Tapping Central Pa 2023

[Paddymountain]

Well it's getting closer to the beginning of syrup season! Feel free to post on this thread
if you are in central Pa, or you just want to comment.
I have just about all my tubing straightened out and ready to go.
I finally bit the bullet and built a 125gph RO this summer!
We have added about 25 more taps at the house woods (which is all reds)
Not sure what our total count will be for the year, should be just under 400.
Hoping with the RO to process sap a little faster, and maybe get a little more sleep.
Have a great season everyone!

[molineutu]

West Central here. Lots of cleaning going on in the shack. Looks like if this upcoming forecast, is correct, tapping we be somewhere mid February in my neck of the woods. The Sugar maples on my sugar bush are all on the south side of a good down slope, so got that going for me with this current weather situation.

[ADK_XJ]

Well it's getting closer to the beginning of syrup season! Feel free to post on this thread
if you are in central Pa, or you just want to comment.
I have just about all my tubing straightened out and ready to go.
I finally bit the bullet and built a 125gph RO this summer!
We have added about 25 more taps at the house woods (which is all reds)
Not sure what our total count will be for the year, should be just under 400.
Hoping with the RO to process sap a little faster, and maybe get a little more sleep.
Have a great season everyone!

got any info on your build process for that new RO?

[HowardR]

I've been getting out while there isn't any snow on the ground to clear all of the fallen branches off of my maple syrup lines. I remember one February when I had to get out with a shovel to dig up lines that were buried under fallen branches and about 2 feet of snow.

[HowardR]

According to two long-term forecasts, there's a polar vortex coming in 2 weeks. If it arrives, I'll tap my trees as soon as it ends:

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/us-natgas-prices-rise-models-suggest-polar-vortex-unload-us

[Paddymountain]

Just back from a short trip to Honduras.
Now it's time to get the sugar shack tidied up a little. All my tanks are pressure washed.
I have to set up a remote solar/vac system. I might get a skid over there and leveled up
tomorrow. Shooting for February 1st tap date! I kinda believe February is going to be nasty.
January has been rather warm here, nature has a way of balancing out.
Anyway, should be completely ready soon!

[PHSINV]

Put in 6 taps today, surprisingly gusher-y. Forecast looks good for the foreseeable future! Good luck all!

[Openwater]

I think I'm gonna tap my trees this weekend. I don't see the polar vortex in central PA within the next week. Past 2 years I tapped on Jan 30 and Jan 31. With our short seasons here in the Susquehanna valley, I don't want to miss out on any "early" runs; probably already have, however.

[Paddymountain]

Today I set a tank for a shurflo solar system. Went from 2
55 gallon drums to a 150 gallon rubbermaid tank. Not so much for
extra volume , but being able to lower my lines coming in about 8”
Also, cut a small door in my ro room to allow running the hoses to all my
outside tanks. Then I redid the pipe running from the pump in my
bulk tank to my head tank. Either tomorrow or Saturday I want to
get my evaporator rinsed out. Looking to start tapping after next weekend.

[Openwater]

I'm tapping my trees today.
Yesterday I finished hooking up a second solar-powered Shurflo vacuum system and added recirc lines to both Shurflo vac systems for this year. Once sap is flowing, I'll still need to adjust the mini ball-valve controlling the recirc line to obtain optimal vacuum.
This week looks good with days above and nights below freezing.

[Paddymountain]

Put about 100 taps in this afternoon on 5/16 gravity.
A few were dripping a little. Will probably hook them up to
the tank middle of next week. Deep freeze this weekend,
after that I believe the season begins!

[Openwater]

Collected just 40 gallons of sap this week. Hopefully it will be enough to at least sweeten the pan this weekend.

[sandman6921]

After taking 5+ years off mostly due to work travels, so now that I retired wife wanted the grandkids to get/see what is involved, so I refurbished a shed into a sugar shack, cleaned up my home made evaporater (coal fired), built a home made RO system and yesterday tapped 68 trees. Gathered about 75 gallon today, now the fun begins

[Openwater]

Collected just 25 gallons yesterday. Shurflo wasn't running yesterday afternoon on the upper 25 trees; I think the battery is bad. Had sunny days over weekend below freezing that charged battery up to 100% which should run shurflo at least 48hrs on a charge.
Anyhow, the 25 gallons yesterday was only 1.4% sugar. The RO will be working hard if that keeps up.

[Paddymountain]

Got 50 taps in yesterday morning on a shurflo, and last night
17 taps on 3/16. Both were running good. 25 degrees this morning, got
115 put in at the house. Tonight will turn the vacuum on. Need to hook
up the tank on my 5/16 gravity bush on the way to work.

[Pdiamond]

Have any of you Pa. producers heard anything from Cashbohm Maple. I haven't seen anything this year which is a little strange.

[Paddymountain]

First boil today! Also first day using my 4” single post homemade
Ro! Cut about 2 1/2 off my boil time, and didn’t use very much wood.
Tomorrow, I have to put my buckets out and then in the afternoon
gather sap! Looks like a freeze Friday night, and a good sugaring weekend

[HowardR]

Inflation has hit the RO membrane market! I just put my current spare membrane into service and ordered a new one. When I bought my last spare three years ago, the price was $175. This year it was $286.

[Openwater]

This doesn't look like typical February sugarin' conditions:
22861
No frost/freezing after Monday

[Paddymountain]

Hopefully a little colder up here!

[Openwater]

Yeah, you guys on the north side of Seven Mountains/Bald Eagle are always 5-10 degrees colder than us around Harrisburg; and our friends just above I-80 are a few degrees colder than that.

[Paddymountain]

Fourth boil today, closing in on a thousand gallons so far.
Really like the ro! It’s pretty easy on the wood pile!
Looks like tomorrow and Tuesday are going to be big!

[KV Sappers]

Decided it was time to tap again after taking 3 years off. Put 32 taps in January 31. Weather has not cooperated much but that’s mother nature.
Trees run a little then shutdown for couple days. I’ve boiled twice, still sweetening the pans. Hope winter decides to pay us a visit for couple weeks. Either way, its good to be back in the game. Good luck to everyone.

[Openwater]

Welcome back KV!
I'm in Perry Co between Marysville and Shermansdale.
What sugar % is your sap lately? I've been pretty low between 1.2% and 1.6%

[KV Sappers]

First boil sap was 2%, which is great for me as most of my trees are reds. Second boil sap was 1.5% which is normal for me. Need to get some cold nights to help wake the trees up.

[Paddymountain]

Been hard at it the last two nights. Last night made about 7 gallons
and tonight about 5 gallons. Looks like a slow down until the weekend.
Thursday I want to filter and bottle what we have made , also
clean out my evaporator. As of today, processed 1600 gallons!
Hopefully go over 4000! Time will tell.

[KV Sappers]

Paddymountain,
Looks like things are going good for you. Weekend temps are certainly looking better then sixties next 2 days. Crazy season this year.

[Openwater]

Very little sap yesterday, and no flow today. Got up over 70* today; spring flowers pushing up. Hopefully we some below freezing temps soon. Otherwise, those tap holes are gonna start healing up if they haven't already.

[HowardR]

Openwater,

The one year that I re-tapped my trees because the tap holes had healed, I got 30 gallons of syrup before and 50 gallons after. Normally, I get 50-60 gallons per year.

[Openwater]

Howard,
Did you drill new holes when you re-tapped? Or just bump the same holes? Sound like re-tapping really woke them up for the rest of the season.
It's only gonna go below freezing around here for 2 nights over the next week. I don't think that will be enough to create a run. The trees definitely won't freeze.

[Paddymountain]

Today we filtered and bottled all the syrup we have
made so far. Boiled the evaporator out with permeate
while bottling. Tomorrow morning flush a couple of tanks
and dump the rain and old sap out of our buckets. Looks
like a good freeze Friday night! Haven’t really looked at the
forecast lately. I guess since it’s only the middle of February
we should get a little cold weather yet! Time will tell !

[HowardR]

Open water asked:


Howard,
Did you drill new holes when you re-tapped? Or just bump the same holes? Sound like re-tapping really woke them up for the rest of the season.
It's only gonna go below freezing around here for 2 nights over the next week. I don't think that will be enough to create a run. The trees definitely won't freeze."


I drilled new holes about 2 to 3 inches to the side or 4 to 6 inches over or under. By the way, I have all my drill bits set so that they drill exactly 1.5 inch deep holes.

[Paddymountain]

Fair amount of sap today, hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Made about 4, gallons tonight, probably filter and bottle
tomorrow night after boiling.

[HowardR]

Here's the reason why I don't find ticks on me after being out in the woods during maple syrup season:

22902

https://amazon.com/gp/product/B001ANQVYU/

[KV Sappers]

HowardR,
Agree 100%!!! Been using Sawyer for couple years now and ticks are no concern for me in the woods.

[Paddymountain]

Sap is running fairly good today, with a 65 degree high! Gonna
wait until tomorrow morning to collect, and boil. Right now at
2400 gallons of sap processed, possibly half way there! Hoping
the warm days didn’t hurt us too much. Did see bacteria and sludge
in some 3/16 lines! Looks like better weather ahead of us for awhile.

[Openwater]

My collection tanks on the vacuum lines were empty today!
It also got over 70*F here.

[Paddymountain]

Still in the game here! Somewhere around 2800 gallons of sap
so far. It took until 3:00 pm to loosen up yesterday, but
then ran at one gpt until freeze up. Weather is looking better
for the next ten days. Maple tour this weekend, spending a
little time getting ready.

[Openwater]

Of my 2 lines on mechanical vacuum, the one is barely producing anything (<5gal/day) and the other one is still flowing well (>15 gal/day).
Both lines pulling over 25inHg of vacuum. Don't know why the one seems like it already shut down. The one on the side of the mountain is overproducing the one in the flood plain; I figured it would be the opposite.

[HowardR]

Of my 2 lines on mechanical vacuum, the one is barely producing anything (<5gal/day) and the other one is still flowing well (>15 gal/day).
Both lines pulling over 25inHg of vacuum. Don't know why the one seems like it already shut down. The one on the side of the mountain is overproducing the one in the flood plain; I figured it would be the opposite.

I had something similar happen one day last week. After several nights without a frost, the temperature one night got down to just above 32 according to an accurate thermometer at our house at the bottom of the hill. The next day maple trees toward the bottom of the hill weren't yielding anything, but about half way up the hillside, the sugar maples were producing well. I figure that there was a patchy frost which only affected the hillside.

[Paddymountain]

Going to spend the morning getting ready for our maple tour
weekend. Wash the front pan, wipe down the steam hood,
and get the fire ready to go. Looks like a wintry mix coming this
afternoon. Will try and get our buckets dumped before it
gets too ugly out. Redrilled some of the bucket taps the other
day, and definitely saw an improvement. Hopefully two weeks
left in the season!

[Paddymountain]

Maple tour went well! About 65 people Saturday and maybe
40 today! Great time talking to some sugar makers and all
the others that came! Many people said that they were here before
and just like the experience. Hopefully we’ll get a little more sap
before the season is over. Good forecast for the next week or so.

[HowardR]

The incoming sap which had slowed to a slow drip, started to trickle in today in a steady stream. So my son and I went out and put in about 14 taps in some sugar maples that we had never tapped, and the sap was pouring out of every one of them. The maple syrup season appears to be coming back from the dead. The red maples are done, but the sap has started flowing again in the sugar maples!

[Paddymountain]

Still trying to hang in here! Temps are great! Flow not so much!
Hopefully not the end as we are only at 3/4 crop.

[Openwater]

My red maples in the lower floodplain have shut off and there are red leaf buds popping in the upper canopy.
The reds in the higher elevation were still producing sap 2 days ago and no noticeable buds yet.

[Paddymountain]

Still in the game here in Central Pa! We made about 3 gallons of
syrup tonight. Most of the tubing is shut down. We did a little
bucket reshuffle, and put a few more out on some fresh trees.
Tomorrow after work I want to put out about a dozen more.
It looks like it’s cold enough to go a day or two between boils.
If we can continue like that through next week, I would be
really happy! It’s been one of the toughest year I can remember
for awhile.

[HowardR]

Still in the game here in Central Pa! We made about 3 gallons of
syrup tonight. Most of the tubing is shut down. We did a little
bucket reshuffle, and put a few more out on some fresh trees.
Tomorrow after work I want to put out about a dozen more.
It looks like it’s cold enough to go a day or two between boils.
If we can continue like that through next week, I would be
really happy! It’s been one of the toughest year I can remember
for awhile.

Paddymountain,

Why are you abandoning your tubes. I don't understand:
1. Is it because they simply aren't running?
2. Is it because you're getting sap from them that makes off-tasting syrup?

I bottled up over 2 gallons of syrup on Friday, but I'm *not* going to sell a bit of it because there's a bit of a sour taste in it, maybe from the budding red maples, maybe from the bit of yeast fermentation that is occurring in my lines and my collection tanks.

On the other hand, the sap is still pouring out of my buckets and looks perfect. Even though the temperature only got up to 36 degrees today, I collected about 8 gallons of sap from the ten taps that I put into trees around my house two days ago. I haven't tapped those trees for years, mainly because I have to collect their sap in buckets and it is so much easier to simply boil the sap flowing downhill to my maple syrup kitchen out of my tubes.

[Paddymountain]

Howard R; I believe the warm weather has caused a bacteria load
in my lines that just can’t be overcome. I redrilled my taps early last
week and haven’t seen much improvement. It hasn’t been very warm
The last two days, maybe a little warmer days we get them started again!
Time will tell, stay tuned.

[Openwater]

Collected 77 gallons of sap from my trees over the past 3 days.
The vacuum is keeping them going. Nothing from the 2 trees on buckets.
Boiling tomorrow.

[Paddymountain]

Collected 40 gallons 2 percent yesterday from a friends
trees, today 75 gallons 2.3 percent from ours. Plus 50
gallons of 1.2 percent from our reds on vacuum. We have put
out 25 new buckets and did a little redrilling to get where
we are. Looks like next Wednesday or Thursday will be the end!
Hoping to scratch up 10 gallons more syrup! That would put us
close to 70 gallons. It will be a stretch, but gonna hang in until
the end! Certainly been a struggle this year!

[HowardR]

I had my best sap flow of the month today. I'll bottle this batch on Saturday or Sunday, again clean out the yeast from my collection tank, and probably bottle my last batch of the year next Wednesday or Thursday.

I can't remember ever having so much yeast in my collection tank as I have this year. Maybe I should be making maple beer instead of maple syrup!

[Paddymountain]

Not bad here too! Boiling and bottling today! Probably wait until tomorrow to gather again.

[Openwater]

Decent run past few days. Contrary to my good intentions, I re-tapped the lower trees last weekend and they really woke up and are flowing again despite the popping flower buds.

[HowardR]

Decent run past few days. Contrary to my good intentions, I re-tapped the lower trees last weekend and they really woke up and are flowing again despite the popping flower buds.

Openwater,

The only reason why you, Paddymountain and I are still making syrup is because we did some retapping and new tree drilling.

I originally tapped my trees six weeks ago, but I'm still making syrup. Most years I'm done after four weeks. I'm going to remember this year as "the long season."

[DrTimPerkins]

... retapping and new tree drilling.

Just note that this is not recommended practice due to the fact that the internal staining (compartmentalization) is double our more that of a single taphole, and is thus not sustainable in the long-term.

[HowardR]

Just note that this is not recommended practice due to the fact that the internal staining (compartmentalization) is double our more that of a single taphole, and is thus not sustainable in the long-term.

Dr. Perkins,

Thank you for the note. I would never make retapping a long-term practice. In fact, I've only only done some retapping during seasons that would end with less than half the normal amount of syrup and when the a long-term forecast calls for great maple syrup weather. These conditions have only occurred twice (this year being the second) in my 30 years of making maple syrup.

By the way, I have my drill bits all set so that they can't drill more than 1.5" deep. Does that reduce the staining as compared with, say, 2" deep or 2.5" deep holes?

[HowardR]

19 degrees out this morning. High today is supposed to be 35. Low tonight is supposed to be 22.

From February 12 to February 21 we had two days with highs of 70 and only one day with a high below 50.

Somebody shuffled the months this year. We're getting normal February weather in March and we got normal March weather in February!

[Openwater]

Yeah, I know double-tapping in the same season isn't sustainable, as well; and I don't plan on making it a regular practice on these 18 trees. But from reading another thread, it appears there will be no more maple syrup industry in Central Pennsylvania in the not-too-distant future, anyhow, due to other uncontrollable climatic factors. I also know that had I not cut the grape vines and poison ivy vines off these 18 trees, they'd be dead within 10 years, like many other red maples in the same stand that got taken over by stronger competition.

[HowardR]

[F]rom reading another thread, it appears there will be no more maple syrup industry in Central Pennsylvania in the not-too-distant future, anyhow, due to other uncontrollable climatic factors....
Openwater,

If you are looking for a good long-term weather forecaster, Punxsutawny Phil (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/groundhog-day-2023-punxsutawney-phil-prediction/), the groundhog who lives just 31 miles from my house, has them all beat. On February 2, he predicted 6 more weeks of winter and that is exactly what happened!

[Openwater]

Openwater,

If you are looking for a good long-term weather forecaster, Punxsutawny Phil (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/groundhog-day-2023-punxsutawney-phil-prediction/), the groundhog who lives just 31 miles from my house, has them all beat. On February 2, he predicted 6 more weeks of winter and that is exactly what happened!
If I was a betting man, I'd put my money on Phil before the "scientists" who twist data, results and conclusions to either push an agenda or for other self-serving reasons. Unfortunately, corporate greed has leaked into many scientific communities and industries; alas, I digress.

[DrTimPerkins]

If I was a betting man, I'd put my money on Phil before the "scientists" who twist data, results and conclusions to either push an agenda or for other self-serving reasons. Unfortunately, corporate greed has leaked into many scientific communities and industries; alas, I digress.

That's a pretty unfair characterization of the overwhelming majority of scientists. It is always possible to find individuals at the fringes of any field who advocate things that fall outside the mainstream. Unfortunately those folks are often the people who shout the loudest and get quoted by the press. Science works by building consensus, so when people say the scientists don't agree...that is a normal thing and just the way it works. However, agreement (mostly) comes about after a time via groups repeatedly finding the same results and through different ways of approaching answering the question and arriving at the same result. Science is also a bit weird in that it doesn't ever really PROVE anything....instead the approach is generally to reject all the alternative answers.

To return to the topic at hand, I think MOST scientists who actually WORK in the maple field recognize that there have been changes in the timing of the maple season and are concerned about the long-term viability of COMMERCIAL maple production in some areas, particularly those in the southern edges of the sugar maple range (where periodic high temps during the season just kill sap flow), but by and large they tend not to be the doom and gloom types who suggest that maple production will end soon. Lumping all of these folks (self-included) with those who either don't really know about maple, those with some agenda, or are just happen to be out on the fringes is a real disservice.

[Openwater]

Sorry Doc, no offense intended. Like you said, it's the ones on the fringe that get reported and quoted, so those of us that don't read the scientific journals often get led astray.
Thanks for all your expert advice, suggestions and unbiased knowledge-sharing on this forum.

[HowardR]

MOST scientists who actually WORK in the maple field recognize that there have been changes in the timing of the maple season and are concerned about the long-term viability of COMMERCIAL maple production in some areas, particularly those in the southern edges of the sugar maple range (where periodic high temps during the season just kill sap flow).

Those who participate in this blog are essentially hobbyists. We don't live in the COMMERCIAL maple production part of central Pennsylvania which is centered around Somerset County (in the Appalachian mountains). If you haven't already, you might want to visit some of those commercial producers during their annual open house (http://somersetcountymaple.org/?page_id=4).

[Paddymountain]

Made about 2 1/2 gallons of syrup tonight! Tomorrow is it!
Going to gather in the afternoon, get it in the evaporator and pull
the plug! We’ve been scratching real hard the last two weeks,
and think when we are done we’ll have 70 gallons.

[HowardR]

Paddymountain,

I'm a couple days later than you. I'm expecting to finish up tomorrow. We just had three nights with lows below 22, but there isn't another frost predicted for more than a week.

Usually I tap around February 15 and am done by March 15. This year I tapped on February 5 and I'll be done on March 22 -- I can't remember a longer maple syrup season.

[Openwater]

Last boil tomorrow. Then I'm packing-up and getting ready for trout season.
Been a longer season, but less syrup production than last year. Seems like sap has been pretty watery this year, 1-1.5%.

[Paddymountain]

HowardR: 2013! We tapped the beginning of February and finished
up around April 2! Made 101 gallons of syrup. It was the season that
went on forever, almost had to tear the siding off the house for
syrup wood!

[HowardR]

I didn't start keeping records until 2015. The year before (2014) was such a good year for sap that I couldn't keep up with it. I stopped collecting while it was still pouring in and ended up dumping hundreds of gallons because it was going bad in my collection tank. I built my first RO in time for the next season and have been able to keep up with the sap flow ever since.

[Paddymountain]

Boiled out the evaporator and have it all filtered and in bottles.
Total for the season: 73 gallons 7 pints. It was a real
struggle getting there. I feel that this was the toughest season
since I have been making syrup. On to flushing lines and washing buckets.