Tapping Central Pa 2022

[Paddymountain]

Well folks, it's almost time to start making syrup this year. I've got a pretty good start. I have all my 3/4 tubing flushed
with pool shock, we will see how that works. I'm going to try a shurflo/solar setup on a 50 tap bush. I've tapped it for about
ten years, so should be able to make a good comparison. Need to finish putting new spouts on the woods at the house and
fix 3 big leaks. Also, have a 100 tap woods to re-spout and fix leaks on. Sugarshack is in pretty good shape, just needs a clean-up.
Feel free to post on here! Hope everyone has a good season!
Paddymountain

[Openwater]

Planning on hanging 2 new runs of 5/16 laterals into a solar-powered shurflo 4008 this weekend; 10 taps on each lateral. Still need to get the deep cycle battery.
Rest of taps on buckets.
Probably won't tap til late Jan, early Feb as usual.

[minehart gap]

My sugarhouse is in pretty good shape, need to do the final wash on the tanks and evaporator. I had to replace about 2500' of tubing along with a couple hundred tees and zap bak taps in my woods due to squirrel damage. Time for the squirrels to be relocated into a stew or pot pie. All of my tubing has now been washes with chlorine. Head tank was moved outside to keep it cooler. Replaced the DeLaval 76 with a sp22 vac pump, just need to plumb it in.
Almost ready for this season.
Heading to Meadville this Friday and Saturday to help a sugar making friend who has covid pretty bad. Not my place to mention a name but he sure could use all of our prayers.
Hope everyone has a wonderful maple season.

[Skeller001]

Compared to you guys my to do list isn't worth mentioning. I flushed my RO bucket yesterday and need to wash out my buckets and lines which should take 30 minutes...

I wish I had more trees but the few I have is what I have. I have been able to make enough syrup for our family for the past few years. Each year leading up to this year I would purchase a few things to improve my process. This year I am pretty set and am not planning on buying or changing anything. Probably good since what I have purchased so far will be about a 10 year ROI based on what I produce. But it is a hobby for me, not a business.

Matt I hope your friend is doing better! This Covid mess has been hard on everyone.

[PHSINV]

3rd year here. First two on buckets, gas grill, and a hotel pan. This year I put together an arch with a second hand 20”X33” woodstove (I cut an 11”X29” opening in the top) that I lined with ceramic insulation and firebrick, into which I mechanically encouraged an 18”, 387K BTU Bayou classic Vortex Jet burner. I saved my money for a proper 16”X30” Smokey Lake flat pan And a DIY RO system using GardenFork’s model from YouTube. Using 3/16 tubing on natural vacuum (hopefully!) on about 30 box elder/Norway/red/silvers. Wish I had sugars but they don’t seem to have made the trek to the South Mountain side of the Cumberland Valley. When I figure out why I can’t upload a photo of the rig I will��!

[Skeller001]

PHSINV how much syrup did you get last year?

[PHSINV]

One (1) gallon, the hard way. 85 gallons of mostly box elder sap. Lotta work for that little syrup.

[Skeller001]

Looks like we may be about a week away from tapping....

[Openwater]

I'm still planning on tapping last weekend of January unless we get another polar vortex/cold spell.

[Paddymountain]

Looking at the forecast, it is improving for tapping next Saturday. I have all my woods ready to go. I need to buy a battery
for my shurflo/solar setup yet. Finally bought a stainless steel head tank; I'm going to try and get it up on the platform tomorrow.
Other than that looks like I'm ready to go. Be good to see what happens with the forecast come Monday. Should know for sure by Wednesday
if we pull the trigger.

[Skeller001]

Looking at the forecast, it is improving for tapping next Saturday. I have all my woods ready to go. I need to buy a battery
for my shurflo/solar setup yet. Finally bought a stainless steel head tank; I'm going to try and get it up on the platform tomorrow.
Other than that looks like I'm ready to go. Be good to see what happens with the forecast come Monday. Should know for sure by Wednesday
if we pull the trigger.

Fingers crossed!

[Openwater]

Looks like I'll be tapping trees next Monday before a big thaw next week.

[Skeller001]

Looks like I'll be tapping trees next Monday before a big thaw next week.

That is my plan too, only Sunday night

[john henry]

Just checked the forecast and it is now only calling for 2 warm days... In my experience that is not going to be enough warm time to do much thawing coming out of this extended cold period. What is your experience? Maybe I'll wait just a little to see if the forecast changes before I tap.

[Openwater]

Forecast looking like highs of 36, 45 and 50 next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for Harrisburg area. I'm hoping something starts flowing by Wednesday. With our shorter seasons, I just don't want to miss the first run.
Even with this recent cold, the south side of yard maples have leaking woodpecker holes on sunny days.
Just my observations.

[Manada Hill Maple]

Openwater, where are you located at in Central PA? I'm also in the Harrisburg area in Grantville.

I am also thinking about pulling the plug this weekend in hopes for a run next week.

[Openwater]

I'm in Perry Co about 5 miles west of the Susq river. Temps are usually 5 degrees cooler here than in Hbg

[Paddymountain]

Yesterday I managed to get my remote solar setup installed. I also tapped the 50 taps that run into it.
Today wow! It's 12 degrees out and windy! After lunch I'm going to try and get out and get a few more plugged in.
Monday after work, tap my 110 tap gravity bush. Tuesday set my solar panel and battery on my shurflo setup.
Somehow I need to get my trees at the house tapped. Looks like a fairly decent run coming Tuesday-Thursday.
Buckets will have to wait until after Thursday, as they are calling for almost 1/2 inch of rain.
First boil Friday! We will see!

[Skeller001]

I tapped 13 trees today. The others I have tapped in the past never did very well. Even with it as cold as it was 2 of them started to drip. Hoping for a good season. Good luck everyone!

[Manada Hill Maple]

Put in 45 taps this afternoon. No drips here.

Planning to put in another 50+ this week.

Hoping for a great season!

[Openwater]

Tapped 52 trees yesterday. The only ones that were dripping were the black walnuts in full sun.
The 20 taps on vacuum were only getting about 10-11 in/Hg of vacuum with the pump running dry. Not sure if this is to be expected or not. First time on mechanical vacuum.

[DrTimPerkins]

If you're using a diaphragm or peristatic style pump, you won't build much vacuum unless you have a recirculation line. Those pumps are designed to move liquid, not air, so if there is no liquid the vacuum will be fairly modest. If they are moving liquid, they will also move some air (so you'll get better vacuum). This is why whenever you see one of these pumps being demonstrated the vendors will always have a recirculation line on the pump to show high you can pull the vacuum.

The solution is to install a recirc line with a needle valve so you can adjust it to get maximum vacuum for the flow conditions you're experiencing on different days.

Regardless though, on real warm days when the trees are off-gassing a lot, the vacuum will drop somewhat.

[Openwater]

Thanks for the advice regarding the recirc line, Doc. I thought about it when putting together the pump and plumbing but decided against it since I didn't know how to keep the sap from the recirc line from freezing in the pump when it shut off other than putting a small heating strip near the pump, but I also was leery of adding anything else that might drain the battery preventing the pump from pumping at all; it's all on solar panels and a deep cycle battery.
When I checked it this afternoon, there was sap in many of the drop lines, but wasn't getting sucked into the lateral which is above the drops on many of the trees. When I shut the pump off, the gauges on the ends of both laterals still held at 10-11 in/Hg. Does that mean my taps and connections are tight/no leaks?

[DrTimPerkins]

If the vacuum holds (or drops very slowly) with the pump off the system is either very tight or everything is frozen up (so it is tight). If you're tapping below the lateral there will ALWAYS be sap in the dropline (which would be inverted in that case, so going down), unless it got pulled back into the tree. That is normal. Only movement of air will pull the sap up out of the line in that case, which would defeat the purpose of the vacuum.

[Openwater]

So in a tight system without leaks, all my drops and laterals will eventually be filled with all sap and no air, right? And when all the drops and laterals freeze solid, how long does it usually take for them to thaw (in the woods/shade) once it gets over 32deg? I have my Shurflo set to turn on at 34deg.

[Paddymountain]

I have about 250 taps in so far this season. Today I hooked up the tank of my gravity bush that has a little over 100 taps. Sap was dripping
fairly steady; no stream, but a fast drip. Also turned on the shuflo pump on my 50 tap bush, it started flowing fairly good right away.
Tomorrow, I'll get the vacuum at the house up and running. I don't expect to get enough to boil, but it's a start.
Still have about 50 buckets to put out, and maybe 35 or so taps on 3/16. Looks like we'll get froze out over the weekend, but next week is looking good.

[DrTimPerkins]

So in a tight system without leaks, all my drops and laterals will eventually be filled with all sap and no air, right? And when all the drops and laterals freeze solid, how long does it usually take for them to thaw (in the woods/shade) once it gets over 32deg? I have my Shurflo set to turn on at 34deg.

They may not entirely fill with sap. There will be some gases in the system too. The droplines that go UP will be sap-filled most of the time though.

The amount of time it takes to thaw depends on a lot of things. Air warms faster than tubing and tubing will often thaw faster than the trees do. Temperatures in the woods vary quite a bit from spot to spot, especially if the elevation or aspect changes or you have softwoods mixed in or cold drainage areas. You'll just have to play around and find which temp settings work best for your location.

[Openwater]

Thanks for the insight. Yeah, the drops with a loop that go UP to the lateral are full of sap from bottom of loop up to the T. About 1/2 of these 20 taps are below the lateral.
2 days ago I noticed in the late afternoon when the temp started dropping, that bubbles were very slowly moving backwards in the lateral. I'm assuming that means my almost level laterals still have a minimal downward pitch towards the pump.

[minehart gap]

Squirrel damage is fixed, we'll all of it that I have found for the third round since Christmas. I think washing half a dozen bulk tanks and the RO and I'm ready to tap. I should be all plugged in by the end of the week.

Let the games begin.

[Openwater]

Collected a good 20+ gallons of sap today.
The reds in the floodplain and along the creek definitely running better than the ones up on the side of the mountain.

[minehart gap]

Put more taps in, fix more squirrel chews, rinse and repeat. Oh, and at this rate. I will be tapping all weekend.

[Skeller001]

10 gallons of sap yesterday and 9 the day before. This is a good run for me. With the 10 day forecast I am glad I tapped as early as I did.

[Paddymountain]

Put out my buckets yesterday; some were dripping fairly good.
Vacuum at the house is at 22”. Can’t run much higher as the surge
milker releaser won’t dump. Solar set up seems to be behaving. Don’t quite
have the vacuum where I want it yet. Fifty degree high for today.
Probably wait until tomorrow to gather and have 1 good boil.

[Paddymountain]

Boiled about 275 gallons today; no syrup yet: sugar content is a little low!

[Skeller001]

Boiled about 275 gallons today; no syrup yet: sugar content is a little low!

I thought it was just me. I haven't measured sap over 2% yet this year. I have about 16 gallons of around 7% to boil tomorrow.

[Openwater]

Great day yesterday, collected 26 gallons, of which about 20 gallons was from the 18 reds on vacuum.
Got about 73 gallons of raw sap for 1st boil today; hopefully can RO down to 30-40 gallons before putting it in pan.
Thursday's maple sap was 2.3%, yesterday's was 2%.

[Openwater]

Well, we boiled 38 gallons of RO'ed sap (79 gallons of raw sap) and didn't get a drop of syrup. It took that much to sweeten the pan and also allow enough to flood the pan after final firing to shut down. Hopefully this week will give us enough to actually draw-off during next boil.

[Skeller001]

My boil yesterday yielded 6.25 pints which is pretty good for me. We usually get under 2 gallons a year which is a good amount for us.

[Openwater]

Big run past 24 hrs - Today, collected 48 gallons of sap from 41 red maples and 11 black walnuts. The ones on vacuum are definitely out-performing the buckets.

[Paddymountain]

I’ve boiled three times now. Made some syrup; don’t look
like enough, but never does. Thought my surge bb2 died
on Thursday night, but looks like a glue joint failed. I have a
Sp11 if it does quit. Tv station came yesterday to do a maple
syrup story. It was fun and got to spread the word about
our passion.

[Z/MAN]

I saw your TV interview here in the Scranton area. Nice job, well done.

[Paddymountain]

It was fun! Thanks! Yesterday I boiled about 100 gallons of sap
and got the sugar shack warmed up enough to filter and bottle
syrup. Got everything we made so far in bottles. I have off
tomorrow and think I’ll rinse all my tanks before we get into it again!

[HowardR]

https://www.aphomeschoolers.com/img/FillmoreSauceJars.jpg

I finished canning last week's run yesterday into Fillmore Container's 16 oz. sauce bottles (https://www.fillmorecontainer.com/a16-10c-case12ct-12-oz.html). Fillmore Container is near Lancaster PA and the cost of a sauce bottle and its lid ranges from 82 to 92 cents, depending upon whether you buy in bulk. I can't remember ever making darker syrup in mid-February!

[Paddymountain]

Looks great HowardR! Likewise my first batch of syrup is dark
robust; but has a great taste! Rinsed all my tanks and front pan today.
Gathered about 120 gallons of sap and boiled it tonight, wanting to
stay ahead if we get slammed tomorrow. Ended up with a little over 3
gallons of syrup. Gonna dump my buckets in the morning before
work, and wait until the afternoon to gather from my tubing
systems.

[Skeller001]

you guys are doing well! The last 2 days I have collected more than the normal amount of sap and have a bunch frozen and ready to boil this weekend. I am definitely doing better than the last 2 years so far. After this boil I will be about tie with last year and I am already over 2 years ago.

[HowardR]

I just finished canning the run that started on Sunday. So far I'm 5/12 of the way to the amount of maple syrup that I made last year and the year before. This year's maple syrup season certainly started strong. The syrup's been dark but good. I've hardly had time to do anything else for the last two weeks.

[Openwater]

Boiled down 95 gallons of sap Sunday to make 267oz of syrup, then got enough sap Mon/Tues/early Wed for a boil yesterday of 98 gallons to make just over 300oz of syrup. Already surpassed last year's production.

[Paddymountain]

Just finished a 9:00-5:30 boil! Got all my sap through the
evaporator. Run two batches through the filter press and bottler.
Might get a run tomorrow and then deep freeze for a few days.
Hope sugar content comes up a little, but taking what we get!

[Skeller001]

this is nothing compared to most of you guys but I have 12.75 pints so far. Last year I ended with 12. Is everyone else having a good year?

[Openwater]

Nice job Steve! You've made almost 16 oz per tap; pretty impressive.
I'm only at just over 13 oz per tap, but that includes 11 black walnut trees (pretty low sugar content)

[HowardR]

Big run today and tomorrow. I'll probably be running my evaporator and ROs all night tonight. If so, it will be my fourth night this year when I've done that.

[Paddymountain]

Big time run yesterday! Collected about 420 gallons. Boiled until
midnight and have a little over half of it kicked. Looks like more
of the same today. Maple Tour this weekend, hopefully we will
have sap to boil then! Hope everyone has steam flying!

[Openwater]

yeah, saps been running well. Last year, I was only boiling on the weekends, but the past 3 weeks, I've had to do mid-week boils to stay on top of what the trees are producing. And that includes RO'ing it down to small enough volumes to fit in my fridge.

[HowardR]

Wow, the sap is *pouring* out! The conditions couldn't be better:
Frost in the low 30s last night
Blue skies and the sun is shining.
Temperature is warm enough but not too warm - 46 at midday.
The taps in the trees haven't yet healed.

This is perfect maple syrup weather! I'm actually glad that tomorrow is going to be cold all day because I'll need the extra day to catch up with processing today's sap.

[HowardR]

So far my March syrup has been medium amber while my February syrup was dark amber. Are you experiencing a similar lightening in the color of your syrup?

[Skeller001]

Did my final boil today. The temps over the next week will stay above freezing and my trees just began to bud. That's ok since I ended with my best year so far. To many of you this is nothing, but I ended with 17.25 pints on 13 trees. I tapped a few less trees and became more efficient this year as well. All in all a good season and my family has enough syrup for the year.

I hope everyone else ends on such a positive note!

[Paddymountain]

HowardR; My syrup is staying the same at dark robust. I thought the other day it was going to come up a grade, but not to be.
On a brighter note we had our first day of our weekend tour today and the people carried off syrup by the armloads!
Guess no need to worry about dark or light!

Skeller001; Great to hear your report on how much syrup you made!
And if you did it on less trees all the better!
I am presently trying to wring more sap out of less trees myself.
So far I am at 3000 gallons of sap from 363 taps.
Hope to make 75 gallons of syrup , if we can make it past tomorrows
high of 68-70 I think we can. Weather looks good for late this coming week.

[Manada Hill Maple]

Took the family to visit Matt and his shack at Minehart Gap during their open house today. Always a great time learning from Matt and seeing his setup.

Hoping the temps hold out a bit to get a few more boils.

[HowardR]

Hope to make 75 gallons of syrup , if we can make it past tomorrows
high of 68-70 I think we can. Weather looks good for late this coming week.
We've had similar weather and currently have a similar weather forecast. Tomorrow will be our third day in a row with a high in the 60s, but tomorrow night is supposed to be below freezing and after that the weather is perfect for making syrup (highs mostly in the 40s and lower 50s and lows mostly in the 20s and lower 30s.

I'm trying to figure out how my maple trees are experiencing the weather. Just 3 nights ago the low was 15 and it took a day and a half for them to wake up and start producing sap. I don't think that they will soon be budding, but I do think that my tap holes, not being under vacuum and being just 1.5 inches deep, have started to heal. I'd be interested in hearing other people's opinions about budding and tap holes healing in your maple bushes.

[Openwater]

The temps over the next week will stay above freezing and my trees just began to bud.

Hey Steve
I've never gotten buddy syrup from my red maples. They will push the little red/pink flower clusters, but usually just stop running before any buddy sap/syrup is produced; Dr Tim could probably clarify this though.
I usually just keep collecting until they shut off, or I run out of firewood.
Had a good boil yesterday. RO'ed/boiled off 78 gallons to make 1.5 gallons of maple/black walnut syrup.

[Openwater]

Well, I collected 17.5 gallons of sap today, about 24 hrs since last collection, and it all smelled like a sweet corn mash all ready to be distilled; I'm assuming it stayed warm enough for just the past 24 hrs for it to start fermenting. Any problem running it thru the RO and boiling it? Or better to make something "stronger" with it?

[HowardR]

Well, I collected 17.5 gallons of sap today, about 24 hrs since last collection, and it all smelled like a sweet corn mash all ready to be distilled; I'm assuming it stayed warm enough for just the past 24 hrs for it to start fermenting. Any problem running it thru the RO and boiling it? Or better to make something "stronger" with it?

I put a bit of that "sweet corn mash" through my ROs and it didn't hurt the taste of the syrup (which I'll be bottling today), but my ROs stopped working the way they were supposed to. Normally, I am able to strip 2/3 of the water out with my ROs, but once that lousy sap started coming through, my ROs went down below half. I soon stopped collecting. I let the remaining sweet mash in my tubes dribble on the ground. Then I washed out my barrels and washed out my ROs.

We just missed having a frost last night, so I've still got the sap dribbling out on the ground. I would appreciate it if those of you who got a frost last night would give a report on the sap that is coming in today. Right now I am debating whether to continue with maple syrup season tomorrow, or whether to simply pack it all in. I've already made 90% of my normal amount of syrup, and 10% more is tempting. But I'm half way toward packing up, so ending the season is also tempting.

[Openwater]

Howard,
I figured you'd be going at least a week after me, out there between Butler and Indiana. I think you're usually a few degrees cooler than us here around Harrisburg/Susquehanna valley.
If you're trees are done, I'm assuming mine are already finished as well. No below freezing temps til Thursday, I think.

[Paddymountain]

No frost last night! But, I’m hanging in there ! It looks
to me like two good weeks yet. Any, I’ll let you know how it all
turns out!

[HowardR]

We got a mild frost last night (down to exactly 32) and a "sugar snow" this morning. The temperature only went up to 37 today, but the dripping from the tubes was relatively fast, showing that my tap holes didn't heal in last week's heat. I'm getting the last bit of "sour mash" out of my tubing by dumping today's sap.

Over the last couple of days, I've caught up with a bunch of tasks that I have been putting off. I actually appreciate the short vacation from making maple syrup that we just had which gave me a chance to regain my enthusiasm. I've not only gotten the "sour mash" out of my maple syrup making system, but also out of my spiritual system. The forecast for the rest of the week looks great for maple syrup. Starting tomorrow I'll be back in business and going for that extra syrup that will make this season a good one.

[Openwater]

We're supposed to be just below freezing tonight; hopefully jump starts the trees again.
Alot of the buckets have mold spots in the bottom; usually that means the seasons almost over, but I'm keeping the taps in for now to see what happens the next few days.

[Paddymountain]

Scratched up about 125 gallons of sap today.
Tomorrow I’ll boil down while I’m finishing up
what was in my syrup pan on Sunday. Looking good up
to next Tuesday. Might be tough to continue after that.
Would like to get at least 15 more gallons; not impossible.
Seems like we just started, but it’s been a month since my
first boil.

[HowardR]

Looks like one more run, starting Monday, to finish the year for me. The tap holes are healing.

[Paddymountain]

Boiling 200 gallons right now ! End is surely in sight

[Openwater]

I'm planning on a final boil on Wednesday. Temps won't go below freezing for any practical purposes after that.
Then time to get ready for trout season.

[Openwater]

I'm done. Final boil was yesterday.
Ended up with 8.5 gallons of syrup for the season; more than double what we made last year on almost same number of trees.

[Paddymountain]

Finished up today. Boiled out my evaporator and have
everything filtered / bottled.
4200 gallons of sap 11.57 gpt
363 taps. 71 1/2 gallons of syrup total
All dark and very dark, but all with really good flavor.
Hope everyone had a good season!