Sugar content of sap, less the ice

[twigbender]

I just emptied a couple of buckets today and brought the sap home to test. Everything is frozen up and I can only get a bit of sap out of most of the buckets. So, I drained off what I could get then emptied as much ice out of the bucket as I could (some was frozen to the side). This "iceless" sap tested at 4.0%. What can I expect the sap to test at when the ice turns back to water and I can no longer separate them? Anybody have a rule of thumb for that?

High of 32 degrees today. It just won't warm up! Grrrrrrrr!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

The first little bit that melts might be worth saving, but the longer it melts, the less the sugar content.

[Gary in NH]

I had a 35 gallon tank freeze around the outer edges to about 4" thick. It had a removable lid so broke a hole through the ice and bucketed all the sap out. The 25 gallons of sap I got out was 4.5% sugar. I didn't test it before it froze but I usually never get more than 2.2%. I dump the ice unless I need it to keep the sap cool in storage. If its frozen solid thats a different story, let it thaw then dump the last ice chunks.

[mapleman3]

Natures RO my friend :)

[tessiersfarm]

I saw a study recently and

at 80% ice the sap was 12%

at 50% ice the sap was 6%

at 30% ice the sap was 3%

totally thawed was 2.2%

I am going by memory but I believe I am close.

The results were they recommended throwing out any ice up to about 1/3 of the volume. beyond that the sugar contained in the Ice becomes too great to throw away.

[twigbender]

Thanks for the response. I gathered up 30 of the buckets late yesterday, dumped the sap into storage and hauled the buckets with the ice still in them into the garage to thaw overnight. I'll check the sugar content this morning of the melted ice to see what it runs just fto satisfy my curiosity.

I did have two trees yesterday that did not have ice in the buckets that tested right at 5% sugar. I'd like to have a couple hundred of those boys!!