July journal

[maple flats]

Did anyone see the new month arrive. We are now officially 1 month closer to maple season. I am eagerly waiting for the go ahead from the land owner so I can start my expansion. Looking at adding 400 taps on one hill and then eliminating 100 total from 2 other locations for logistical reasons. I will then have 800 if all goes well for my 09 season. So far I have bought most of the supplies needed and just need the go ahead. The landowner has 5 or 6 trees he wants to remove before I string up my wire and lines.

[Gary R]

Finally got my wood shed put up. Bought an 18x31 carport. Will stack a couple rows of firewood on skids on both sides. It will help hold it down.:) Also room for BAT mobile and a few tractor impliments. Now, trying to talk my wife in helping me move and restack all the wood we did this spring!

Been working on major rig overhaul. Old one did great for a first timer like me. But, you know, bigger and better. I'm dusting off an old thread of mine for my rig. Anyone with suggestions I'm all for them. Thanks.

[emericksmaple]

I am proud to announce a new addition to Emerick's Maple Products. Tyler Matthew was born on June 17 at 11:13am. He was 19 1/2 in long and weighed 8lb 1.8oz. Both Mother and baby are doing good.

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

congradulations!! now its back to sugaring stuff like me I bet.. :)

[PATheron]

Congradulations on the new little guy Emerick. Hes going to have a good time hanging out with you guys. Ive got a question for you vac guys. Heres my latest hairbrain idea. 2100' run. 800 taps. One inch mainline. 10cfm pump at 20" vac. A few lateral mains but not long and not very many. Mainly just 2100' of 1" run out in a straight line with 3 or 4 lateral mains with 800 taps on it. First question if I just do that what will my vac be at the end. Just do everything 1" pipe. Next question if I run a 1.25 dry over it how much better does that make it? The whole run is a gradual down hill slope. It will all run down hill but not a real steep pitch. Everything will be very tight as far as leaks. Theron

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Theron,
Leader suggests no more than 600 taps on 1" mainline. If the slope is minimal you might want to go to 1 and 1/4 for the lower part of it. Good Luck!
Doug

[PATheron]

Thompsons- I guess it comes down to either run the 1.25 dry right from the getgo or If I was going to single pipe it do the 1.25. I think I want the dry just to run sap Im just trying to keep the cost down this year becouse Im "NOT EXPANDING THIS YEAR" just kind of bumping around the hedgerwows. If I get cought it going to be "dont worry honey I just threw a couple taps in the fencerow, its nothing really. "

[maplecrest]

if you went 1 inch wet dry with manifolds at each main entrance that would handle 800.your first bast in the morning might start comming down dry line for a while.11/4 gives no back up plan for frozen wet line after a freeze for sap flow before the thaw. you only need to go to the last lat entrance with the dry line.1 inch will work the rest of the way alone to the last tree. vac level when tight should match last tree to releaser.

[royalmaple]

I'm off to tour and see all that PA has to offer for sugarbushes. Theeeeeeeeron has a guided trip all planned out. Can't wait. You guys better get all your secrets hidden. I am armed with video, and still shots.

[Sugarmaker]

Matt Emerick,
Congratulations to you and your wife! Hope Tyler and mom are doing fine. Hope to see you on the Fall PA tour? I know its harder with a little one. Cheryl and I are going to try to attend. I would like to stop by Theron's and see his operation, since we will be in the area.

Chris

[mountainvan]

Congrats to the new dads. Not to much different for me this summer. Still bottling syrup every week, doing the farm markets, and fishing at least once a week. I'll be going back to Holland again this summer too. Sales have been very good for me so far this summer, I hope the trend continues. Have the woodshed almost full with wood left over for the mother of all sap seasons.

[Dennis H.]

Cut and split some wood today, nice day to be out working, light rain and cool temps!

Finally got a chance to walk a piece of property near by that I got permission to tap. All Red's, well around here that is all there is.

With the new piece of woods it shouldn't be hard to add another 100 taps. I want to see if I can max out my rig this coming year.

[andrew martin]

All is well here, thankfully central KY is not as hot or dry as it was this time last year. Walked in the sugarbush yesterday and it looks great. Have not had much time to devote to sugaring stuff - my wife gave birth to Jonathan Michael Martin on June 10th. He was 21" long and weighed 8-12. All is well, and thankfully he is the quietest of our three boys, so far. This makes three boys under the age of three-and-a-half in under 4 years. May not sugar this coming year, but definitely will the following year.

Andrew

[Revi]

Congratulations!

Hope you can get back to sugaring when they get a little bigger!

Kids love the whole process.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Spent the week of the 4th reworking the oil rig to hopefully save on fuel. Moved a tank in the woods for the new releaser and was about carried away by the sketters so ill wait to rework the woods. I cleaned my pans from this spring I just rinsed with water and left till later to clean them and they were bad I used EAZYOFF oven cleaner and toped that off with SCRUBBING BUBBLES tub and tile I used my 75.00 Home Depot power washer and they look new! never again will I boil with pan cleaner and hand scrub with hot water.

[maplecrest]

i got hit by the scrapers, found the stainless covers of my tanks have a new home.but not here. so lock up your covers if you like them.i am happy the tank is still there.

[maple flats]

Yesterday I finished pouring the concrete floor at my sugarhouse. Now I need to get started adding more taps. 400 to add for 09, but dropping 100 existing taps in 2 seperate locations. Now my taps will all be in just 2 locations. I hope to add RO and vac for 2010.

[Sugarmaker]

Still hauling and cutting pallets for making syrup. I think I have about 5 cord of them in the wood shed. Need to look at the bees Sat or Sunday, 11 colonies going, but need to combine one or two and get them ready for goldenrod season. It will be here before we know it.

Lots of rain in our area over the last several weeks, Garden is a might soggy.

Reminder for those in NWPA region our Maple association is having a picnic at Gary Bileks' ( president) place Sat at 11:00. Bubbler and tubing washer demos.

Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Need help finding pictures of a all brick arch that was in one of the threads on here. Using the search for "brick Arch" has hundreds of posts. Anyone remember?
Anyway my neighbor Keith is building a all brick arch and he has a good start, it is 3 feet wide and would take about 6- 7 feet of pan length. If any one see pans at a good price let me know. He is going to fire brick line the inside and add a blower too. If I get some pictures I will post them.

Chris

[Brian Ryther]

Things are coming together this week. I was able to build a shelter for the new vac pump, wire it up and do a dry run. After working out a few kinks, with the help of royal maple, I am able to pull 29." We have been able to average a tuck load of wood a day for the past 60 days, only 40 more to go. I have put out 1,600' of dry line to feed the two releasers. I only have the last 300' to go. that will get me across the road and connected to the pump.

[Fred Henderson]

Finally after 4 years we are getting some blueberries. I got 4 differtent varities doing very well. Some guy stopped by and wanted to buy a 1/2 quart and I flat refused to cut one of them berry's in half.

[PATheron]

Brian- OHHHH YEAHHHHH! Are you kidding me? 29"?? Im going to have to issue an early BIGSAP ALERT. How many taps are you hooking to that supersucker? Your going to be giving me serious payback down here. Im pulling out all my tricks. Not going down without a fight. I cant wait to see the pictures next spring, 100 loads of firewood? We need more details and a full explaination of this insanity. Your going to be running so much vac your going to get vac leaks on broken branches. DETAILS,DETAILS. Tarrian

[royalmaple]

Brian-


Glad to hear your getting 29", now you are in the big leagues.
.....
I've been busy, finished up the PA maple tour / Hedge row cruising (installation) with theron. Lots of nice trees down there.

Now it is full court press building a house down the road. Good summer job.

Gonna go out back tonight and hammer some more non species in the brush. Gotta make that into a serious bush on of these days.

[andyp]

Fred
I sure would like to know where I could get some of those blueberry plants. I planted 5 different varieties last year and I don't think any them will be bigger than pint size. lol.

andyp

[maple flats]

Blueberries are great. I have 4.5 acres of them, planted in the early thru mid 1980's. My season will be opening this coming Friday. My season lasts anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks, 1 year they even lasted 10 weeks, but the first 18-20 days is by far the best in sales. My berries are all u-pick, except for a very few my youngest daughter picks and sells each season. I bought my bushes as 1 yr rooted cuttings which is much cheaper but it takes about 3 yrs longer to get the first crop. If anyone is looking to get a few bushes I encourage 3yr potted or at least 2 yr potted plants. To judge how many you might want figure that you get about 8 qts per mature bush each season. You need a low PH soil, ideally 4.2-5.0. If it is naturally over 6.6 you will likely need to grow them in a large containers because you have free lime which will keep the PH too high no matter what you add to lower it. In my case I started with natural PH's of 5.6-5.9. I added sulfur the year before planting. After the year of planting i fertilize with ammonium sulphate, 1 oz/bush/yr old up to 8 oz max. Try some, enjoy!!!

[Fred Henderson]

Dave,
I used 2 oz of ammonium sulfate this spring on each plant so next year I will use 3 oz per plant. We have about 30 plants so I think we got enough for our own use.

[maple flats]

Fred,
You should also get a soil test before next year and every 3-4 yrs after that. Occasionally you need to add a little magnesium (epsom salt works good) Blueberries need little else most of the time. How is the leaf color this year? If it is dark green you are good, if it looks slightly light green or yellowish you need more ammonium sulfate NEXT year. Never add after the middle of June. You can apply it all in April/early May or half then and half 4 weeks later. If you apply later you get new growth too late into the fall which is very suseptible to winter injury. Good luck and enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Dave

[Fred Henderson]

Dave,
The leafs for the most part are dark green but I will do the soil test very soon. I have a kit to do it with. We are mostly pine trees here. I also mulch the plants with pine needles. Its takes a lot of raking and forking but it is worth it. The new shoot growth that I see coming, do I just let it keep growing? I wish that I had planted all Patroit plants when I started. I do have a few low bush which makes for harder picking. I seen the wife crawling up and down the rows to pick those low bush ones.

[maple flats]

Pine needles or even sawdust mulch is fine. As for new shoots, you should let the 2 strongest, straightest ones grow and remove the rest. Each year you add 2 canes until you have 14-16 canes, then you remove the 2 oldest and add 2 new each year keeping it about 14-16 canes. Do not remove all of this years excess til you prune, ideally immediately before or after sugar season. But honestly I do almost all of my pruning at the wrong time of year, during the summer because that is when I have the most time. Even doing it then is better than not pruning. To prune you remove all low growing canes and crooked canes and the 2 oldest mentioned above. I do not grow low bush, but they are harvested with a special rake with a container attached to the rake. Low bush are also burned periodically to prune but I do not know what the interval to burn is nor the timing. Some of our friends from Maine might be able to help with that question.
My crop looks great this season and picking starts Friday 7/18.

[Fred Henderson]

There is a lot more to growing BB than I ever thought. I want to thank you for all you help. Each time you send new infor I have to wife come to read it. She is the green thumb around here.

[maplekid]

well in the finale stages of finishing the sugar house. i need to put the door and roof on the steam vent and put shingles on. got 2 cords of wood stacked still need to build the enclosed wood shed the list goes on. what would you guys recomend for a chimney for a 4x5 pan. 6in-8in-12in

[ennismaple]

I got about 300' of old black waterline replaced with translucent blue tubing last week. It's been up for over 25 years and was long overdue to come out. I've probably still got a few thousand feet left in the bush. I also spent part of an afternoon making 200 or so droplines out of a roll of tubing. Since it was sunny the skeeters weren't too bad but he deerflies were out in force!

[Jeff E]

Hey all,

Last Wednesday was a big one for me. I pick up the tubing for my new vacuum system. 35 500' rolls of mainline, 60 rolls of lateral line. I hung 3 rolls on Saturday on wire, working out the home made reel set up. I think I have a good system after a day of tweeking.

I also got my new to me evaporator, a 2001 3x12 with hoods. What a beast to move around. Thank goodness for neighbors who are willing helpers! An occassional quart of syrup as a thank you goes a long way!

I will post some pictures of my reel set up in the next few days.

Every hour is precious now to get things set up by next season. The goal is to have the woods work done by freeze up, and work in the building after that.

[maplehound]

Just got back from checking some of my markets and the sales are good. Syrup supply is still holding up and will be bottling more as soon as I get a shipment of bottles from Burch bottles. They shore are alot cheaper on glass than our local dealers.
On another note, My wife and I are getting closer to meeting with our prospective adoptive son. Hopefully it will be this weekend or maybe next. It shore takes a long time to get all the paper work done just so you can meet. I am looking forward to having the help in the woods this fall. OHH did I mention he will be 16 in August. :)
Heaven Help us :)

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Maplekid,

Two 6" stacks would be good for that size pan spaced evenly appart to pull good draft or a 10" stack flattened out to make it wider would work good. I used to boil on a 5x7 King SS syrup pan with two 6" stacks and it would pull good draft and boil off close to 50 gph after it got warmed up.

[Dennis H.]

Just got back from our camping trip to northern PA.

Thanks for the tour Theron, all I can say still is WOW!
Now I can understand how you got the number of taps that you have and the amount of syrup you got. I wish the woods down here had that many maples in them.

[PATheron]

Dennis- It was fun having you stop by. My wife thinks you are as nuts as I am. Weve got to find you some lowlands full of reds. Matt said the other maples you were talking about, Norway, I think you said are good tappers. Maybe you can get a bunch of them in the lawns like you said. I still think though that to get a bunch together down there well have to find a group of reds. Thats the good thing about them they grow everywhere. Theron

[emericksmaple]

Theron, I would try the one 1 line this year and if it does not work out you can always run the dry line next. If you keep everything tight you should not have a prob?????
Chris my wife and I are planning on making it to the fall tour. May bring Tyler with but Grandmother has already volentered to baby sit. With out us asking!!

[maplwrks]

I've been busy this summer tightening mainlines and cutting brush in my woods. I recently got permission to tap another woods close to town, approx. 500 taps. The cool thing is, it borders a piece of property that is 20 acres of solid maple. That landowner seems to be cool with tapping, just got to sit down and hash out the details of a lease. ****.....I was thinking that I might start a sugaring season without spending $3000 on new tubing!
My wife and I are going to the Maplerama next weekend-----anyone else going??? We are taking our camper over and we'll stay right at the fairgrounds. If any traders want to stop by for a couple of boiling sodas, that'll be cool. I think if we aren't careful, we might have a good time!!!

[ennismaple]

maplwrks - Spending money on tubing is the best money you can spend and it has the fastest payback period of any equipment. I love the look of a new bush with brand new tubing - it sparkles and all I can think about is how much more syrup we'll make! Sounds like you'll have some fun setting up a new bush this fall.

[maplwrks]

I've set up a new bush every year for the past 3 years---I agree with you, nothing like the looks of new tubing in the woods!! My wife would like to go on vacation some year, right after sugaring. At this rate it'll never happen!!!

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

Make sure you introduce yourself to me if you do the Friday tours.. I mite take you up on that boiling soda after the banquet dinner if you plan to be there, Kinda stinks headed to that alone but the wife wanted to stay home with the new little one..

Andy

[Gary R]

Visited Jim Brown today. I was in need of checking the grade and a couple of containers to enter some syrup in a fair. Jim really took care of me:) . He gave us maple mustard, maple sugar and we even had a maple smoothie while we talked. Fantastic treats! Thank's Jim and Darlene.

[Sugarmaker]

Should finish the firewood for the sugarhouse tonight for the 2009 season.
Then to start on wood for the house. Just picked up another wood stove, and with the prices of fuel, I may press it into service in the garage or sugarhouse.
Getting a new front step, side walk, and concrete pad in front of the garage this weekend.
Only about 7 months to sugaring season in NWPA!

Chris

[chipa]

Saw a piece on New England Cable News about a sugarmaker in Waterville Vt who suffered alot of wind damage in his sugar bush from Fridays thunder storms.
To days and tomorrows rain can not be good news for that area.

[PATheron]

BIGSAP update from NE Pa. Got my sugar wood for the year at the sugarhouse. Have the shed full of split stuff and a pretty big pile outside the shed that needs to be done yet. Did a pretty good thinning in the young stand of maple and a pretty hard thinning in one section that had a lot of big ash in it. Put the ash down and thatll be next years stuff. Building a deck, sidewalk to the sugarshed, concrete apron for the front of the shed and a small shed for the boys bicycles. Hope to have those projects done in a couple weeks then Im going to work on syrup stuff till season. Want to have everything top notch by January. Ive got mainline running up into the young stand every 100' now and Im going to start hitting cull trees. Picked out the best ones at intervals that will be proper spacing at maturity and going to tap the rest. There are one heck of lot of cull trees. Im thinking there are probly 800 total. I hit 300 of them last year and Id say therell be 500 more. The stand was super thick. Most of these cull tree taps are on avg 5" id say. Not sure what they will do but were going to find out. Im going to tap them shallow and see how I make out. Then every year Im going to open up the crop trees more and more. Ill lose some cull tree taps but Ill just see how I make out. The other thing Im going to do is extend my dry lines further into the bush so I dont have any more freeze ups. If the lines dont go straight up and down the hill theyre getting a dry to run sap mornings. If it hits 33 degrees things better be happening or Im going to be pissed. Other cool thing im going to do is put my releaser in the kitchen. Ive already installed it and now Im going to rerun my mainlines to run to it better. Thatll be neat to sit by the woodstove and watch the releaser dump. Thats about it I guess. You guys keep me posted on any improvements your making for the upcoming season becouse If you havent figured it out by now I pretty much live for this stuff. Theron

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

You might want to make sure you have an extra bed in case something on that releaser fails, you will be sleeping somewhere else besides your bed. LOL!

do have to admit, that would be pretty cool to watch it, but........

[royalmaple]

Theron needs to clarify, that is the kitchen in the sugarhouse. I don't think sarah would let that fly in the house.

That is going to be fun to watch.

[PATheron]

Brandon- Sorry about that. I meant the kitchen in the sugarhouse like Matt said although thats a pretty awesome idea. The other cool thing ive been thinking about for a long time but havent gotten around to is putting a webcam in there so you guys can watch it dump. Maybe if I get everything done well ahead of season Ill see if I can do it. Im going to be kind of broke for a while so I might have to wait one more season but I really want to get it done. I ran the computer wire into the shed so I just need a camera and a few other items and I should be able to do it. Theron

[Maplewalnut]

Theron,

Fantastic idea, better than watching the yule log at Christmas! LOL

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

I would be afraid my wife would be watching what I was doing in the Sugarhouse :(

[Sugarmaker]

Wood is all cut for 2009 syrup season. Plus some extra!
Off to the races tonight to see the grandson race dirt bikes.
Crew poured 8.5 yards of concrete in front of the garage. Dog and cat only walked in the wet cement twice!

Chris

[mapleack]

It's currently 2:10 am, sunday morning. We just got home 10min ago from Vermont maplerama. We had a great time, even though our school / tour bus brokedown today on the way to the last stop! Beautiful weather, great sugarhouses and really nice people! I'd reccomend maplerama to anyone who has given it a thought.

[Brian Ryther]

After running dry line for two months it was time to gat back to adding taps this weekend. I added forty more hedge row taps. All very nice mature trees. Had to put them on a ladder, but forty more on a ladder is better then gravity or collecting buckets. This will make for 150+ added so far this year, 850 to go.

[Dennis H.]

I think I got enough wood cut and split for this coming year, I did it all from standing dead trees.

Once I get a bunch of stuff done off the honey-do list, one was to build the little one a playhouse and swing, I will thin out a few oaks so as to open it up for the maples. That wood would be for the next season.

I have a few things I would like to do to the evap to improve it, I will have to wait to later in the year to do that though.

I am also planning on building a small shed roof over the area where I will put they evap. I lucked out this past year not having to boil in the rain or snow, I just think I had beginners luck.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Phew, did anyone get those storms yesterday? We got thumped. Good thing was it took out a stand of locust trees that i'm in the process of getting cut up and ready to be split. On the bad end one of my largest maples got uprooted and snapped a power pole. We didn't have power for 12 hrs yesterday evening/night.

Atleast i have plenty of firewood now.

[PATheron]

Guys- Got pretty momys projects almost all done. Got maybe one more week. Then its GO TIME. Got 17 more rolls of 5/16 and 700 taps and a bunch of scraps. Everything is going in the air somewhere. Im afraid Royal Maple and Rhyther are going to try to give me some payback and im not going to be a party to it. Theyre running some pretty scary tapcount numbers by me but im not going to let them pull any fast ones. They better have things working juusssstttt about right. Ill try to keep you genetic defects, I mean, proud professionals posted on all things syrup. Theron

[PATheron]

Guys- How are your trees looking now at this point? Mine have been real good looking till lately but its getting pretty dry now here. The leaves are looking kind of shriveled up and overall they arent looking quite as good. It seems to be the case all over although most of mine in the woods look pretty good still. You can tell though that its getting pretty dry. I think its kind of normal for this time of year here. One thing that amazes me though is how good the trees are healing up. Is this kind of the case in most of the areas? Should only be about another month and then well be into fall and should get wet again. Other thing ive been wondering about, do any of you tap silver maples and how do you make out with them? They look like they do great here in the dry weather. They look real vigorous and seem to always look good. Im thinking about planting some and wondered if any of you guys have any experiance tapping them. Theron

[Parker]

Fired up the slasher and whitteld up a littel sugarwood last night,,,,I still have alot in the shed from last year,,,will try to have 40 cord under cover by thanksgiving

[TapME]

Parker; wish you closer to me I would have you cut up some fire wood. Are you getting the wood for orders?

[Dennis H.]

Theron I took a walk through the woods the other day and was happy to see how the trees down here were healing up. A couple of the trees took me a little bit to find the location of the tap hole and the rest were all but closed up.

[ennismaple]

Theron - Things have been wet here in Ontario this year so it's really green and lush. Should be good for tree health.

When we do our maple plantation it will be sugar maples. Dad has previously transplanted about 10 sugars and all but one survived. Ultimately they'll grow larger, last longer and have better sugar content. Our soil is very rocky and dry as well - how our trees survive a drought I don't know but they generally do pretty well.

[PATheron]

Ennismaple- You guys are going to plant a maple orchard too? How big are the sugars your transplanting and how long do you think it will take to get them to a tappable size? Another thing ive been wondering about is that its my understanding that in Canada they tap a lot of small trees becouse in some places thats all there really is. How small a tree is considered big enough to tap and do you ever run out of area to put the taps in. I know on this site theres been tons of talk on tree size to tap and all of that and I dont want to get into all that I just wondered about the running out of room stuff. Thats neat you guys are going to do the orchard thing. I was thinking about the silvers becouse they grow so fast. Ive thought about transplanting sugars but it seems like it would be a ton of work. Maybe I can do some different types of maples just for fun. Theron

[PATheron]

Dennis- I think your trees down there heal better than mine. Plus if they are reds they really heal fast. Brandon- If you notice this how do your trees look down there and how do the sugars fare in your area. Seems like you would be at the southern part of the sugar range. Theron

[Dennis H.]

I think if I was going to plant trees I would just order a bunch from nursery.

I found a place out in Indiana, PA called Musser Forests, Inc. they sell all kinds of trees and all kinds of maple trees.
I am not sure how good their prices are but for 100 1yr sugar maple seedling it will cost about $60, red maple you can get them in either 2yr or 3 yr seedling, their cost per 100 are $100 and $300.
I know it would be cheaper to try and transplant trees but it would be more work for sure.
I have to imagine that if you dig-em up when they are only 1-2yrs old it would be easier, if they are above 3' tall I have to imagine it will take alot of work to dig it out with out damaging the roots too bad.

You have to watch those silvers though, I have heard that they are more prone to damage from winds and ice because they are so fast growing.

Just my 2 pennies worth.:rolleyes:

[PATheron]

Dennis- We have a lot of the silvers in my area and they look pretty good. I know that your right about the sugars being sturdier. The thing Im thinking of is a sugar takes maybe 30 years to get to tap and a silver could be as fast as 8 or 10 years. Im thinking if I plant around 13,000 of them I should be able to lose a few and still be all right. That ought to bring my guilles bernard dump rate under a minute. Theron

[Dennis H.]

13,000!! Holy Cow!!

Now that is alot of trees, yeah I can see now that you can lose a few and never know any different.

For what I have heard silvers and reds grow at the same pace with the silvers the faster of the two. What I would like to know is which would produce the best quality of syrup.
It would be hard to know until the trees are there and tappable.

How any acres are you planning on using to plant all those trees? What is the standard number of trees per acre?

[PATheron]

Dennis- Im not sure, Im just thinking about things. Im thinking about 70 acres with a tree every 15 feet. Thats where the 13,000 number came from. Were thinking about taking seeds and starting the saplings ourselves then planting them. Probly a crazy idea. Everybodys gotta have a dream. Theron

[mapleman3]

UUUUGGGGG July is almost done, I want to have all my wood done by the end of august, I wanted it much earlier but I had to finish the stuff for the house first. second truckload came today 8 cord tree length.

Going to expand the sugarhouse into the saphouse. putting the saptanks outside the sugarhouse, it will actually make it easier for cleaning and filling.

I will be buying a 3/4 to 1 ton truck(cheap 4x4)for hauling sap from the north bush, My wife will use the Dakota and 210gal tank for the 175+tap bucket run.

Still some camping left to do but gotta get going more on maple... so much to do this year

[MaplePancakeMan]

trying to seed that many trees would drive you nuts and probably cost you just as much as buying them from a nursery. Unless you happen to have trays and ample greenhouse space, then maybe you could do it without killing yourself

[Gary R]

Bottled up 2 gal. of Maple wine tonight. Tastes like Bourbon whiskey. Made this batch a little strong at about 15% alcohol.

[Dennis H.]

I remember a few years ago helping my sister clean out the rain gutters of the house that just had bought.
It was completely full with 6-8" tall seedlings. I remember that when we pulled them out the roots came out nice and fully intact.
Maybe that is something you could look into, clean someones gutters and get seedlings for free! The trick will be finding a house close to a few silvers and that haven't been cleaned out for a few years.

I saw a pic of a nursery that grows trees from seeds and the beds that they have the seedlings in to start are maybe 4' wide and several hunderd feet long, they were packed in there too. There was probably a few thousand seedlings there. So I would have to say that it wouldn't take much space to get the seeds growing into seedlings.

[ennismaple]

Theron - We'll transplant maples up to 6' maybe even 8' tall. My father has a rubber tire backhoe so it makes pretty quick work of digging them up using a 3' bucket. It does damage the roots some but like I said only one that he transplanted as a test hasn't made it. He plans to retire in a few years and then he'll have time to do a whole bunch. We've probably got 15-20 acres of old hay fields and clearings that we'll plant. If I'm lucky I'll tap them while I'm still on the green side of the sod! I've read that the ideal spacing is 32' but you start off at 16' spacings and cull 3/4 of them when they start competing for sunlight.

I think the operations that tap small maples are in Quebec or New Brunswick where the bush was logged 30 years ago or so and the maples are only 8" or smaller in diameter. Some of our sugars are huuuge because our bush hasn't been logged for the maples in 100 years. Once we started using 5/16" spiles we started to tap trees as small as a hand width in diameter - about 9". If the tree is 2 hand widths it gets 2 taps.

[PATheron]

Ennis- Ive thought about using a backhoe like that too. I bet that does work good. Youll have to take some pics when you do that. Itll be neat to see what it looks like down the road. Theron

[Jim Brown]

Gary R; Save me a taste I'll be home from Germany in a couple of weeks; I'm keeping track of the trader on our sons computer.

Jim