West Michigan 2021 season?

[Balrog006]

Anyone out there planning or starting to lay out taps, tubing, etc.?

What are you all thinking for your start date? I’ve typically started around President’s Day in Allegan Co-but due to other projects I’ll get a late start and reduce my taps this season...

What’s everyone else planning?

[toquin]

Laying low this week

[Pdiamond]

I am thinking the weekend of Feb 20th of putting in the tubing taps.

[Ed R]

The 3-4 week climate models are showing a below normal weather pattern through the first week of March for all of Michigan. Looks like an old fashion season setting up. Hopefully making syrup into April, even in southern Michigan.

[Balrog006]

The 3-4 week climate models are showing a below normal weather pattern through the first week of March for all of Michigan. Looks like an old fashion season setting up. Hopefully making syrup into April, even in southern Michigan.

Where are you seeing those predictions? Do you have a source or a website you can share?

Thanks.

[Ed R]

Www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov. The problem is Noaa is predicting a warmer than average March which is not good.

[Balrog006]

Www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov. The problem is Noaa is predicting a warmer than average March which is not good.

Prediction is for lower than average temps yes, but only slightly higher chance (55 vs an even 50/50) so not a very strong prediction. Along with an even 50/50 chance of average precipitation. Pretty much an ‘average’ February.

However looking deeper into the NOAA site I see this https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/30day/off14_temp.gif predicting with a 33% chance of a higher than average temp for the month of February... seems as though their own predictions aren’t consistent.

[Ed R]

All I know is I'm ready to go whenever temps moderate. It only takes me a couple of hours to tap my 75 or so. Local weather man in his banter with the co-host said daytime highs this week would be lucky to get into the low 20s and next week the low 30s. I think they have a pretty good line on the next 2 weeks, after that????

[vinkandy]

I'm in the Grand Haven area. I typically look at anything in the forecast hovering around 32-35 for 3-5 consecutive days and freezing temps at night before I even consider it. That puts most of this month out based on the 10 day. Maybe run taps the 27th? Again, it all depends on temperature and not the calendar.

[Balrog006]

I'm in the Grand Haven area. I typically look at anything in the forecast hovering around 32-35 for 3-5 consecutive days and freezing temps at night before I even consider it. That puts most of this month out based on the 10 day. Maybe run taps the 27th? Again, it all depends on temperature and not the calendar.

Yeah it seems this month is a wash due to the temps. It remains to be seen how the season will progress and how long it will last and if it will all even out in the end or if February will be ‘lost time’.

[ehausinfrats]

Looks like I'm waiting till March this year. All I'd do is make ice. Extended forecast looks cool. Has the makings of a short season. Its the latest I've ever tapped.

[ebliese]

Tapping has been on my mind, too. But, as other said, it depends on the temperature so I'm just waiting. My dad says you can only get a good idea on the weather less than three days out. Beyond that, things may change. Thankfully this gives me time to do more work on the sugar shack. It won't be perfect but it will be usable.

[Lethalbowman]

21958
North West MI here. (Grawn)
Going to tag the trees that I will have my 50 bag holders on this year by the end of the week. The forecast is looking good for next week to get things started so I may just hang 20 - 30 in the more open areas and see what I can collect.

[quietgrit]

We're hoping to put our taps in this Sunday, Feb 20. Forecast shows 34 on Sunday then above freezing in the day all week.

[Ed R]

I'm waiting for the rain to go thru the first part of next week in southern Mi. It might thaw things out and knock down the snow a bit. I will tap mid week or towards the end of next week. It's going to take a few days for the bigger trees to thaw out especially.

[Spartazoo]

I am going to start tapping trees later this week. I have this gut feeling that we are going to go from too cold to too warm way fast this year. This is the latest I have ever tapped.

[quietgrit]

We tapped some of our trees yesterday in Kalamazoo. We are planning to tap more today.

[toquin]

Drilling today. Looks like couple days on, couple days off.

[ebliese]

We put in 10 taps yesterday evening. Today is supposed to be a high of 42 and mostly sunny in our area. We will put in more taps (for a total of 50) but we won't be able to pick up our hood until March 6th. We might try some small-length boils just to get the hang of running our rig for the first few times (and to keep the steam down).

[Lethalbowman]

2203322034
I hung 30 of the 50 bag holders I will have out this year and with the warmer temps we are getting here in Traverse City MI area the bags are starting to slowly accumulate some sap. We just need a few more days with the sunshine like we had yesterday to really get things going.

[gbwaterski]

I hung 40 sap sack on the 25th in Newaygo Mi. Most of my trees were dripping slowly a few were dripping 1 drop every 2 seconds.
22043

[toquin]

Running good here next to the lake.

[Balrog006]

I’ll be tapping a dozen or so of my best trees tomorrow, hopefully things will be running well here.

[Maplehobbyist]

We put in 35 taps yesterday before noon. The sap was running out of the holes before we could get the taps in. Haven't checked yet today to see how much, if any, we got; going out to the woods now to do that.

[PamZ]

I'm cleaning and organizing today, tapping first thing tomorrow.
I skipped a few years, was out of the state, so super excited to get back in it 😁

[Maplehobbyist]

We got more than 40 gallons out of the 35 taps that we put in yesterday noon until today at 2. It didn't freeze here, so it must have run all night. I would collect 3 taps and it would be about 4 gallons. Some of my double tapped trees had almost 4 gallons in their buckets. Now it I can just figure out how to keep the racoons out of the buckets...not that they've hit me yet, but last year they did.

[gbwaterski]

I hung 343 sap sacks on 2/27. We have collected 140 gallons so far.

[Lethalbowman]

220782207922080
Collected a total of 60 gallons of sap for the 1st boil of the season. A single pass through my RB10 brought the ratio down to about 20-1 I now have about 2 gallons of concentrate to finish.

[toquin]

Not looking good this week, might be done.

[Balrog006]

First week of my season was decent-boiled on the barrel evaporator Sunday and got 6.5 pints.

Collected 16 gallons of sap from 12 taps today...

[Pdiamond]

i don't think it's done yet, just may stall for a couple of days.

[Balrog006]

i don't think it's done yet, just may stall for a couple of days.

Exactly my thoughts, every season so far there has been a stall of a couple days to a week or so. Too warm for sap weather hasn’t settled permanently on us just yet. Patience!

[toquin]

3 days above 60 degrees! Got 150 gals this morning and made some extra dark. Will know Saturday if it's over or not

[Balrog006]

3 days above 60 degrees! Got 150 gals this morning and made some extra dark. Will know Saturday if it's over or not

Every overnight low in my 10 day forecast after Thursday night/Friday morning is 30 or below-I think this was just a “stall”

[Lethalbowman]

We will be up to our eyeballs for the next week or more with freeze thaw cycles just about every day. It's what we have all been waiting for. The warm spell was just a time to clean things up and get ready for the real season. For some of us it was a time for that shot in the arm that we have been waiting to get.

[toquin]

Truck is squatting!

[Balrog006]

Truck is squatting!

Good deal!

[ebliese]

I was out today working on firewood for next season and heard "drip, drip" in my buckets. What a wonderful noise to hear (although this lull we've been having here for a few days allowed me to do some cleaning).

[ebliese]

I am done for the season-pulled taps on Saturday afternoon. Had a long boil on the stovetop to finish the remaining sap. We wound up with just over 13 and 1/2 gallons of syrup (from 50 taps).

[toquin]

35 gals of syrup less then last year. Driest season as far as weather, that I can remember.

[Balrog006]

I’m betting it’s over here too. Only a random night here and there in the forecast shows freezing and then only by a degree or two... I collected Sunday and had probably last boil of the season-3 weeks but a productive 3 where we got almost as much with 12 taps as we did last season on 22 in 4.5 weeks.

[Balrog006]

Pulled our taps yesterday-no sap production for the last week and it’s been far too warm during the day-sugars are all budded out-stick a fork in it and listen to the fat lady sing-done for the year.

Overall with 3+/- weeks and only 12 taps we did well-better per tree than last year by far.

Good luck to everyone finishing up their season and cleaning and storing all of your gear away-looking forward to next season!