central and southern Ohio 2024/2025

[buckeye gold]

Thought I'd get it started for the new season. I spent the day repairing laterals and installing new arch spiles from Middle Valley Maple today. Got three all repaired and tightened up then I ran disinfectant through them all. I got two more laterals to do and then start on the sugar shack/evaporator and tanks. Looking at tapping around January 1, 2025.

[eastky]

I'm a little south of you in eastern Ky, been cleaning lines and also trying the middle valley spiles this year, waiting on the weather to tap.
Good luck with your season

[buckeye gold]

Thanks eastky, I am about to finish up my lines and move on to getting the shack ready. Which middle valley spouts did you choose. I went with the clear barbed spouts. I am curious to see how they preform. I discovered the tubing tool is hard to use on them with no shoulders, but the spout ID seems a bit smaller and I been able to put the drops together by hand. I got the tees too. So far I only put one in a line with the arch backwards. I hope this cold and warm pattern holds, I already see trees running from woodpecker wounds. Good Luck to you too

[HappyTrails]

I may pass on this year or only tap the few tree in the very bottom of property. I'm in Morgan county and the drought was extreme all through fall. Trees dropped leaves early and were very stressed going into winter. Really not much rain fall to date and what have had has happened after leaves dropped.
I am far from expert in forestry or maple syrup, just old retired hobbyist guy that does this to give to family and friends. I love doing it, however after losing all my Ash, my big Elms dying and old mature white oak being threatened, I just not needing it bad enough to even take small risk. I have no idea how rest of year weather maybe to interrupt the spring food to my trees.
Of course just my opinion.
I only tap 25 to 30 trees anyway, but I sure do enjoy heck out of it.
Best a luck to you all, happy holidays and Happy Trails

[RC Maple]

I may pass on this year or only tap the few tree in the very bottom of property.

Sorry to hear that. We had a very dry fall here too, with just enough rain to keep us going through summer. I know the drought maps always showed we weren't the hardest hit area though. The trees here seemed to be pretty normal this fall, with good color and normal leaf drop. We still haven't had a wet spell with much rain. Hopefully, there is good rainfall in all our futures and maple production maintained.

[eastky]

Thanks eastky, I am about to finish up my lines and move on to getting the shack ready. Which middle valley spouts did you choose. I went with the clear barbed spouts. I am curious to see how they preform. I discovered the tubing tool is hard to use on them with no shoulders, but the spout ID seems a bit smaller and I been able to put the drops together by hand. I got the tees too. So far I only put one in a line with the arch backwards. I hope this cold and warm pattern holds, I already see trees running from woodpecker wounds. Good Luck to you too

I too need to clean the shack and get collection barrels ready, I got the green barbed spouts and tees as well, I am changing drops and tees this year, need to get them made up and put in, seems there is always something more to do, weather shows in the upper 50's and low 60's by the end of the week here, it looks better after the first of the year.

[buckeye gold]

All my lines are repaired and ready to go. I done some preliminary cleaning in the shack. I need to wash tanks and wash/disinfect all the working surfaces in the shack. I noticed several trees weeping sap from woodpecker wounds while I repaired lines. I'm glad I didn't tap any early trees as this weather would just have started bacteria in the lines. Looking at the long range forecast, I am thinking I may wait until mid to late January to tap. I usually do 50 early then the rest around the first of February, but I may do them all at once this year. That means more sap to deal with on individual days, but I'm concerned we'll see big warm ups in February that will be detrimental to sap flows.

[Iwantsyrup]

Hi guys just checking in. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Will be second year tapping for us. Didn’t take detailed notes unfortunately, but last year we ended up with 25-30 taps at the peak, give or take, over a month of collecting. Probably just gonna zero in on the top 20 or so of those this year I suppose. We ended last year with almost 2.5 gallons of syrup and would be happy with that again not necessarily trying to beat last year which is surprising for me, I usually scale up anything and everything I enjoy and have had even a little success at. But in this case and in this year I feel content to stay the course and enjoy the process again haha.

I’m on buckets with a drop tube. End of season last year I soaked all tubes and flushed them with a light bleach solution, they were rinsed heavily then dried and stored. Would you guys recommend repeating that process or should I be good to roll. I also boiled all my metal taps too.

Thanks guys! Good to be back on mapletrader after a long year! Looks like a cold couple weeks into mid January at least down here in southern Clermont county.

[buckeye gold]

I'd give them another disinfecting. You could just mix up a little stronger chlorine solution and flush them. Don't rinse them with tap water, that will undo your efforts. The chlorine will dissipate on it's own as long as you use unscented. Let some of the first sap run on the ground and then collect. I suppose you could flush with distilled water, but I wouldn't flush with anything short of your chlorine solution.

[Brian]

I would run them and not look back. That is more than some people do. If it is not to much work just rinse them with water and call it a day and run them.

[Iwantsyrup]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Another thought would be to just use new tubing since it’s only a couple dozen trees with 1-2 foot drops on average. I was gifted a brand new 500’ roll of tubing last year from my Mon when we got into the hobby so I have plenty. I’m just mostly a clean and reuse kind of guy on anything reusable so that didn’t cross my mind at first honestly. I could make an exception to my typical frugality in this case if it could possibly lead to much better results and time saved. I appreciate you guys taking the time to reply. Happy new year!

[SeanD]

There's no back flow from a drop into a bucket, so there's no concern for shortening the viability of the tap hole. You won't notice any difference in results from the used sanitized drops any more than you will from your used-sanitized taps or used-sanitized buckets. Save your efforts and plastic waste. Reuse the sanitized drops from last year. Save that 500' roll for when you are ready to expand.

[buckeye gold]

Exactly SeanD, that's why I said flush them with a disinfectant and use them. If anything new is used it would be a new spile

[Iwantsyrup]

Anybody eyeballing tapping after this deep freeze? Decent temps coming up later this weekend. Or do we holddd? :-)

[Driftwood]

Cincinnati area here. I’ll be tapping this Saturday. We’ll have ~100 trees to get done.

[buckeye gold]

I plan to tap this coming weekend as well (Sat. 1/25 or 1/26/25 ). It might take a couple days for the trees to thaw, but this snow cover has the ground insulated and I pulled some snow back Monday and the ground was not frozen at all under it. I think we'll have some really big runs coming in the next couple weeks. I hope the sugar is up. I am wondering how the drought last summer effected it. My fear is we'll see a fast warm up and it will be another short season. Looks like some long boiling days coming to me. I have 140+ taps ready to go. Ross County here.

[Driftwood]

Got the taps in yesterday. 95 in total. I’d say about 60% of the trees were running when tapped. Let the first several gallons flush the lines last night, then started collecting this morning. Trees were moving well this afternoon. I’d say there is a good 25-30 gallons in the tank already.

[Iwantsyrup]

25 trees tapped here yesterday. Collected about 12-13 gallons of sap about 4 o’clock today. I guess it’s here we go!

[buckeye gold]

Tapped Saturday and Sunday January 25 &26. Trees were running as I tapped. Dumped first 20 gallons as a line flush. I haven't checked tanks here this morning MOnday 1/27, because it's 22 and it dropped below freezing by sun down. So I don't expect a lot of sap. I might start sweetening the pan later today if I got enough sap. The rest of the week looks like really good sap weather. I think it's going to be fast and furious for a couple weeks. Hope it doesn't turn too warm fast. Sap tsunamis to everyone....

[buckeye gold]

Been five good runs in a row. Sugar is at 1.8 to 2.0 and nitre is low. Every day has been 70 to 110 gallons out of 140 +/- taps. ONe ridge is running better than the back hollow and is doing a gallon per tap and I suspect the colder woods will do better later. The syrup has all been amber rich.

[Iwantsyrup]

I’m not getting those kinds of numbers from my 26 taps but enough to get me some syrup. Tapped last Saturday and boiled for the first time today about 50+ gallons of sap. Rode around and collected only about 5 gallons of sap total today and got it boiled too so I have a clean slate. Low of 29 tonight then lows in the 40’s for a few days. Such a great time.

[buckeye gold]

The last two days have been a sap tsunami in epic proportions. I had between 150 and 175 gallons from 140 taps yesterday morning and then another 100 plus ran through the day. I am only set up to boil about 100 gallons a day and I'm too old to do the "all nighters" anymore. I talked with three other southern Ohio producers and they all were swamped. So far I made the same amount of syrup in one week that I made in an eight week season last year. If I keep going this could be my all time record, but I may quit when I hit my goal. I hope I can process leftover sap before it spoils. I do almost all the hauling and boiling myself and my better half bottles. I am wearing down fast. If this pattern holds you northern guys better get ready, sap floods are coming.

[DRoseum]

Same here in southwestern PA. Absolutely blitzed last couple days and woke up to 125 gallons that came in overnight off my 136 taps. Worried my tank might overflow while I am work today if it keeps pouring in.

[buckeye gold]

Still chugging right along with good sap runs. Only had two down days with no sap in two weeks. It's odd almost wishing for no sap, just to get a break. Sugar has bounced around a bit but overall been good and nitre is low. If I don't wear out and quit it will be the best year I have had in 15 years. I hope it holds true for you northern producers.

[buckeye gold]

The sap train keeps on running. This is now officially my best year ever and I been doing this 15 years+. I am about ready to just call it quits for the season since I don't sell outside of family and friends anymore, but I'm tempted to see how much I could make. There should be at least 2 to 3 more weeks for my normal season. Sugar has bounced around some, but the average is holding at 1.8 %, which is good for my bush. I have seen as high as 2.2 % one day.

[RC Maple]

The sap train keeps on running.

I would love to echo your comments. Temperatures here haven't been enough above freezing since I last gathered on 2/4 to put any more sap in the buckets. On the bright side, we've had 3 times that ice and freezing rain has been called for and the accumulations have been light each time with no apparent damage. We should be upper 30's to 40 or so on Saturday but then back in the freezer for another stretch. We've gathered about 4 gallons of sap/tap and made some nice Amber Rich syrup. Congrats on your good season!

[Redbean]

This has been a good year so far. Been making syrup for two weeks. Have about 121 taps and have made 30 gallons so far. Only one big run that was on this past Wednesday. My take was over flowing Thursday morning. Had over 300 gallons from the over night run. Most runs been not as much as last year but my sugar content been better this year. Should probably get some nice runs Saturday and Sunday before the week freeze that is coming. It will be a nice break. Good luck to all✌️

[Redbean]

Had really great runs last night. I pumped up 75 gallons around 10pm and by 10 am I had another 250 gallons in the tank. And it’s still flowing really good. Going to try and get through it all today before the freeze comes.

[buckeye gold]

I would have had a lot of sap, but somehow I had bumped the valve handle on my biggest collection tank (90 taps) and and leaked all night. Almost all that sap ran on the ground. I still had 60 gallons in the other tank. Oh well, got have at least one flub up a year.

[buckeye gold]

2/25/25, absolutely monster sap run. 200 gallons and still running in. I'm not set up to handle this much on my small hybrid pan. Got 100+ cooked off and shut down, I'm too dang old to do the late night boils , anymore. Hated to do it, but I dumped 40 gallons, because I will most likely have 100 plus fresh gallons tomorrow morning. Sugar still at 1.8%. Wearing this old man out, what a season. I have made the most syrup I ever made in just three weeks, but man am I tired.

[Iwantsyrup]

Yeah this is crazy! Last few days have been out of control. I knew after that freeze it’d be running but I didn’t expect this. I laughed when I read that you’re not set up for this much sap Buckeye. I have only about 30 taps and I’m not either with my barrel evaporator haha. I need an RO for this malarkey :). I boiled over 60 gallons yesterday which is a lot for me, and I have 85 gallons sitting at 35 degrees in my buddies walk in cooler. I have no more buckets to store sap at all so I’m thinking this is a good stopping point, I’ll have made about 5 gallons of syrup. I’m gonna boil those 85 gallons over a couple days and be thankful for an amazing season! I’m beat!

[buckeye gold]

The sap train rolls on, I'm still in catch up mode and loosing ground. I'm now burning wood I cut for the house, but I got plenty. Tanks and pan need cleaning, but I can't get a break. I think one or two more days and I'm just going to quit. I hope this sap train runs north for you guys just starting. My sugar for some odd reason went up to 2.2%

[Iwantsyrup]

same here with the firewood. I've got enough dedicated small split osage and hackberry for one more boil and then i'll probably also be getting into the house and garage supply. But probably same as you i'm a bit of a firewood junkie and usually have 2-3 years+ worth in my firewood sheds haha. This hobby is good exercise all around!

i'm afraid to check my buckets tonight haha.

[buckeye gold]

I am done. I finally just said enough. I had 160 gallons of sap today and boiled all day. I pull lines out of the collection tanks and I will finish off what's at the shack and in the evaporator and start cleaning up tomorrow. I have no doubt I could go another week, but I tired of feeding the darn fire and handling syrup. I got enough and it's time to start fishing. Will end up with between 29 and 30 gallons of syrup.