QUOTE

Oops. Just saw this post. Reading on my phone this morning n screen is small. Good luck with the new pipeline. I have a great ridge for tubing but just stuck with the trees close to my camp road. Don’t think I’ll get to running a line up the ridge. Having some health issues n have received two inquires about selling my camp. This might be my last sugar season. 😞

[Northbound1]

Tapped Saturday in iron county. Sap was following well but very low sugar %. Was letting it dump on ground anyways to flush out lines. Added another 2 new lines (3/16). Looks like a good run Tues thru the weekend

[goose52]

Tapped yesterday. Run started late but most bags (those that stayed on the trees!) have 3-4” in them. Was so windy I thought the Soo Liner took a detour through my 40! Hoping for better today. Will put out another dozen taps or so this morning n hope to collect this afternoon. Easiest tapping I have ever had with the least amount of snow. 12-18” with a good morning crust.

[Northbound1]

What area you in sappage? This is only my second year but was certainly less snow than last year. I couldn't even reach some of last year's tap holes. Still needed snow shoes. My first boil will be Sunday. Forgot to set up my cell cam so it'll be a surprise how full the tanks are

[goose52]

I’m about 60 miles East of you. Have a friend near hagerman lake. His camp always has colder temps n way more snow than mine. Collected 50 gal from 70 taps yesterday. Bags ranged from nothing to 2 gal. Thinking the run will take off starting Sunday. But then my beer bottle is always half full. Good luck fighting that snow.
Mark

[Plungerke]

Checked my sugar bush and we don’t have much in the buckets, we tapped Saturday. Doesn’t look like we will be starting the evaporator this weekend.

[goose52]

Hmm... when I left camp yesterday most bags had 3-4” of sap after collecting the previous afternoon. That’s a decent run for me. We are very close so identical weather n snow conditions. Your taps are are way more spread out compared to mine. I’m basically on top of a hill tapering away to the south so maybe I have better exposure to the sun? My neighbor to the north used to sugar n my trees ran better earlier than his on the north side of the hill. His always caught up n hopefully yours will do so soon. I’m coming back up Saturday n hope to start a boil soon after. Temps look a little warm but hoping that jumpstarts a good run. Good luck.

[fishman]

Put in 100 taps today at Tahquamenon Maples. About 1/4 were dripping pretty good. If I can find the buckets I can do another dozen.
Gotta get the evaporator ready, clean the head tank and storage barrels, and install the smokestack. Looks good for the next few days.

[Plungerke]

Buckets had a few inches of sap, had it not been frozen solid we would have boiled. We left it in the buckets and will pick on Monday afternoon, with the warmer temp Monday we are hoping to get a fresh run of sap and thaw some high sugar ice (natural RO at work).
We are trying something new this year, we added 60 taps on gravity pipeline. If this works out we will be doing less buckets next year.

[goose52]

Started a boil yesterday n had 0 sappage. Will hopefully run enough today n tomorrow to complete the batch.

[Boone]

Has anyone had any luck? I boiled down 50+ gallons this weekend and only collected 28 additional gallons. It is slow.

[Northbound1]

I got up to the shack sun night and my tanks where overflowing (2 275 totes) ro bucket started last night and started boil at lunch today. I should finish this batch before sunrise Tuesday

[goose52]

Has anyone had any luck? I boiled down 50+ gallons this weekend and only collected 28 additional gallons. It is slow.
It’s all start n stop here. Good run Monday very little Tuesday. Haven’t had 2 or 3 straight days of good runs. Hope that changes starting today. Forecast looks promising anyway but Ma nature sure seems unconcerned about my schedule!

[nasion]

Boiled on Wednesday, got 1-7/8 gallons of syrup from 62 gallons of sap. Hoping for another big sap day today and tomorrow so maybe I can boil again on Sunday. My snow for sap storage is dwindling much faster than in previous years...

[Northbound1]

Wow you've got much better sugar content than I do. I'm getting a gallon syrup per 50 gallons of sap this year. And all my trees are sugar maples

[fishman]

Finally got a big run yesterday. Got 210 gallons and it looks like we may have one good one left on Saturday. Have 15 gallons syrup so far and looks like another 5 or so after I boil. Gonna be busy.

[fishman]

RMG in Rudyard Michigan got 31,000 gallons of sap yesterday. That’s a lot of syrup.

[Ed R]

I guess I hadn't worked out the syrup bug downstate this year, so I packed up my 2x6 about 200 buckets and everything else and headed to my camp near Germfask to finish out the season. Picked a good week and a half, great weather and the new trees ran like crazy. If there was more sugar in it it would be better. Should end up making around 25 gallons. I had fun doing it, but if I was to do it again I will get a small ro.

[Ed R]

Ended with over 30 gallons of syrup. Not bad for a week and a half, still working on clean up and washing buckets for a second time in the same year.

[goose52]

RMG in Rudyard Michigan got 31,000 gallons of sap yesterday. That’s a lot of syrup.

i assume you meant 310 gal.... my son had spring break so he stayed at camp with me for a few days... got maybe 40-50 gal of sap on some of those days... he leaves for a doc appt n i get 155 gal.... made for a a crown royal n aleve kinda night... boiled that down for 3 days n only wound up with only 5 gal of syrup even though i added another 70 gal of sap ... musta had a low sugar content... anyway that ran the total up to 13.5 gal of syrup so i pulled taps n cjeaned up... sounds like the run continued well into april but it was budding pretty good when i left for home. speaking of ro's, son says he's getting me an ro bucket for father's day... that should help....

[Ed R]

no misprint on the gallons of sap. that's at least 500 gallons of syrup in a day.

[goose52]

so you collected 500 gal of sap per day for 2 months? how many taps?

[Super Sapper]

I don't think it was him personally but they collected 31,000 gallons of sap in one day which makes about 500 gallons of syrup.

[goose52]

ah, i misread. i thought he was trolling so i was trolling back. my bad. need to slow down when i read these posts. apologies to ed.

[Ed R]

RMG has a pretty big operation. I bet all the big producers had two really big days that last week and a half of season. Kind of puts it in perspective when they make as much syrup in a half hour as I do in a whole season.

[GanaSugar]

Third year tapping, going to put in this weekend Chassell MI. I'm doing 35 buckets this year and next week looks warm though overcast.

[nasion]

Likely early/mid next week for me in Chassell as well! Do I know you GanaSugar? We gotta be close!

[GanaSugar]

Hey Nasion, I'm on south entry, ended up digging down to the ground today and putting all my buckets out but waiting to tap until Tuesday.

[GanaSugar]

I ended up tapping my 35 trees yesterday in the sunshine when it was just above 30 degrees, no trees running at the time of tapping, a couple of my trees, which have been prolific producers in years past, had some sap frozen in the lines when I checked around 9pm. Hopefully 40 and sunny today I'll see which taps will be producing this week.

[nasion]

38 taps in today as well. A few were starting to seep a little bit so no doubt once the trees thaw we'll be cooking in no time. Perfect weather in the forecast for the next week or more. Looking forward to boiling again!

[fishman]

Got 100 taps in in the Newberry area. Started to run pretty good. Looks promising for the next 10 days.

[Plungerke]

170 buckets, 70 on pipeline just a dribble and short term forecast isn’t great. This season is SLOW starting…

[GanaSugar]

Sheesh, I had bought a 275g food grade tote this year with anticipation of filling it and then doing a boil, it started slow but now I'm getting 50 gallons a day out of 45 taps. Now it looks like the tote will be over filling by tomorrow (Tuesday 4/5) and rain forecasted for Wednesday. I don't have an enclosed shack so I'll have to power wash out one of my 55 gallon drums to store the rest of the sap so I can start the boil Thursday. These photos are really cool as you can see where there's a 2" layer of ice in the bottom of the tote when we got real cold again. You can see how I've gotten an insane amount of sap in the two warm days post freeze, (4/2 and 4/3) with the ice layer staying and showing a clear line! 226342263522636

[nasion]

Oh yeah, every day now is a bumper sap crop. Gotta get it while the going is good! Hopefully it doesn't get too warm before you can boil off that tote so your sap stays fresh enough.

[GanaSugar]

I'm not doing that big of a boil again.... 330 gallons in a batch and I had to boil over Thursday and Friday night, finished Saturday morning. Syrup is dark from the extended boil but tastes great. I'm doing another 100gallon boil just from what was in the buckets from the weekend and it will be interesting to see how light the syrup turns out even though its a later boil. (one day vs 2.5 of boiling)

[GanaSugar]

I put in 15 taps on 2/11 just because I can't wait... 90% of the trees were running while I tapped. I'm thinking this will be a good starter to the season, do one small boil based on what I got this weekend through Wednesday.

[Mark79]

With this weather I installed 8 taps on 2/10 and like you most are producing 1gal/24hrs with two putting out about 1.5-2gals. Could be a great season if mother nature cooperates.

[GanaSugar]

Posted a longer post in backyarder forum, but I put out 47 taps this weekend and started to upgrade my shed! Long story short I think we'll be running hard in Chassell MI in about 2 weeks and the wife is 36 weeks pregnant. Making hay while the sun shines so to speak ;) I collected about 25 gallons of sap after tapping Saturday and collecting late Sunday (47 taps).

[Pdiamond]

Congrats on the new almost baby. Hope you have some help lined up to do your boiling while you are away.

[GanaSugar]

Haha yeah, i'm sure the grandparents will be over! The baby is a great excuse to take a couple weeks of work off during maple season.

[Grand Marais Boiler]

39 taps 3/21&3/22 pulled 1st boil (126 gal) this morning. Lost sap because of ice/ over flows.
1st time after 4 yr off.
WHERE IS EVERYONE?

[Grand Marais Boiler]

Pulled taps Mon 4/10. Finished 2nd boil Tue 4/11. 233gal. Glad to be done

[GanaSugar]

233gal of sap or finished syrup!? I'm still running, had a good run yesterday, considered quitting when it almost hit 80 last week but we have good freeze nights and warmer days for the next week at least now.

[fishman]

Had a late start and missed a week not believing we'd be tapping this early. 100 taps for only 2 weeks 720 gallons sap and got 21+ gallons syrup. 34:1 ratio. Very little niter. Bucket RO really cut the boiling time down and used a lot less wood. Used a vacumn filter which really cut down the the use of 4 letter words. Would have liked to kept going but there are some of the family that thought they were entitled to get their lives back.