Syrup per tap--how did you get good results?

[maple marc]

I just finished my season, producing 24 gallons of syrup on 59 taps (all buckets). I'm really happy with .41 gallons per tap. This is way over my previous production and syrup per tap numbers. I know you guys with vacuum have been hitting over .5 gal/tap, which is impressive.

Sugarin4fun has posted the best yield I have seen for a bucket guy. Just wondering whether he had a long season or just had really good trees. How about you other guys--I'm curious to hear about good yields--both buckets and vacuum, and how you got to those great numbers.

Marc

[twigbender]

Marc: You've made me so green with envy I'm ready to dig a hole and throw all my syrup equip in it!! Well, ok, maybe not just yet. You're very lucky to have that kind of production. Good work!!

I live at the very western end of the sugar maple range and my average syrup production per tap is .07 gallons. Can't even squeeze a lousy 1/10 of a gallon out of a single tap. But, we just have to run with more taps and get a lot more exercise than our eastern brethren!!

[Amber Gold]

I put in 4 taps and have gotten about 2.75 gallons so far. After the past few days peformance, I think I'm just about done for the season. That comes out to about 0.69 gal/tap on buckets. I used 7/16" taps with the big (16qt's I think) galvanized buckets.

Josh

[TapME]

Josh, you are kidding about being done right.

[Amber Gold]

Unfortunately I don't think I am. After the last cold snap we got about 1.5 weeks ago, I lost two of my taps. Since Thursday/Friday I've only gotten about a gallon. I'm hoping that tomorrows 60F wether may kick those last two back in, but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

I tapped on February 24th and processed 10 gallons on 3/1, 55 gal on 3/8, 25 gal on 3/15, 22 gal on 3/22, and ~15 gal on 3/29. I'm not sure why my taps seem to be dropping out so quick. I would've thought that with all the cold weather we've been getting they would've lasted longer. I've been getting crystal clear sap until the day they stopped. I'm relatively new to this and am not exactly sure how the tree functions and what makes the tree stop producing sap. I thought it was bacteria and the first sign would be yellow sap, but I didn't get any of that. I used 7/16" taps with a standard wood/metal drill bit. Not sure if that's the problem.

[CityMaple]

well it is getting close to the end for me, might stretch another week. Back at it after about a 5 year break. 30 taps with 16 gallons so far. all on long runs gravity tube. probably would have been more had an incident of burnt syrup, so there went some and the farmer that let me use his trees, well the cows took them down a few times. but all in all went well, but i need a bigger rig. too much time over my little 4sf flat pan, and not too efficient on oil either.

[Brent]

We've had a lousy year here so far. Could be the drought last summer and fall.

Got 225 or so taps out. Only collected 1200 gallons. Last year on 80 buckets I had a few days of 120 gallons.

We're having a good day today but not exciting. Not one bucket filled to overflow. 2 years ago there were a few days when we collected 3 times a day ( 80 buckets ) and many of them were overflowing each time we went out.

We're not done yet but the forecast looks frighteningly warm. I think the fat lady is on the other side of the hill practicing.

[Sugarmaker]

We got about .31 gallons of syrup per tap this year which is very good for our area. 450 taps and about 138 gallons of syrup. Although I gathered a additional 960 gallons of sap that would have made another 24 gallons of syrup. which would have put us at 162 syrup/ 450 taps = .36

Just plain ran out of wood. :(

Regards,
Chris

[Sugar Daddy]

I collected 500 gallons of sap and ended up with 11 gallons of syrup for a yield of .37 gallons per tap. Not bad for mostly reds and no vacuum. The trees still could run a bit yet as the weather and buds have gone into limbo this week - but I'm not interested in making motor oil grade. Overall, a very good year!

[PATheron]

Guys- Just finished up the last boil. Only thing left now is boiling whats left in the pans and clean up and done. These are the tentative results and I think they are pretty accurate. We put all the syrup for the most parts in barrells and ended up with 820 gallons of syrup to the best of my figuring. If Im off its on the low side. My taps are 1570 I believe. Puts us at just over a half per tap. I was hoping for 400 gallons so we went past my wildest expectations. I think a lot of things came together for this to happen becouse I am not an experianced sugarmaker. We had a pretty good season especially for vac, I am in a nice location for my bush, new plastic, high vac levels. I appreciate everyones help on the trader and I owe a debt of gratitude to Richard Patterson for patiantly answering all my questions and helping me everyway he could. His men really did me right when they designed that tubing system and I really appreciated it. I learned a lot of things this year that I can do better for next year and each year I fiure well do our best and be happy with what we get. Best luck to everyone thats still sugaring and I want to hear all the stories, Im going to have time to get back on the trader now. Thee(bigsapzar)roon

[SeanD]

Inexperienced? Not with numbers like that!

I had:
14 taps
320 gal. of sap
9 gal of syrup
about 2.5 qts per tap.


Now, that's inexperienced!

Sean

[PATheron]

Sean- You beat the pants off me, thats .64 gals per tap. You gave me payback on natural vac. Your going to be giving tubing seminars with figures like that. Bigsapzar

[brookledge]

One thing to remember, Not to discredit the small guys but usually when you have 20taps or 40 or a small amount you are able to tap the tree in the ideal spot and are less likely to lose sap from lines down or leaks or spillage etc. So it is easier to get a high yield per tap.
Anyways it is nice to hear so many of us finally having a banner year and one that will go down in the history books.
Good job everybody.
The hard part is going to be in the future when we get half as much as this year and get frustrated thinking we are doing something wrong because we aren't making much syrup
Keith

[UNDRBLLY]

Josh,
I have a homemade 2x4 stainless steel pan that has triangle shaped flues. It has an inlet valve that I believe is 5/8 and a drawoff valve that is the same. It is in good shape. Let me know if you want me to send you a picture. My e-mail is rgagnon@ berk.com.

Dick

[Brent]

well the final score was
225 taps
1800 gallons collected
made approx 25 gallons of good syrup
and 15 gallons of buddy
so you can throw out the last 400 - 500 gallons we collects.

I was a pretty poor year. The last 4 years here we would have about 5 days when a whole bunch of buckets were overflowing, even when we got out 3 times a day to collect. This year we had a grand total of maybe 10 overflows and never the same bucket twice a day.

I going to water the trees next fall, or something ........

[maple flats]

So far I have 174 gal on 500 taps for .348 but I have some in pails not counted yet and 75 gal to boil yet plus what is in the pans. I think I will end with 185 (.37)-195 gal (.38). I will finalize it this weekend. My buds on the sugars still have not opened and we might get another run in yet which will change these numbers again. But if the buds break it is all done. This season I used the spout extensions which I beleive kept the holes open longer. They still are flowing, but only slowly bebause it has been several days since a freeze. The buds sure are holding tight a long time for me this year.

[maple flats]

Oh, by the way, the sap I have now is still left from last sunday and has barely yellowed now. I ran it thru the UV daily as I was processing, on continuous recirculation during my boils and this held the sap better than I ever would have thought possible. Today when I got under a 100 gal left in the tank i stopped recurculating thru the UV. I sure do like that UV.

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

431 gallons, 1400 taps. roughly 2/3 of the crop was fancy, then most of the remainder was medium amber. very little dark amber and grade B, then 21 gallons of commercial. .3 gals./tap. excellent for us. 500 of the 1400 was on vacuum.

[sapman]

Theron, glad to hear how well you did! I've enjoyed all your updates, and makes me want a sugarbush on vacuum even more!

We ended with 320 gallons syrup, on 700~ taps (630 buckets, 70 tubing), getting us .45 gals/tap, which is our best. I attribute it to mostly big roadside trees, and a better season than we've had in a long time. While I like the total, it sure was a lot of work collecting all that sap.

The first 270 light, then 40 med.-dark, and 10 dark. One of the most exciting things was it only took 221 gals. of oil with the RO, or .7 oil/gal. syrup. Used to be 2 oil/gal. syrup. So I figure we saved at least $1500 in oil.

Tim

[Jim Brown]

Well we finished up with .6 per tap not bad for a bunch of amateurs Now it is get to cutting wood and planting the garden. .The kids want to expand 500 more tap for next season. Last season we had marathon boils of 60+ hours. This year we made nearly twice as much syrup(light and med) and the longest boil was 7 hours!! GOT TO LOVE THAT RO! Hope all have a great off season and planning for -09

Jim

[jemsklein]

well were I am we finished with .02 gallon per tap.

[Jim Powell]

On 45 taps I got 16 gallons, or .35 gpt. I probably stopped a day or two early because of my schedule, but I've very pleased with my syrup, and this year thanks to this site, I knew to look out for the zzzziiiiiiiiiiit stuff.

[maple flats]

My final tally after finishing off the pans was 186 gal on 500 taps for .372/tap. I am real pleased after 2 seasons of below avg yield/tap.

[emericksmaple]

This year we made 5.1 pound per tap. That comes out to just shy of 1/2 gallon of syrup per tap. our vaccum produced 30.0 gal of sap per tap and the gravity 14 gal per tap. Our vac avg was 21''. We walked lines, walked lines, walked lines, walked lines, walked lines!!!! For vac to work good you need to have it air tight!!!!

[Old Farmer]

I am new to this site, just found it a week ago. We put in 50 taps for the last 2 years now (all the trees I can tap) and got 12.5 gallons this year. That is .25 gallons per tap. For us, that was a very good year. Some very impressive yields noted on here.

We boil on a home made evaporator that is 52 x 20 inches with 3 separate pans.

James

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

JAMES
thats what i averaged this year and it was my best season, also in s.e. michigan

RICH

[tyrod2]

I had 190 taps, got 2200 gal. of sap boiled down to 50 gal. syrup. Best year yet.

[Old Farmer]

Rich, It looks like we are in the wrong part of the country to really get a lot of syrup per tap. My brother worked on a sewage or water treatment plant in Capac recently.

James

[bison1973]

To the guys who have been near a 1/2 gallon per tap and don't have vaccum-was this an exceptional year for you? What have recent years been like?

I had about .26 gallons per tap on 630 and thought this was a decent year. Gravity tubing, buckets and bags.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

Yes James
we had a arsnic plant installed

RICH

[firetech]

I got .43 gals per tap on the roadside girls. Would have been more but there were days when the buckets were running over, and sap puddles were around the buckets. Still pleased with this years run. Rich ever think of moving west, Like near Perry. The other producer over here made 151 gals from 350 roadside trees too. Another week till walleye time!!!

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

right on firetech working on the boat this week hope to be in the water tuesday or wednesday

RICH

[Bill'sSugarShack]

Got .47 gal of syrup per tap....GREAT year