CV2 results

[eagle lake sugar]

I just wanted to post the results of my first season using check valve spouts. I'm a realist and skeptic and have to see things for myself. I found that I was able to maintain 27" of vacuum all season with very little effort, even though I work full time and am not home during daylight hours to walk the lines every day. I repaired all the initial tapping leaks and they were fine the rest of the season. I've never been able to maintain more than 24"-25" for any length of time before. The trees also ran until the end, in fact they're still running but the sap has turned. We had the most snowpack in 35 yrs., very similar to last season and a very late start and short season, but I made nearly 70% more syrup this year. It salvaged what would have been another terrible season. I'm retiring early this spring from my day job and can't wait to see what I can do next year with a few sugarbush improvements, more time to dedicate to sugaring and CV2 spouts.

[doocat]

Just curious about a few things. Do you replace drops on regular basis? What taps were you using before? Do you leave vacuum on all the time? I use cv2’s as well but every season is different and I did not feel I benefitted from them this year. Just a topic for discussion. Craig

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Great to hear eagle lake, I was wondering how you guys made out up in the County. A tough place to make syrup for sure, glad you had a good year.

[Russell Lampron]

Just curious about a few things. Do you replace drops on regular basis? What taps were you using before? Do you leave vacuum on all the time? I use cv2’s as well but every season is different and I did not feel I benefitted from them this year. Just a topic for discussion. Craig

I use the one piece CV2 spouts and replace them every year. I don't replace drops and I don't wash my tubing. I've been consistently making the same amount of syrup per tap since I started using them when everything was new. I tap in early to mid February every year and even though it was cold, this season was no different. I normally get sap until the first week and a half of April which I also did this year. We had a late start this year, I didn't boil for the first time until the 12th of March. I was getting good sap runs right up to the end on April 9th about 8 weeks after first I tapped. I was pulling 26.5" of vacuum just about all season and I use a mechanical releaser. When I pulled the taps most of the holes were clean unlike before I started using CV2's when most of them were loaded with white slime. For me they work good and I see no reason to change to something else.

[Maplewalnut]

I first used the orginal cvs with stbby and then converted for two consecutive seasons with cv2s. Seasons tend to end abruptly here is NE PA and I never saw anything extra that I didnt see with new non cv taps in previous years or since. My trees just plain stop running way before any buddy syrup or stringy sap. I do change drops every 4-5 years leave pump in except for extended cold spells but have reverted back to cdl disposable taps with same production on a per tap basis.

[eagle lake sugar]

Just curious about a few things. Do you replace drops on regular basis? What taps were you using before? Do you leave vacuum on all the time? I use cv2’s as well but every season is different and I did not feel I benefitted from them this year. Just a topic for discussion. Craig

I've always used straight seasonal spouts, new every year. I shut the vacuum pump off after the lines freeze, it makes zero sense to leave it running all night. Last season when I pulled taps, some of my south slope trees had dried up, they'd been running for 4 weeks while the north trees were dormant until the last 2 weeks of the season.We only get 3 to 4 weeks here tops.My thinking was, if I could get the south trees to run longer, it would improve the yield and it seems to have worked. The sap always turns here before it stops running. They don't really wake up until early to mid April, run for a couple weeks and then it stops freezing at night and the sap turns.

[eagle lake sugar]

I first used the orginal cvs with stbby and then converted for two consecutive seasons with cv2s. Seasons tend to end abruptly here is NE PA and I never saw anything extra that I didnt see with new non cv taps in previous years or since. My trees just plain stop running way before any buddy syrup or stringy sap. I do change drops every 4-5 years leave pump in except for extended cold spells but have reverted back to cdl disposable taps with same production on a per tap basis.I think they have their place. You get much larger yield in your area than is possible here. Even under high vacuum, a quart per tap is a good season for us, or anyone around here including 50,000 tap operations across the border. I could see that in some cases it may not make a big difference. As I said, last season and this season were very similar in weather, snow depths etc. over 4 ft. of snowpack, and I got 70% more sap this season. I'll use them again next year and hopefully see good results.

[doocat]

Well said eagle lake! They have their place for sure. Good info.

Craig

[GeneralStark]

There is no silver bullet in sugaring. I have been using CV2s for 5 seasons on a tubing system that is now 6 seasons old. Drops are 1-5 seasons old. I get lots of animal damage here as we have 16 different species of trees in our woods and many of them produce nuts. So, drop replacement typically ends up being dictated by damage.

My strategy is to use a new drop and spout where necessary and a CV2 otherwise. I do run the vacuum 24/7 unless it freezes up for several days. This season it ran for over a month straight.

The 2012 summer in March really changed my thinking and now I tap in mid-late January or early February. The winter weather here has become so erratic so to me it is worth catching the early runs. I have had several seasons now where we made a good portion of our crop in February. IMO, using a CV2 or new drop and spout provides some insurance that if the season does go late, like last year, I can continue getting good yields up to the end.

Our 2018 season I tapped in mid January and we boiled once in January. We then made almost half our crop in February and the rest in March and April. Our last boil was April 18th. We made .65gpt. That was enough evidence for me to support my thinking.

Our 2019 season was totally different. I tapped in early February and while we did get some sap that month, it froze in the tank and was not boiled until our first boil March 15th. We went until April 14th and made .55gpt.

SO while I agree that CV2s probably don't work for everyone, if you want to tap early and maintain production as long as possible, it is probably a good option. If you tap the traditional time for your region and only have a 4-5 week season, they may not make sense. The risk here for me with tapping the traditional time is that the season ends abruptly like in 2012. It also seems to make sense to me that all the equipment sitting in the sugarhouse should get used as much as possible, so if I can make syrup in January and February, why wouldn't I?