The 2025 season?

[maple flats]

WE certainly have experienced an old fashion winter this year. In central NY our first boil was just this past Thursday and now the extended forecast doesn't look great for maple. We are forecast to hit 60F later this week and no over night freezes for 4 days. However my guess is that because the snow is stil completely around the trees with no bare spots around the trunks as of right now, I think the trees will do OK, at least I'm hoping they will. After those 4 days with no freeze the snow is very likely going to show bare spots around the tree trunks, signalling the thawing of the roots, I'm not expecting the trees to shut down for the season that soon. This week was our first one with temperatures above about 35 in the heat of the day, that coupled with the extreme cold we've had for weeks should keep the season going. At least I'm counting on it. If not this will be our shortest season since I started in 2003. At this point I think the year our 1st boil was on March 28 and ended 10 days later was our shortest. I'd need to check my log book to see what year that was.
So far since the sap started the flows have been fairly good but not great. We'll see how it goes this week. Because we had lots of cold in the single digits and teens with very little snow on the ground I suspect the frost was down fairly deep, but even then a 12-18" deep snow or deeper can thaw the ground from below, I haven't checked that. Right now my concern is a frozen fuel filter on my tractor. That will be changed this afternoon. I need the tractor to move barrels of syrup.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Similar hear in Maine Dave, we have yet to boil. Slow start but looks to get rolling this week. I suspect we will go from 0 to 100 by end of the week. Snow will be gone by end of the week and that will allow the frost to really come out. For once, we are 100% ready for it. Just need some sap flow to check leaks. Good luck!

[Bucket Head]

Hi Dave,

I agree with both you and Mainebackwoods. A "regular" winter, which we have not seen in some time, made for a difficult lead up to sugaring and is now delaying the start. Sixty degree weather in February is not normal, so I was glad to not see that, but the snow and wind this year has been demoralizing. Both made for a lot more work.
Hopefully, we all do alright despite this late start.

Steve

[berkshires]

Definitely not shaping up to be a "regular" season in southern New England. Was colder than average at the start of the season, and forecast is for warmer than average at the tail end. Not good.

I may try something I've never done before, which is to attempt to "pause" mid season. This weekend I may do a "final" boil on my evaporator, rinse it out, bring home all my buckets, rinse them out, and then wait.... If the weather cools down again I'll make the two hour drive to my sugarbush to set all my buckets out again to see if the trees produce anything after a week or two of heat. It's a lot of work, after being warm for two weeks, I would not be surprised if all the tapholes close early. And it will all be a gamble anyway, as there's no knowing whether we'll get another cool spell in a few weeks or not. But I only tapped a couple weeks ago, and I hate to have such a short season.

Gabe

[ScottT]

We just did our first boil in The Thumb of Michigan this past weekend. Taps were frozen solid on Saturday morning, started flowing on Sunday afternoon.

The temps are a rollercoaster, but this week has 2-3 good days. While it may be warming up earlier than expected, our go-to meteorologist says Early April may see a return to normal temps. We still have ice on the inland lakes, some frost in the ground as of last weekend, and patchy snow. As long as the trees hold out, we may be boiling through the first week of April.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We finally had 2 bushes get going today in western Maine. Leak checking complete on those. Still slow even with 50 degrees and sunny afternoon. Still a foot of snow in the woods and frost is still deep in the ground. Roads haven’t got muddy enough yet around here for a good run. Looks cold tomorrow then should open up over the weekend.