new to sugaring

[homefarm]

hello all....i live in upstate new york close to vermont.....im new to sugaring i did a couple of trees about 10 years ago and not much since then .this march my neighbor on which i mow and bale hay asked me if i would like to take over a tap line which is on his land and some one else had set up and said he was not intrested in doing it no more.i am intrested in how to set this tapline up 200+ trees gravity fed so far he uses 5/16 treesaver taps (what size drill and how deep do you go.....how many treesavers per tree?... a rule of thumb is 1 tap per 12 in dia for regular steel tap i think is it the same?) how do you figure mainline size and were do i find a glossery of terms used? i started puting it together the going is slow but i got mabey 100 gal of sap so far any info would be appeicated ....homefarm....

[SapSuckers]

home,

there is tons of info on this website as well as the internet in general. also, many of the big producers love to chat and share some information. Maybe you could ask the guy whos setup you are taking over for some help getting you started.

Where abouts are you in NY, If you are near me I would be glad to meet with you one day and help get you up and running. I am always all over clinton county all week long.

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

buy a copy of North American Maple Syrups Producers Manle... this is a great place to start..

[325abn]

What are you going to boil on?

[homefarm]

What are you going to boil on?

im going to sell the sap this year.... mabey i'll boil in the sap in the future..... homefarm.....

[homefarm]

granville new york... washington county.....homefarm....

[Lwood]

Homefarm, Where are you located in Granville are you located? I'm not far away.

[homefarm]

north granville dublin rd were are you in hebron Lwood.....homefarm....

[Lwood]

Small world .... My mother in law used to have a house on dublin rd. Whose place are you sugaring? I'm on Sheldon rd in Hebron.

[homefarm]

im on john sullivans old place..... what kind of drill bits do you use for tapping....homefarm....

[Lwood]

This year I broke down and bought one of the Canadian Bits. Worth every cent. Super fast and super clean holes.

Is Sullivans on the 22 end?

[homefarm]

were did you get the bits....sullivans old place in in the middle....homefarm....

[mapleman3]

A question on the tubing and lines... was it cleaned? how long since last used? I question this for you so you can know that tubing and sap yeild have a lot of factors to it... if it wasn't cleaned good your sap will be much less or of poor quality, and your taps themselves can contribute to the short life of your tap hole... also how well are the lines set up? tight no sags , good slope?

if your selling your sap this season make sure it's the best quality it can be, a sugarer wouldn't want poor or low sugar content due to the high bacteria count eating up the sugar. just a few things to consider when takin g over lines that were up previously.

but good luck , I hope all works out well for you :)

[homefarm]

last year the tubbing was used .... how do you clean it?.... im tighting it up it was sagging...... most of it is on the side of a hill maby 45 degrees....whats the miminum slope you can have? i got a lot to learn....homefarm....