Southwest PA Tapping 2024

[DRoseum]

Happy new year - hope this year and syrup season are great for all of you!

Starting the 2024 tapping thread for our area.

Hung my tubing this weekend and getting everything ready over the next couple weeks. Looks like this week will have a lot of days above freezing followed by a week of freezing temps. Depending what it looks like I'll probably tap as we come out of that. Last year's weather in February has me anxious.

[DRoseum]

Next week might be go-time here.

[sbedilion]

Not ideal weather but I might be tapping 1/2 my trees Sunday.

[DRoseum]

I pulled the trigger. 112 taps. It's the earliest I've ever tapped, but on vacuum, and after last year I hope this season is a bit longer/better.

I won't have time in upcoming weekends to tap and I enjoy tapping in the snow far better than the rain and mud.

[SRM]

Wow, I haven't even cleaned my pan yet. I'm heading to CDL in Somerset for additional jars and supplies today or tomorrow. I feel like I'm missing the boat and way behind. My RTV and quad are both under repair too. I don't know how I'm going to get the sap out of the woods when I do start tapping. Anyone have a working Kubota RTV900w they want to sell or trade for a JD backhoe?

[sbedilion]

80ish taps done since last wkend. Have about 60 gallons of sap waiting to boil. I have 1 more line to tap but I might skip it this year.

SRM....I'm pretty close to you. Lone Pine. Shipe Run Road.

[SRM]

That **** groundhog better see his shadow because I finally got 110 taps in so far and haven't had sap flow yet. I am working on a solar vacuum for 35 more taps, but I'm still waiting for delivery of needed parts. Fixed the Kubota and took the 6x6 to get fixed. Haven't checked my buckets yet, so there is hope something is in them. It's been 3 days and nothing is flowing on gravity. Next year I'm getting a vacuum on everything, no more walking up and down hills with buckets. Come on Phil, I want 6 more weeks of Winter!

[DRoseum]

Vacuum is the way to go! I switched to shurflo vacuum pumps on 3/16 lines from buckets 3 years ago (this is my 4th season on it) and would never go back. I easily get double or quadruple the sap thanks to vacuum. I have a little over 100 taps and have gathered over 750 gallons in past week or so.

I am predominately red maples which can be really finicky on gravity, but run great on vacuum.

If any of you ever need any help/advice on shurflo vacuum setups, just ping me. Glad to help.

[SRM]

Well my vacuum idea went bust. I put together the solar vacuum setup but couldn't get power to the temp controller. Well after a while I figured I had a bad negative slot on the solar controller's load area. I am going to scrap the idea of vacuum this year and have everything set up for next year.
So far with 118 taps or so, I boiled 255 gallons of sap. This week looks good. The taps on the steep hills seem to be doing the best this year. The low lying taps are not producing much at all.

sbedilion....stop by if you are around this week, Condit Crossing on any US map. Look for smoke and steam on the hill.....

[HowardR]

Due to a blood clot in my calf, I wasn't able to start tapping until February 16, so I missed the first half of this year's season. I don't know what to expect now: My red maples (most of my sugar bush) are already starting to bud, but the forecast looks good for the next two weeks. If I get about half of my usual amount of syrup, I'll be pleased.

[HowardR]

The last relevant frost of the year, according to the forecast, will be tonight. From Friday to Sunday I'll collect the end-of-season sap. On Sunday, I'll bottle it up, and by Monday my season should be done. I started late (on February 16) after the first runs of the season had ended. My red maples were already starting to bud. But the weather has been cooperating and I'll end up with about half the syrup that I would have gotten during a normal year.

[DRoseum]

I plan to wrap it all up by Sunday as well! Slightly down again this year - the weather just isn't cooperating.

[SRM]

Pulled all 155 taps today. I still have 60 gallons to boil, and have no idea on how much sap i got and how much syrup I have. I have several stock pots in the refrigerator waiting to be bottled, and my divided pan is still full. I hope to get it all done on Monday and Tuesday. I got most of my sap the last two weeks. The first two weeks I tapped, I wasn't getting much and thought I did something. wrong then all hell broke loose and I was up at 3am running the RO and boiling all day for about 4 days.

[HowardR]

Based upon a changing long-term forecast, I've changed my mind about packing in everything tomorrow. The warm weather from Monday through Thursday this week could heal my tap holes and cause the sugar maples to bud, but I'm hoping for one more nice run this season. Where I live (near Rural Valley PA), weather.com predicts that the low on Thursday will be 33 while Accuweather predicts it will be 28, so a frost on Thursday night is likely. And freezing nights are predicted by both services for next Sunday and Monday.

[DRoseum]

Pulled all 112 taps today and cleaned my lines. I think I'll end up with about 1 quart of syrup per tap once I boil down all the sweet in my pan.

Just not worth waiting over a week for one night of a light freeze. Those multiple 70 F days wreak havoc on tubing systems.

Will clean the ROs this week, soak the pan and call it a year!

[SRM]

D. Roseum,

I noticed you have a SL SS filter press. I am going to get one, but I'm not sure which one I should buy. Can you let me know how you like yours and the durability of the one you have. I will buy either the CDL or Smokey Lake 7-9 plate filter press. I currently have the CDL vacuum filter (9"), but it just isn't big enough for what I have and plan to have in the future. I don't know if I should buy the 10 plate and remove plates that I don't need. I want to make at least 25 gallons of syrup in the next year. Your input would be appreciated.

[DRoseum]

I love the SL press. It's stainlesss and not aluminum, and not much different in price. I average around 28 gallons of syrup per year and batch sizes vary from 1 gallon to 3 gallons that I run through it. I have the short press (3 window plates) and normally use 1 window for 1 gallon, 2 for up to 3 gallons using the shortener insert. I have never used all 3 plates for that volume of syrup. I think they said you can do 10 - 15 gallons on the 3 plate short press in a single session. I think that greatly depends on how much niter is in the syrup. Early in the season, sure. Late in the year with heavy niter, it gets tougher to push that through.