Chester County 2019

[a.clarke]

Hey everyone. I'm new to the area and just wondering what time everyone around here usually taps?

I still have a few things to sort out before I am ready anyways so that is okay. Going to head out tomorrow and get my collection tanks all put in place and possibly run some lines.

I got all my drops made up a couple weeks ago so that is good. Just got my oil tank evaporator all finished up and ready to go. I do still need a pan for it but I have a couple options on the go for that.

I am stumped though. It looks like pretty good tapping weather coming up in the next week or so but we still haven't had a real winter freeze up so I am not too sure.

[sbedilion]

The weather does look good....we haven't had a big freeze, which I'm sure its coming.....maybe haha. I have a small driveway operation south of pittsburgh...grown to about 100 taps on 3/16th tubing. This will be my 4th year. The past 2 yrs I've tapped early (2nd wk in Jan) and had great seasons. Things did freeze up solid for about a week and my taps dried up a couple weeks early but I felt my ending result wouldn't have varied much if I waited. I also have a few hobbies that kick up in March/April so its nice to be finishing up the maple stuff before starting into something else. Best of Luck.

[maple flats]

I'm not in your area, but I tap early using CV2 or Zap Bac spouts. I try to have everything ready by the first good run which follows a good freeze and then warm into the 40's during the day. the sap can and does flow in the 30's but not very well.
With 40 taps, you can do the tapping on very short notice so you don't need to plan as far ahead as producers with thousands of taps, or even hundereds.
Watch your local forecast and when the 10 day looks good, put your taps in.

[a.clarke]

Thanks for the info guys. It all makes sense that if the weather is right to tap. Maple Flats, you are right, at least it is only 40 Taps and I can put them in pretty quickly.

I do think that the biggest thing that is messing me up is that there hasn't been any winter freeze up yet. I just moved here from Canada where everything would be frozen solid and buried in 2+ feet of snow at this point.

[iby]

I have been having the same dilemma here in western pa. The winter hasn’t really been a winter and as I install lines, I see broken branches dripping. Afraid to start to early, but don’t want to miss it either. Still hoping Jack Frost blesses us and we can start in feb...

[a.clarke]

iby,

Agreed. It is a tough decision to wait long enough so that the taps don't dry up but not too long that you don't miss all the good runs.

Luckilly it has been above freezing for a while here so it has eased the anxiousness I had about tapping. I will get as much set up as possible so that when the time comes I can just drill holes and set the taps. Also, I have one silver in the yard that is big enough for 3 taps that I will start tapping one at a time as a test with a week or so between each tap to see how the sap is running until I think it is time to tap for real.

[helptheold]

The weather does look good....we haven't had a big freeze, which I'm sure its coming.....maybe haha. I have a small driveway operation south of pittsburgh...grown to about 100 taps on 3/16th tubing. This will be my 4th year. The past 2 yrs I've tapped early (2nd wk in Jan) and had great seasons. Things did freeze up solid for about a week and my taps dried up a couple weeks early but I felt my ending result wouldn't have varied much if I waited. I also have a few hobbies that kick up in March/April so its nice to be finishing up the maple stuff before starting into something else. Best of Luck.

Hey there! I was wondering the same thing for our area, my husband promised to build me a reverse osmosis machine but he hasn't started on that yet. Hopefully I can get him to going on that and tap in a few weeks to get some test sap for him to play with.

[sbedilion]

Hey there! I was wondering the same thing for our area, my husband promised to build me a reverse osmosis machine but he hasn't started on that yet. Hopefully I can get him to going on that and tap in a few weeks to get some test sap for him to play with.

I just finished building mine :)

19115

I'll be putting together the evaporator this week....then I'll start thinking about tapping depending on the forecast in 2 weeks. I still have about a gallon left from last season....so panic hasn't set in yet.

[helptheold]

I just finished building mine :)

19115

I'll be putting together the evaporator this week....then I'll start thinking about tapping depending on the forecast in 2 weeks. I still have about a gallon left from last season....so panic hasn't set in yet.

Nice! I'll have to show him this as he should have all the parts by this weekend and we were discussing how he could put it together. I'll probably put out taps next week and at least get him some sap to try it out on.

In theory, we're headed on a vacation to Arizona the first week of March but with the shutdown that might not happen (we planed to see a lot of national parks, if they're closed what's the point of going?) but either way I would like to get most of my sap before then.

[a.clarke]

Looks like we are finally getting a proper freeze up here. Nice to see that we are going to get at least a little bit of winter. No tapping going to happen here for at least 2 weeks if the long range forecast is even remotely close.

At least I am all ready to go whenever the weather does warm up.