tapping in nova scotia

[nhdog]

haven't heard much from n.s.
it looks like there is finally a break in the weather coming, that is according to accuweather. has anyone tapped yet ? I plowed out trails but with all the snow still on the ground from these last few storms it isn't that easy for us old guys like me to get around. slow and easy will get the job done, i'm going to start tapping tomorrow. looking forward to using my new evap.

[Syrup By The Sea]

nhdog

I was hesitating to tap this year since we had another really dry summer last year and assuming the % sugar will be quite low again. Hmmmm.....

Did you end up getting the Mason??

[nhdog]

syrup by the sea
i had planed on getting one from mason, but with all this crap about the virus i was afraid that i might not be able to get down to pick it up. i ended up ordering from lapierre's their 18x60 ''junior'' evap. right after i ordered it the dealer said they were coming out with their new vison and i could have the same pan set up and all for the same price so i took the vison. picked it up the first of sept. did some test boils to clean out the pans and am really pleased with it.

[Syrup By The Sea]

nhdog

That a sweet evap. Just looked at the youtube advert.

Temps. look good next week.

[nhdog]

syrup by the sea
yeah, it looks good. i am really pleased with how fast it came to a boil with my test boils. looking forward to start boiling sap.
22031

[Danielb]

I got most of my taps in 2 weekends ago. Still waiting on fittings to finish out my last section. Stepped things up quite a bit this year with 360 taps on gravity soon far, another 100 more to do, and a CDL pro series 2*6 pan set.

[maplesyrupstove]

Tapped yesterday an today sap ran a little yesterday. Got my stove ready. Hoping to turn my Vacuun on tomorrow in the rain. Got 8 inches of snow in my woods yet.

[Syrup By The Sea]

nhdog
I bet you can't wait to spark that up.....what a nice looking unit.

Did any of you guys get much sap in the past week? I think I might give it a whirl in a few days after this next little cold snap.

[Hkb82]

Nice looking unit nhdog I’m jealous lol

[Danielb]

I got about 125 gallons of sap from 360 taps on gravity over the last 3 days. Hopefully not a representation of what is to come.

[nhdog]

I started tapping Wednesday and did some more on Thursday. Froze my butt off in that cold and wind. Got a little sap Wed. and then the cold shut everything back down again. But the good news is the season is still ahead of us. I hope.

[theonlybull]

i got excited and taped about 3 weeks ago, 50 taps, and had about 100-125 gallons, not much since, this week i have about 40 gallons, and will likely boil a little today.
running my own arch, and danielb's old pans. first year for lines on gravity, and a sugar shackish in the woods.

[Syrup By The Sea]

Ok, I tapped my 50 reds this w/e....just got them all in before the rains last night. Most of the trees were flowing. Collected over 50L of sap this afternoon. ~1L per tree.

Will check the buckets after this next little cold sap on Wed or Thursday and hopefully collect a bit more this time.

[CBLA]

I plan on tapping this weekend. I am running a little behind this year.

[nhdog]

syurp by the sea
you were lucky to get your sap in. i didn't have a chance, it came on so fast here and the wind blew hard enough to knock me off my feet. that cold hit next and i ended with a lot of ice. spent the next couple of days melting ice. good thing though is the ice in the storage tank will keep the sap for a while.

[Syrup By The Sea]

nhdog
Yes, that wind was wicked, cold and unrelenting. It blew a fresh gale for days down there. If I wasn't using ice cream buckets with tubes attached, I would have had sideways sapcicles coming from the taps!!
I did end up going down today to check the buckets and I didn't even bother collecting it. It was mostly frozen and wouldn't have been much more that 10 or 15L maybe?....most of it from less than 10 of the trees. Should stay cold enough to collect later when it warms up next week.

[lilskipper]

got about 25gal last week from 30 taps, finished tapping and the sap stopped 50 in now. break in the weather coming. fingers crossed everyone had a great season!

[Syrup By The Sea]

Question for anyone out there in maple land:

I should have paid more attention to this in the past, but I'm pretty sure I notice some of my same trees seem to fair much better than others year after year (as far as good sap production). I guess I should keep better notes. Just wondering if anyone experiences the same thing and is it worth tagging them in some way for the following years....and ignoring the ones that didn't produce much for future seasons. Then I could move onto other trees a little further away and test them out. This might be a hard one to answer as I know there are many factors at play, but just wondering if anyone has experienced this. Probably not much of an issue for people with over 100 taps.

I see Galena over there in Eastern Ontario, for example, seems to have a tree that's a great producer year after year.

[Pdiamond]

I have one big tree in my woods that I haven't tapped in two years because the last time I did it didn't produce squat. Its about 3.5 feet in diameter and had never been tapped. Go figure, I'll try it again.

[Hkb82]

Trees can be a little crazy or weird sometimes. I have some that flow great beside some that didn’t flow to much. Some seem to be good ones every year and others some years good some not. I have a few big boys that have multiple lines on them and when I did buckets they would have different levels in the bucket when collecting. That’s was weird to me same tree same temps different results. I’m sure there is some science behind it but I forgot my lab coat at the house. I’d give it a few years of testing then if it’s just not producing skip it next year if you have more trees. The big boys take a long time to thaw in my bush sometimes by the time they do the season is almost over. I like me a nice 14 inches lol

[CBLA]

Same thing for me. I have a few large Sugar Maples that are terrible producers and they are right next to great producers.

[Syrup By The Sea]

Yes, thanks for the input. I'll be keeping better track over the next few years to see if there is a trend.

Only a handful of trees produced anything significant here in the last few days. Collected ~25L total, so around a half a litre per tree. Not great. Hoping the next cold spell coming later this weekend recharges them again.

Hope everyone else is fairing better.

[nhdog]

it is the same story with me. i've never seen it so bad a start of a season. i've got all reds except for 3 sugar maples. only the sugars are dripping a little once in a while. i sure hope things make a change here soon on the south shore for the better.

[CBLA]

things are slow for me as well. collected 50l of sap yesterday.

[Syrup By The Sea]

Hopefully another crop comes later this week when she warms up again. I'm not sure, but it feels like either I miscalculated the season and started too late, or this oddly warm winter has affected the trees in some way and shortened the window, or the really dry summer last year reduced this years' sap production.....or some combo of all three. No idea!!

I do know that a few of my reds closer to the water are showing the first small signs of swelling buds (reds start earlier than sugars I think). Maybe this next window might be the last one for me this season (long-range shows all above zero after next weekend, grrrrrrr.....).

I will guard what little 2021 syrup I get with my life.

[theonlybull]

i hope everyone has been busy boiling, last week i had the biggest run in one day yet, and started with 300l yesterday, my lines thawed at 10am, and it ran decent all day. today it should run even better.. forecast isn't favorable though, only a low of 0 the rest of the week here in bear river...

[Danielb]

Hope folks didnt give up early. i collected handy to 800 gallons from sunday and mondays run, and expect more coming in today. Tomorow looks fairly promising too, although hard to say yet.
I had nearly given up on the season by the end of last week, but im awful happy i hadnt made any move to shut thigs down.