Tapping and Tubing in a Swamp

[Cedar Eater]

I found some very big Reds, Silvers, and Freemans while in a very wet area on my hunting land today. The trees get lots of sunlight and have great crowns, but some of them were completely surrounded by snow covered ice. The water will likely not be more than 12" deep when the ice thaws, but the bottom will probably be boot-sucking mucky. I can't imagine collecting with buckets once the weather warms, but if I get 3/16" tubing run next Winter and get the trees tapped while the ice is still thick enough to walk on, I can use vacuum to collect and hopefully not have to go in until it's time to pull taps. Does anyone have experience with tapping and tubing in this kind of situation? I would be very interested in hearing what kind of tricks you use to make it work.

[Tweegs]

I have a pond at the back of the property, overflows this time most every year.
About 20 silvers back there under about a foot of water right now.
They still produce.

When we first started tapping trees here 10 years ago I had them on tubing and would boil that sap separately because I feared some off flavor may develop…it did not.

We upgraded to vacuum a few years later and I tied them right in to the system, never looked back.

While they will produce sap with the roots underwater, I can tell you that the years when they are dry they produce much better.

[maple flats]

So far this year I have tried using 3/16 to collect sap from 5-6' below the main line. The line I added yesterday on mostly reds with 3-4 silvers had 30 taps on it. That line is about 400' long and while it is not in a standing water swamp, it has several wet spots. I ran the line about 350', then at a tree adjacent to my main driveway I put an end tree hook connector on it, from there it climbs up about 12' to a limb, then across the driveway to another tree, over a limb and then it slopes down to the mainline at about a 35% slope. The driveway and final slope add at least another 50', likely more. Yesterday the sap was running so good that I had good flow out of the line even before I tied it into the mainline which has 26-27" vacuum.
While not ideal, it does work and if it is in trees that you can not tap otherwise I find it a good alternative.
This was my second line in that area, the first was slightly higher ground, was all sugar maples and only had 19 taps, it also climbed over the driveway and then down to the main. I'm sure these lines are not giving as much sap as if I had no lift and actually had a drop in elevation to aid vacuum, but I had not tapped the sugars in 6-7 years and I had not tapped the reds and silvers ever before, I now get an impressive amount of sap thru those 2 lines Based solely on watching the sap flow thru the 3/16 tubing. I hope to add 2 or 3 more such lines if I get time (1@7 sugars, 1@30 reds and 1@15-25 all reds and silvers, I have not yet gotten a count on that one). All of those will be 500-700' long, the first 2 will be essentially no lift, the last would have 5-6' of lift to the mainline, then a 12-13' sap ladder before it gets to the releaser., but our weather is finally starting to warm back up and especially the reds and silvers may well open bud before I get a chance. The flowers are out big now, but no green showing yet. We have not seen any temperatures above 39 in 3 weeks, and most was a high of 25-34F with several overnight lows below 10F but none below 4F.
In the future, I will likely try some more of this type of line to an even wetter area and likely up to 8-900' long, but that would be the end of my potential taps around the sugarhouse. At this point as of yesterday my BB4 pump is getting 26-27" vacuum on 225 taps with 5 lines of 3/16. The 2 I mentioned and 3 I tried last year which have 25-26" vacuum on them, they lift up to about 3' in elevation and the longest was only about 200' long, the shortest only about 80'.

[Cedar Eater]

Thanks, guys. This gives me hope that I can establish this as a mechanical vacuum line with a small diaphragm pump. The whole 80 acres is very level and this particular area is isolated from other concentrations of maple trees, so it will only be about 15-20 taps max, but if I go with the flow through the swamp, I can get to an area where I can pump the sap. Two of these are feet wet most of the year and some years all year. They sit on hummocks that are only about twice the diameter of the huge trunks. It's going to be a challenge cutting the trail for routing the line, but the hard part will be getting the taps pulled at the end of the season without losing boots.

[maple flats]

Use a small skiff or canoe if needbe. Can you get in there in season to fix leaks?

[Cedar Eater]

Use a small skiff or canoe if needbe. Can you get in there in season to fix leaks?

There is not much open water. It's very thick with brush, mostly speckled alder and sometimes tall swamp grass. I went out today and found more trees. I think hip boots or waders might be required for fixing leaks. Maybe some kind of raft with floats could be poled around if I could clear a path along the line. If I get a dry enough year, maybe I can brush hog a trail.

[Cedar Eater]

These are the two biggest trees, but you get an idea of the thickness of the brush behind them. The snow is covering ice that will become open water for at least a few months.