Surviving a warm spell

[wobbletop]

I wasn't sure which forum this question should be located in.
We are going to have a warm spell here and any sap I collect would quickly spoil so I'm not going to bother collecting anything. In fact I doubt anything is going to be running for the next few days.
Could I take my bags off the trees and rinse them out and store them and then put them out later in the week when the temperatures are going to drop?
Or will this warm spell cause the trees to bud and the taps to close and it won't be worthwhile trying to hang the bags again.
In other words is my season done?
Southwestern Ontario

[jrgagne99]

Keep collecting daily and store it in a snowbank on the north side of the shed. Smell it when you're ready to boil. You'll know if you should toss it. :-)

[BCPP]

I suspect the season is done. Weather guys keep toting with us, showing lows below zero next weekend one day and then above zero the next. Debating whether to pull spiles now or wait and see. Problem with waiting, even if more sap does come, I'd have to go empty buckets before the freeze, not to mention effort of cleaning out the bulk tank.

[ir3333]

don't give up yet if there is frost in your bush.It will keep the sap too cold to start the buds.
Take your buckets off and turn them upside down or empty them daily...you don't want an
inch of sap laying in them during the hot spell.
Some i know have already called it a season but there could be a couple of runs next week?

[Michael Greer]

I boiled through and finished the last of what I had yesterday. The tanks have all been flushed with water and the evaporator is full of water too. If it gets cold tonight, we may see it start up again. Today I'm dumping all the buckets so we can start (somewhat) clean again. It's a pain because I'll have to start from scratch and re-sweeten the pans which takes at least 100 gallons of sap.

[wobbletop]

I looked at my previous years logs and I've generally collected into April. I've only collected sap 6 times this year.
I decided to take the bags off the 20 trees and rise them and wait until we get another cold spell. The taps are still in. Hopefully they won't close over before the next cold spell.

[maple flats]

I boiled through and finished the last of what I had yesterday. The tanks have all been flushed with water and the evaporator is full of water too. If it gets cold tonight, we may see it start up again. Today I'm dumping all the buckets so we can start (somewhat) clean again. It's a pain because I'll have to start from scratch and re-sweeten the pans which takes at least 100 gallons of sap.
That's not as bad as what VVS in Verona, NY has it, their evaporator needs 3200 gal of sap before first draw.

[Michael Greer]

This warm spell is looking more and more like it might last for 10 months. The big trees in the yard have budded, the peepers were heard a few nights ago, and the buds on the lilac are opening. This is going to ruin those guys with hundreds of thousands worth of equipment. I'm a little guy with 500 buckets, and all my stuff was paid for years ago. Making $1500 worth of syrup isn't as satisfying as making $6000 worth, but I don't owe anything...it just means less pocket change for the next year. What about the guys with a quarter million worth of new equipment they're making payments on?

[GeneralStark]

What about the guys with a quarter million worth of new equipment they're making payments on?

There will likely be a whole lot of off flavored syrup made this year... just like in 2012.

[wobbletop]

I ended up taking my 19 bags down and rinsing them out and waiting for a freeze.

Ended up with an extra 195L of sap over a week and boiled down to 3.75L of dark syrup.

That was about 25% of my total production so I guess it was worth it, but it was a lot of work compared to previous years.

[DrTimPerkins]

There will likely be a whole lot of off flavored syrup made this year... just like in 2012.

Normal progression of thinking when poor syrup is made:

- yuck, that's bad
- might be a little better today
- it's not terrible
- seems OK
- it'll be fine
- we can still sell it