how early is too early?

[unclejohn]

Some Missouri folks here have already tapped. Sometimes our sapflow continues into mid March. What are problems that might be encountered from tapping this early?

[buckeye gold]

the main risk is your taps quit running. Look at Cornell's and Dr. Tim's site on reaming holes. You can get a little more season out of a tap. Using buckets your tap holes will dry up quicker than tubing. Unless you have trees to spare I'd wait a while. I tap early, but I have a dedicated bush for early tapping and one for spring regular season. I never depend on my early taps sustaining good flow through to spring. Sometimes they do, but I don't hang my season on it.

[Kh7722]

Some Missouri folks here have already tapped. Sometimes our sapflow continues into mid March. What are problems that might be encountered from tapping this early?
Many of the canadians are already tapped, just saw this morning that someone in Nova Scotia is tapped made a few hundred gallons and their season can go until may 1st. Seems to be going longer and longer

[therealtreehugger]

Good idea having some trees early and some late! How do you decide which to tap early and which to tap later?
I have some on tubing running right to my barn, in the woods, so they are tall without a ton of canopy. I have others on buckets (buckets = 2-3 feet of tubing leading down to a 5 gal pail on the ground), that are out in the open more, and have bigger canopies. These trees are new to me this year.
Any thoughts on which would be better to tap earlier vs later? Which set of trees would produce better earlier vs later? pros - cons?
Thanks!

[buckeye gold]

I would save my best trees for spring. Tap any marginal and junk trees now, early season is not as good for production with less sap and lower sugar. don't gamble with your sure thing trees

[Sugar Bear]

Good idea having some trees early and some late! How do you decide which to tap early and which to tap later?
I have some on tubing running right to my barn, in the woods, so they are tall without a ton of canopy. I have others on buckets (buckets = 2-3 feet of tubing leading down to a 5 gal pail on the ground), that are out in the open more, and have bigger canopies. These trees are new to me this year.
Any thoughts on which would be better to tap earlier vs later? Which set of trees would produce better earlier vs later? pros - cons?
Thanks!


I believe that trees on a south facing aspect are more likely to do better in the early season. I.E. those that get hit by the low sun.

If your trees are effected by the geo thermal warming of Long Island Sound I would consider taping those early too. In this location you will loose your freezing nights needed for good sap flow earlier in the season then other places 4 sure.

I have a tree that flowed extremely well when I did tap early in the season and I am suspicious that the reason was that the tree was located in the middle of my leaf compose pile had something to do with it. The ground under the leaves did not freeze very much.

Here in CT, last year was the first year since I began modern day tapping back in 2016 that I resisted tapping before Feb 15. I was glad that I did because I ended up making just about as much syrup as I did in my peak year since I began tapping in 2016. My season ended by March 15th and I had half the number of fires I had to light as in any of my other seasons since 2016. My gallons of sap was not record but it was close enough. My total amount of syrup made was even close if not tied with my record.

It also put me in great position to catch the record run of early March which I know was also a record run for another sugar maker about 60 miles to my northeast in CT, who has been tapping for at least 20 years in that region.

My amount of work last season was easily half that of any other season.

My rule of thumb for upland CT is ... make sure I have fresh taps for the last two weeks of February and first two weeks of March.

The world is still the world and it still pretty much does what it always did and I try not to turn into a drama queen over it.

[Brian]

I am going to start tapping around the middle of january. Glen Goodrich started tapping around Dec.15. The good thing about tapping is the snow is not so deep.

[ir3333]

We had a good run last spring.My last boil was over 60 gallons of sap for 2 litres of syrup.
I stopped because the sugar content was so low but my trees ran for some time after.
Tapping early would certainly avoid spoiled sap that an early heat wave can cause in
the spring.

[GeneralStark]

I am going to start tapping around the middle of january. Glen Goodrich started tapping around Dec.15. The good thing about tapping is the snow is not so deep.

How many taps is Glenn up to now? Did he make any syrup with the xmas thaw?

[Brian]

I talk to him tonight, He said they had 25,000 taps in and sitting on 30,000 gallons of 1.2 sap. He is going to see what he gets from this next warm spell. Then ro it all and boil it. As far as taps go, alittle over 100,000.

[DrTimPerkins]

I talk to him tonight, He said they had 25,000 taps in and sitting on 30,000 gallons of 1.2 sap. He is going to see what he gets from this next warm spell. Then ro it all and boil it. As far as taps go, alittle over 100,000.

Tapping decisions depend upon number of taps and work-force. If you've got 100,000 taps and can only do 10,000 a week, then you better start 10 weeks before you expect the season to start. The longevity of the taphole (how well it flows over time) will depend upon spout/dropline sanitation practices (including vacuum management in there) and the weather. There is a trade-off between tapping early and sap production later in the season, and that calculation varies depending upon the factors above. A taphole is a "perishable" product...and how long it lasts depends upon time, temperature, and sanitation level.

[unclejohn]

OK thanks to all. We will likely ream the holes in early Feb if flowrates decline. John

[minehart gap]

Tapping decisions depend upon number of taps and work-force.

Dr. Tim, doesn't location play a factor as well? For example, earlier in this thread Nova Scotia was mentioned with making syrup into May but here in central Pennsylvania, I have not made any syrup past the end of March. I would think that geography and the earlier mentioned microclimate would play a major role in when to tap. Does this sound correct or am I way off?

[DrTimPerkins]

Yes, obviously location is important. I felt that was included in the “weather” aspect of my comment, which would take in both physio-geography, elevation, aspect of a sugarbush.

[therealtreehugger]

Sugar Bear - Thanks for the specifics - it is good to know what other maplers are doing nearby. I think I only have tapped once in Jan, but recently, not until early-mid Feb. I am almost 10 miles inland from LIS, so I get a little warmth, but not much. I think I will start with the more crowded trees on tubing, and add the stand-alone bucket trees later. Thanks for the insights!

[Sugar Bear]

Sugar Bear - Thanks for the specifics - it is good to know what other maplers are doing nearby. I think I only have tapped once in Jan, but recently, not until early-mid Feb. I am almost 10 miles inland from LIS, so I get a little warmth, but not much. I think I will start with the more crowded trees on tubing, and add the stand-alone bucket trees later. Thanks for the insights!

It would be nice to have a better feel of sugar content of the early season sap. I will bet people could have gotten a lot of sap in CT in early to mid December this year for sure. I wonder how much under 1% it would have been.

Every year the sap suckers drill holes in several of the trees around me ( and yes most of those trees are healthy trees ) and from those trees I have developed a high tech method of determining how well the sap flows beginning from December onward when it does flow. ( look at the side of the tree below the sap sucker holes )

I am also thinking of rigging up some modified taps into a couple of those sucker holes to get enough sap to do a sugar content on.

That would let me know sugar content before I even drill any deeper tap holes.

However, I may just start killing sap suckers during the early season even though it is a federal crime with a jail sentence more substantial then if you stole all of someone's money.

[minehart gap]

I am also thinking of rigging up some modified taps into a couple of those sucker holes to get enough sap to do a sugar content on.

A refractometer will tell sugar content with only a couple drops of sap.

[buckeye gold]

I tapped my early taps about two weeks ago. Sugar started at 1.0-1.2 and has been going up steadily. Average is ~1.4, but I had a run yesterday that was 1.8.

[Sugar Bear]

I tapped my early taps about two weeks ago. Sugar started at 1.0-1.2 and has been going up steadily. Average is ~1.4, but I had a run yesterday that was 1.8.

Are you tapping Reds or Sugars?

[buckeye gold]

sugar maples