HELP!! Sap stopped running

[Nickkateclark]

This is my first year tapping at my new house but 4 years experience at old house and I started with 22 taps on old growth trees. If it was over 3' in diameter I used 3 taps, if over 2' I used 2 taps, and 1 tap for less than.

I use 7/16 maple bit and drilled 1 1/2" past the bark layer. I use a cdl plastic tap with a drop line to a 5 gal bucket.

Over the first 10 days I hovered just below 4% sugar in some trees which I was amazed at and from those 22 taps I was getting 30+ gallons a day of sap. Over the course of 30 hours a couple days ago I got close to 60 gallons which made me 2 gallons.

Since then they have barely given me anything. Of my 3- 3 tap trees that were giving me 10 or more gallons a day, they are now giving me less than 5 gal in 48hours.

Meanwhile, this afternoon I tapped some other sugar maples on the back of my property all in the 18" range and they have given me over a gallon in the last 3 hours.

Can anyone help me understand what might be going on? Do I need to pull those taps and tap other trees?

Thanks for the help
-Nick

[maple flats]

What kind of maples were the first ones? What has the temperature been for lows and highs?

[Nickkateclark]

They are all sugar maples that I have tapped.

The low temp the last 2 nights has been 25, 28 respectively.
The high temp the last 2 days has been around 48-50

-nick

[fisheatingbagel]

There's usually some variable with the temperatures that extend beyond the air temp - i.e., if the weather has been really cold it may take some extra warm days and sunshine to get the trees flowing again.

[Nickkateclark]

It has not been extra cold, all are southern exposure within 200 yards of each other, and everyone else around me has had excellent runs like I would expect over the last 48 hrs.

Has anyone heard of trees just drying up this fast?

-nick

[cbhansen]

Well not as quick a reduction in flow that you have seen, I have usually seen a reduction in sap output after a few days from the sugar maples that I tap. I'm still old school running about 100 buckets with 7/16 taps. Very sharp tapping bit and well cleaned cast spiles. I've tapped in the same location for 15 years and the pattern is the same every year. I've come to accept that this is the way these tree react to tapping. I hope to move to a new location next year where I can install tubing. Carl