bad year

[maplekid]

did not make even an 8th of what i shouldve made. weather is either too hot or too cold. made only 3-4 gallons off 100 taps. very dissapointing. hope next year is a good year. i will have a better evaporator a canning room and a wood shed. hope to hit 150-200 taps next year.

[mountainvan]

Sorry to hear you had a rough year.If you can for next year vacuum makes a huge difference with sapflow. Keep up the good work.

[MaplePancakeMan]

i hear ya maple kid... only 7 gallons off of 80ish taps thats piss poor. boiled 3 times.

[maplekid]

yeah sounds like most everybody didnt do so hot. but a producer 1 mile from me made 28 gallons already off 100 taps. what gives? the woods i tapped last year was much better on sugar and sap production than the woods i tap now. it will get tapped next year. that woods filled 40 buckets almost everyday. maplepancakeman- sorry to hear about your season mabey its a every other year thing so next year mabe we can make some more syrup

[RBC]

well going to try one last time. wood about gone. if good color well keep going
made 300gal

[maplehound]

I have 65 gallons finished but last year I made 165 gallons. This year everthing is dark, last year I made mosly light. I am going to make more this weekend but not sure if I can even hit my 100 galon mark. Sure has been a disappointing year. I have heard however that those in the northern counites have done much better they get the cold air flow off Lake Erie and that helps on years like this.

[tom jr.]

Don't feel bad about poor production guys, I have 600 tapped and made a wopping 18 gal of dark. worst year ever for me, decent weather conditions here in norteast ohio most of the season lots of freezing nights and warm days but the sap just wont run good at all. the old saying is true, wind out of the east the sap runs the least!!! :cry:

[Father & Son]

Did the guys on vacuum in your area do any better? I'm in the same boat in NW PA, alot less sap-syrup and none of it light.

Jim

[CrossBroMaple]

not having a stellar year either up here on the lake. made 50 gal so far hoping for a good run today/tomorrow. as like everyone else making way more dark than before, though i did get about 12 gallons of light on the first run in feb.

[maplehound]

It's after 5 pm here and I have been running my vacuum since noon. Just got back from the woods and I bet not more than 10 gallons have come in off of over 600 taps. The temp at noon was around 38 deg and is now at 46 deg. not sure why the trees arn't running they have only been tapped about 3 weeks so they shouldn't be drying up yet. I am still hopefull that I will get more this evening and tomorrow.

[Clan Delaney]

Is anyone in Ohio having a good year? I'm sorry to heat about all this bad luck. Ten gallons from 600 taps on vac? Ouch.

[KenWP]

I have no idea if this is a bad year or not. I don't think its warm enough just yet for the trees to run proper. went up to 45 today but took the trees untill 2 or so to thaw out. Guess one just takes what hes given.

[TapME]

maplekid; 2 years ago we made 8 gallons on 80 taps with no vac. last year was 25 from the same 80. What a difference a year makes. This year 20 and counting on 160 taps. There's always next year and who knows what that will bring.

[Fred Henderson]

The season has not even started yet. I know this because I am not sloshing thru knee deep mud. An old say is, "that its not sugaring season until you are in the mud" and I ain't in it yet. We still got frost in the ground here and it is tinder bone dry.

[maplekid]

i was hoping to do lot-o-tubing next year but with the pi$$ poor crop we had looks like thats not happening. all i will prolly get is an evaporator if i even get that. going to boil tomarow morning and monday after school hope i make some syrup. my new taps yeilded alot sweeter sap than the others but im going to stick with the good woods i tapped last year. made 8-9 gallons on 40 taps last year. will make syrup next year thats for dang sure

[maplehound]

Fred
The mud here has come and gone. I think if we had some rain maybe we could get some more sap as it is right now there isn't enough moisture in the ground for the trees to give us any sap. A week ago my son was worring about how to get into and out of the woods for all the mud, and we had a 100 gallons an hour flowing into the tank on tubing. This week it doesn't even seem as if we are getting a gallon an hour with last night getting down to the mid 20's and day time temps near 50, And I can walk into the woods without even getting my boots wet. I hope that tomorrow I wake up to a real surprise in my tank but I am not counting on it.

[partsrus1974]

Its been a BAD year here to..Im near albany NY..Its either been to cold or to hot.Mother nature is a pain in the A$$.I only have 50gallons made so far :( The longterm forcast here looks like only a few sap days then Another warm up,the season is over

[fred]

with the guys ive talked to, if you tapped around the 1st of march you did better than if you tapped early.but still on vacuum most guys did about a quart per with vacuum and a lot less without

[maplekid]

i finished off what was in the feed tank which was about 55 gallons and pulled of 3 gallons of near syrup, finished some from the other day. i think i will boil one more time and call it quits. didnt get much of a run the past 2 days. probly have almost 2-3 gallon of syrup in the pan once im done. i will draw off the whole thing and finish it all

[fred]

you might want to hold out a couple of days .those new taps should do something today and tomorrow

[maplehound]

I just started my vaccume. Some seemed to be flowing in from the lines but I still couldn't find any drops that seemed to be getting anything coming from the trees. I am still hopefull however that I can get a couple 100 gallon today. if I don't then I won't waist much more gas this year trying to get more.

[fred]

70 degrees last week without freezes definitly didnt help

[maplehound]

So far I don't think I even have 40 gallons in today. Talked to another producer near by that tapped the same day's I did and he is having a fair run today. can't figure this year out but I do think I am done at this time.

[Peteyp426]

I am in columbiana county ohio, and tapped around 50 taps on march 6 and put 70 more taps out on the 9or 10 of march.So far I have collected around 1500gal of sap and the sugar content has been good mainly 2.2% only about 500 - 600 was 2% I thought that was good

[Fred Henderson]

We collected 700 gallons of 3.3% today.

[fred]

my buddy in kensington got 100 gal of bad sap today from 1100 taps.hes done too

[3rdgen.maple]

Bad year does not even describe it. Wanna talk bad I have 100 more taps out this year than last year and volume is below what I made last year thus far. Right now I am at 1/2 pint per tap Yep that is right 1/2 pint per tap. Still got a couple weeks left here (I hope) so things better turn around quick. Sugar content is alot lower than the first few runs Went from drawing off every 45 minutes to an hour to every 2 hours. I'm having a love hate relationship with my trees.

[maplehound]

Well I went ahead and tried reaming the holes out this afternoon. I ussually don't like doing it and am not sure if it is really worth it this year but maybe tomorrow I will get somekind of a run.

[Peteyp426]

I collected yesterdayaround luch time and 120 taps produced 255gal of 2%. Today probably will be the last collection for me. Tomorrow I am goinng to collect what I can and pull the taps unless tonight gets into the low 20's but not looking like it is going to. I am allready getting trees lined up for next year looking like I will have 400 - 500 next season.

[Peteyp426]

Today buckets running good collected 145gal 2% Going to empty all the buckets around luch time tomorrow, and call it a year

[maplekid]

i pulled the taps today

[Bradenfish]

I made about 1 int per tap. Is that normal? i was hoping to make a little more than that. I only had one run that was 2% sugar, the rest seemed to be about 1.7% average. 550 taps on gravity tubing. pulled taps 3-21

[Peteyp426]

I pulled my taps yesterday and called it a year. 120 taps on buckets, and I avg 15.2 gal sap per tap. I had 3 trees that avg 22gal per tap, and I did not tap them until march 9. Most of my taps were put out on the 6th of march. Next year going to tap middle of feb. I think I did good for this year considering everyone said it was bad.

[maplehound]

Did my last boil today finishing off with 75 gallons of syrup. Less than half what I made last year :( Season ended with as much troouble as it started. Had to have the carburator on the pacer pump fixed just to get the last load off the wagon, and today I found the generator needs worked on before we can use it to clean the tubing.
ONE STEP FORWARD AND THREE STEPS BACK THE WHOLE SEASON !!!!!!!!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

But the best part of it in all of it was that you now have a new sap helper and I would think that would be better than the best season in the world for you and your wife!!!!!!!!!!!

[maplehound]

Brandon You are right there. Ryder enjoyed helping out though he found firing the evaporatore a very hot job and has several singed hairs on his arms to show for it. He does seem somewhat disappointed that the season is over though. The best news though is that tomorrow the lawyer is filing for finalization. As of tomorrow he will have been living with us for 6 months and that is the required waiting time before filing to finalize. :)