Maine Maple Season 2024

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

How's everyone in Maine doing? We have 1 bush all ready to tap and will have another ready after this weekend. Going to watch the weather but should be ready to tap by 2nd to 3rd week of February. 2' of snow in the woods right but nothing froze up hard. Been milder than usual but not syrup making weather in our area.

[Mvhomesteader]

Nice to see your ready for the season! I guess it's time to come up with a tapping plan for the year. Some nice weather coming up in a week or so for a couple of days. Not sure yet when I'll tap. I guess I'm waiting to see the extended forecast till months end.

In the meantime, last summer's maples had horrible foliage. Not universally, but pretty near. By online images I diagnosed the leaf condition as anthracnose. Not immediately life threatening to the tree, but it sure did a number on the leaves. By fall some trees, and I saw this between Bangor and Portland, were partially defoliated. Whatever it was, are there any tapping considerations for this season? Did anyone else see this? Thoughts?

I would hate to hear these trees should not be tapped---for me that would eliminate the season.

[eustis22]

Hello. New Maine resident here completing my shack in Greenwood and I have a question regarding Maine regs on double-walled stovepipe clearances. I have my mason 2X3 exhaust pipe 18" from the inner wall and am mulling the location of the stack. It has a 6" outlet on the back and I am pondering running 6" doublewall thru the wall and into 8" doublewall for 8 feet, then 8" single wall past the roofline. I would use a wall thimble to pass the horizontal pipe thru the wall. Can anyone tell me what is required for clearance from the wall for the vertical doublewall?

[western mainer]

Even with a double wall pipe it can get very hot. Years ago I had a 2x4 with that pipe and it got so hot that it would pop and make load sounds and I couldn't put my hand on it. A long as you have good clearance and you might want to put some hi temp blanket insulation around it as it goes out the wall. Stop up and see me I'm here in Greenwood and I could show you what I have.
Brian

[West Sumner Sugar]

We ended up putting 125 in yesterday at the sugar house in Sumner while revamping a section that has not produced well for us. Its all check valves so it should be ok for a few weeks. Going to get another 125 in down in Lewiston tomorrow and hope to catch a run during the warm up. We are on a south facing hill here that always starts early and runs well on vac.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We ended up putting 125 in yesterday at the sugar house in Sumner while revamping a section that has not produced well for us. Its all check valves so it should be ok for a few weeks. Going to get another 125 in down in Lewiston tomorrow and hope to catch a run during the warm up. We are on a south facing hill here that always starts early and runs well on vac.

Nice, we're still fixing lines and setting up some new tanks. Let us know you do this week. Fishing trip next weekend. We'll be all tapped in the weekend of Feb. 23rd-24th.

[eustis22]

Thanks, Brian...I know where you are and will be by to take a look.

[Cider Hill Maple Farm]

Just getting started here in Exeter. Cutting blowdowns out of the way, fixing broken wire and rehanging mains. We'll also be adding a new pump house, SS tank, releasor and vacuum pump to an existing orchard that's been on a double Guzzler. It worked well, but tired of taking it in and out every day, not to mention replacing diaphragms every other week. All the other orchards look to be in good shape, we'll see when we get the vacuum turned on to them. I'll possibly start tapping in a week, pending the weather cooperates.

[West Sumner Sugar]

We were able to collect 240 gallons off about 125 taps in Lewiston this week. Things were slow to thaw in the mornings but any sap in early February is all bonus. Got the pans sweetened and pulled off a few gallons of the lightest syrup we have ever made. Pretty happy with the start of this season. We are fully tapped in Lewiston and Sumner as of today. We will get a cold weather reset this week and hopefully be ready for the big bang when it comes.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We were able to collect 240 gallons off about 125 taps in Lewiston this week. Things were slow to thaw in the mornings but any sap in early February is all bonus. Got the pans sweetened and pulled off a few gallons of the lightest syrup we have ever made. Pretty happy with the start of this season. We are fully tapped in Lewiston and Sumner as of today. We will get a cold weather reset this week and hopefully be ready for the big bang when it comes.

Nice! We didn’t tap in for this warmup and will enjoy having the cold weather to give us time to be ready. Should finish line work on Friday. We are adding mainline on Sunday for more taps. Tapping the following weekend!

[West Sumner Sugar]

Somehow managed to collect 80 gallons of sap this week so we boiled that off today. All the Sumner sap is frozen solid in the tanks. But we did a lot of woods work today, made some repairs, set up a 150 foot pump line to deliver sap to the sugar house. So while we would like to see the sap running, days like today are priceless for getting all the jobs done we always say we will but never do.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We finished extending 1 mainline today which should add 40-50 taps. All lines now ready to tap. We will tap end of the week and be all in by next weekend. Then I leave for a week vacation north and my partner had an unexpected trip for work come up the same week. So that will be interesting if the sap weather turns on next week. I don’t expect much here this week, marginally above freezing with clouds. And it’s been cold again. Going to run anything we get this week on the ground to clean out lines. It’s getting close to go time!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Put in 200 taps this afternoon and finished up a couple mainline repairs. First holes drilled at 1 were not dripping but last holes after 4 were dripping. Will tap again tomorrow after the weather clears. Should have most of them in tomorrow and will finish Saturday. Set up the tanks and pumps and we will be ready to go. Will be interesting being gone next week to see what we have for sap when I get back. Gonna run most of the week. Glad we upgraded our best bush to a 500 gallon tank. Looking for another one if anyone has one! Good luck everyone, gonna be some sap gushing next week.

[maineboiler]

Sounds like you’re off to a good start. I put in 130 taps the last couple of days and the buckets filled up fast. Collected 135 gallons today and started to sweeten the pans. I’m kind of worried about the forecast, we’ll hit a deep freeze tonight but the. It looks like a warm spell. Could be a short season.

[Mvhomesteader]

I’m kind of worried about the forecast, we’ll hit a deep freeze tonight but the. It looks like a warm spell. Could be a short season.

I've had the same thought. A few days ago I added 10 taps to my original 32, but I'm thinking a need to go for broke and put a bunch more in right off. It does not appear that there will be a freeze for the next 10 days past tomorrow. If I'm wrong, I'll have more sap than I can deal with in a reasonable fashion!

What is the consensus??

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Slow start for us, sap never really ran that good yesterday surprisingly. Not sure what’s going on as I’m still up north. The warm temps coming being early season are less harmful than late season but hopefully it does cool back down some time next week. Should be busy after this freeze.

[hansel]

Yep, looking like a poor forecast on the Midcoast with no freezes in the next 1.5-2 weeks. I do 10-15 taps on buckets and decided to tap Feb 9 to get some sap. Some of my trees were already flowering March 12 last year. Might be lucky to make a gallon this year.

[Mvhomesteader]

Yep, looking like a poor forecast on the Midcoast with no freezes in the next 1.5-2 weeks. I do 10-15 taps on buckets and decided to tap Feb 9 to get some sap. Some of my trees were already flowering March 12 last year. Might be lucky to make a gallon this year.

I hear you. After getting ready for boil #1 tomorrow, I ran around this afternoon adding 10 more taps and I'll throw in another 6 while I'm boiling bringing my total to, I think, 59. I'm looking to get 10 gallons this season (the family needs 15 and we've got 5 leftover) and my original 32 taps should have done the trick with a normal season. I'll need over 450 gallons of sap to make that happen, and I've got 95 in the snowbank as of today. I'm planning on a worst case scenario with the weather so my thought is to try and get the sap up front while I can, then boil it off every other day so it doesn't spoil. Thus I added nearly double the taps thinking a shortened season. I probably should have gone after the early February flow, but I was afraid under a normal season I might have issues with dried up tapholes like I ran into last year. 20/20 hindsight works great doesn't it?

Good luck to all as this weather unfolds.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Sap still not running very hard here today but it is running. Spent the day chasing some leaks and getting ready. Will leave the pumps on tonight and decide if we do our first boil tomorrow. Depends on what we have for total sap but I’m thinking we fire up in the afternoon.

[Mvhomesteader]

Sap was also running here, but not a robust run. Could do with some sun.

In any case, I boiled on Friday. I only put through 49.5 gallons but ended up with a ssc of 2.65% which I think is the highest I've ever recorded for a boil. The funny thing though was the syrup color--darkish like later season. I don't have the grading set so I can't be specific, but we all felt it was darker than normal for this time of the year. Just an observation, I have no conclusion as to why. Color didn't affect flavor as it tasted great.

Boring tomorrow to clean out the snowbank and get ready for the upcoming week's sap.

[maineboiler]

Can’t explain the dark syrup unless maybe you had some microbial growth with the warm temps.
I had a surprisingly good haul today of 130 gallons of sap, still more out there I haven’t collected. 2.5 brix and very clear. The sap probably was from yesterday. Boiled 5 hours and drew off what looks like GD. Better than expected

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Busy weekend. Chased leaks Saturday and cut a downed 12” oak off the mainline from the windstorm. Finished chasing leaks today and got the evaporator and shack ready to go. 1 bush finally started running good today. The other two are still slow to thaw out. Pumps are on all night again and until run stops. Will do our first boil Tuesday. Still had ice in the tanks today so helping keep the sap good. Hope for some freezing nights later this week.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Collected 475 gallons today, first boil underway. That’s a big first boil for us, sap has been running pretty hard last couple days and just now slowing down. Hope for cooler weather end of the week.

[Mvhomesteader]

The sap flow here, all gravity, slowed to a crawl today. I collected 38 gallons yesterday and 16 today, but I could see the run was pretty much done till the next freeze.

I boiled Sunday and got slightly more than 1.5 gallons with the sugar at 2.3%. The color was lighter than the first boil and with less niter. As maineboiler mentioned I could have had some bacterial growth in the first batch---who knows.

Boiling #3 tomorrow (72 gallons) which will empty the snowbank. I don't expect to collect again till Friday, and the stretch between Friday and next Thursday should be productive!

[West Sumner Sugar]

This has been the best bad weather week we have ever had. With no cold temps at night I was thinking this week would be a bust. It has turned out to be just the opposite. When the sap started running Saturday...it has not stopped. Pumps have been on non stop since Saturday. While this weather is acting pretty crazy, the sap is running well regardless. Long range looks good as well!

[Hillcrest Maples]

Same here in southern NH. Cleaned all the tanks on Sunday figuring it wouldn’t run all week and it hasn’t stopped. Cloudy, yes. 1.2% sugar, yes. But still, I’m loving this new Guzzler. 600 gal holding tank is full and just plugged in the 260 overflow tank for tonight! Threw the heater on in the RO closet as well. Hoping next week is a gusher.

[eustis22]

Huh,,,in Greenwood my taps haven't run at all this past week.

[eustis22]

ok,,,they are now...never mind.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Ok run today, stronger freeze tonight will help. Should pull thru the storm Sunday. Gonna boil again Sunday. 2 boils, both during storms this year. Lost power last time for a couple hours but had a generator. Wife had to wait to shower but she got over it!!

[Mvhomesteader]

The sap turned back on here today to the tune of 38 gallons off 53 taps. I expect the same or better for the foreseeable future. Not what as I was planning on a few weeks ago. I knew as soon as I added taps to obviate the effects of a "warm spell" and potential shorter season the weather would do a 180. All for the good!

Third boil was 73 gallons yielding ssc of 2.31%, identical to boil #2. I'm nearly half way to the 10 gallon goal which with the upcoming weather shouldn't be a problem. I'm currently stockpiling for boil #4 on Monday. Should be a nice flow even through the storm. Not much of the snowbank left so I'll need to be cognizant of stored sap quality and getting sap boiled off in an expedient fashion.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Sap ran pretty good today and should continue tonight with this low pressure system coming in. Collected 440 gallons tonight. 6-10” of snow is going to be a mess but will help keep the woods floor cool. Really just need some good freezing nights, those are coming hard this year. Some big sap runs because of it. Added 36 taps today to the mainline we put up a couple weeks back. Some real gushers too!

[maineboiler]

Surprisingly strong run yesterday. We collected 150 gallons today and had a near 5 hour boil. Will be bottling tomorrow. Things are going better than expected 👍

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Cooked off the 440 gallons yesterday. Probably another 200-300 in the woods that I will collect and boil tomorrow. Nice freeze and cold day today will set up for a good recharge for a mid week run. Wednesday should be a gusher. Long term for next week looks like a cool down, fingers crossed!

[West Sumner Sugar]

We also had a good weekend. We cooked about 800 gallons which brought us over 1/3 crop. Hopefully the cool weather this week recharges the trees. The wind has definitely been a factor the past 2 days but we will take what we can get. The storm Sunday and the heavy rain flooded our best producing area. We had to scoot out when we could as there was almost 12" of water over the road where a brook crosses. Tank was in the water...praying the water didnt come up much more and float it and the vacuum pump away.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Dang west sumner, that sounds like a close call. Water has continued to receded around here so hopefully you’re OK. Collected another 420 gallons today and boiling. Looks like we might have some small leaks to chase after this windstorm went thru. Not sure if we will get to that before the weekend. Sap running good today and should run good next 2 days. Probably NOT working Friday :lol:

[maineboiler]

Thins seem to be slowing down here. Lots of empty buckets and warm weather coming. Hopefully the cold nights next week will reactivate the trees.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Running like hell over here on vacuum lines. 18” on the shurflos after chasing down a couple leaks today. Not sure what we will have for a boil tomorrow but could push 600 gallons. Pumps are on, still running.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Yup- 620 gallons collected. Run is pretty much done until a freeze but it was a good one. Cook some tonight and do the rest tomorrow.

[Mvhomesteader]

Finished the 6th boil of the season today bringing my total to a pint shy of 9 gallons. The 4th and 5th boils had ssc's under 2 which is not common for me. The 6th was arranged to be 2 (I threw out the buckets under 2) to maximize return versus time. My sap storage is empty.

Since the trees are not running it seems I have some time off. The question is whether or not the cold snap will give one more decent run, or as my father used to say "that's all she wrote." I guess we'll know next week.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Collected another 440 gallons today, will boil some tonight and finish it up tomorrow. Looks like a freeze tonight and may get some more to boil tomorrow, but then a long freeze. Trees still look good, should make some more syrup after this freeze. Our sap a little low on sugar, but not terrible.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

26” of snow in Peru. We were fortunate, light and fluffy snow, no ice and winds weren’t bad. Vacuum still OK. Spent most of the day cleaning up and helping others. Sap started running about 3:30 this afternoon. Just a short run, going to freeze hard tonight. Sap should run good most of the week!
I’m guessing maple Sunday was a bust for a lot of people around here. Feel bad for those who depend on it. Didn’t do anything with syrup today except shovel out the tanks.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Hell of a sap run overnight and thru today. Really dumping and sap is crystal clear and tested at 2% which is our best of the season. Collected 280 and there’s another 200 in the woods. Should run through tomorrow on vacuum. Freezes again through the weekend so should make syrup next week. Should be near full crop by the weekend.

[eustis22]

Same here in Greenwood although some of my woods taps are not generating a lot of gpt. The tubing is working well though.

[maineboiler]

Things have really picked up since the storm. Had to call off Maine Maple Weekend because of the snow and no sap. Since Monday it’s going strong even with the rain. This might make up for a slow start——

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Cooked off 500 gallons yesterday and should have another 300 at least for tomorrow, maybe more. Still running but should slow down tomorrow.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Another 560 gallons of sap collected yesterday. It hasn’t froze and kept on pulling. A 2+ GPT run. Syrup lightened up to Amber in the 60’s I am guessing. Will test and bottle today. We are at full crop and next week looks good. Happy sugaring!

[SeanD]

That's awesome! We limped into an average season down here. The beginning was a gusher that put us ahead, but the minimal frosts on the back end shut the door on that idea. I was able to squeeze a little bit out of the trees in the last 10 days to get the numbers closer to something I can live with, but the overall mood in this area is this is a year to forget about. Glad to hear your season is finishing strong. That's such a great feeling.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Collected another 410g today and am boiling it off. Wanted to get it through quick with the warm temps. Sap did cloud up a little bit but it’s not terrible. This midweek storm should be interesting. Going to try and boil again Wednesday before it hits. I’ll make syrup through the weekend but thats going to be it for us. We’ve had a good season and I don’t feel like pushing it.

[Mvhomesteader]

Finished off the season today with boil #8. Boil 7 and 8 both had sugars around 2.3%. Of course I did limit sap in the storage pile to 2% or more, so I'm being selective on purpose to maximize my return. Up till yesterday I was seeing some nice runs with fairly clear sap, but overnight it dried up and what was in the buckets was getting cloudy. I still managed to grab a 5 gallon bucket of 2.4% to add to today's boil of 80 gallons.

In the end I produced 12.5 gallons which was 2 more than my goal for the season. I'm glad I decided to add 20 taps awhile ago when the season looked wonky so I'll consider working with 50 or so taps next year. My neighbor has a 24" tree I tapped that was real productive, and another larger one I'll add next year. Summer projects include re-bricking the inside of one arch.

Good luck to all who are still in the game and I'll see you all next season!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

310 more gallons today. Sap is about done running and it has that end of season smell to it. Vacuum lines at 20” just down to a trickle. This may be the last boil. Syrup is getting dark, probably nearing the very dark line. We’ll see how it grades out and what we get between now and the weekend. Not interested in trying to survive the warm temps for a couple days next week. Sap quality is heading the other way now. The end is near.

Any update from Abbott or Eagle lake if you’re out there?? What about the west sumner crew?

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Last boil underway here in Peru. Collected another 325 gallons this morning at 1.4 brix. Sap was still running some but I shut the pumps off. This is enough for us for the season, easier to end it on the weekend than fight 50-60 degree temps for marginal sap next week. Syrup has held a dark grade through the last boil. We’ll be right about the same as last year for syrup, likely just under 70 gallons. Good luck to those still going.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Made it to 71.5 gallons, a new high for us. Everything is bottled or barreled, pans are soaking and will pull taps after the rest of our snow melts.

[maineboiler]

I last collected sap on 4/4. Finished 6.5. gallons of Dark Robust today, will drain the evaporator tomorrow and finish off with a propane burner. Disappointing season, I collected 3/4 of I usually do. The reds never really put out. Saved a lot on fuel costs, though. The sap was 2-3% most of the season.