Southeast Ohio, 2021

[Tor Haxson]

Hey there,

This Forum has been a great resource to me, thanks everyone.

Basically this is still just a hobby for me, somehow the addiction has not grown beyond 1-2 dozen taps and a sloppy outdoor 3-steamer pan boiling rig.

That said it is still a lot of fun and a good reason to get out and work outside in late winter.

I plan on tapping my 16 tap 3/16 run today or tomorrow.

I bought 3/16 spouts with Check Valves and will use those.

It may be just a coincidence, or it may be science, but the year I ran check valves my run seemed to last forever, so glad to be back in the check valve game. There was a time when 3/16 with check valves were hard to come by so I switched to non-check valves out of laziness with the adaptors from 3/16 to 5/16 and everything.

Each year is so different it is hard to put the cause for a long run on any one thing.

The trees are mostly Sugar Maples with a few red maples at the top of the hill.


Happy Tapping every one !!

Let's hope it's a good one..

--
Tor

[buckeye gold]

Hi Tor,

Good luck. I am northwest of you about 1.5 -2 hrs and I have a bush of early taps (50) out since December 16th. The last two days have been a good run and I am about ready to shutdown these fall taps and clean up for my main bush of 105 taps next weekend or maybe Feb. 1st. You might consider holding off 7-10 days. The weather looks like a cold spell and then a better warm up. The runs have been sporadic of late. Of course fresh new taps will run better, but I still recommend waiting. One question, How old is the 3/16th line and drops. Your sap yield may be more related to line age than check valves. If the year you used check valves it was a new line that is most likely the reason it ran longer. I change my 3/16th laterals every 5 years, but do new drops, tees and taps every year. That and good cleaning mean more then check valves.

[Tor Haxson]

Buckeye Gold,

Thanks for the advice..

The really long running year was both check valves and new line, so you may have hit on the issue.

Now you have me torn between being lazy and running the old line and putting in new..

I think Lazy is gonna win, but I am probably getting to the 5 year mark on that line and will replace before next year.

One strategy if this line dries up before the season seems to be over, I do have another 10 tree gravity 3/16 run I could tap, and about 8 big sugars on buckets I can do.

The deal is the 3/16 runs self manage better everything running down to a collection point. The scattered big maples take more maintenance to avoid over-running buckets and the like.



Hoping for a good year...

--
Tor

[buckeye gold]

I understand the saving on the extra work. You could still flush the line with a good cleaning of chlorine solution, it should help. I'd look at new next year for sure

[buckeye gold]

well I gave in to the warm day and tapped my main bush today (100 taps) all on 3/16 gravity. It was running big this evening and I had 40 gallons by 6:00PM, plus I still have the 50 early taps out.Looks like a full day of boiling tomorrow. I had planned on waiting another week, but I knew I could get a big run today, it hit 50 here.

[christopherh]

Buckeye, what is the sugar content?

[buckeye gold]

Collected 70 gallons of sap this morning off a short day yesterday. Sugar was 1.8%, which is pretty good for my bush. Finished boiling it off about 12:30 with almost 1.5 gallons of syrup.

[bmbmkr]

We're tapped- 550 this year, I pulled a lot of taps off trees that I had 2 in last year ( greedy). We've got some sap, haven't measured % yet. Can't wait to start boiling, maybe tomorrow evenin or Monday.

[bigrick_2u]

Tapping towards the end of this week. Really wish I tapped last week as temps of been great. Gallia County. Hope I don't miss too much between now and this weekend. Cheers everybody!