So How Much??

[PARKER MAPLE]

SO GUYS I STARTED A THREAD A FEWS WEEKS BACK ABOUT TAKING OVER MY GRANDFATHERS OPPERATIONS. BUT IM NOT QUITE SURE HOWS THATS ALL GOING TO WORK OUT, SO WHAT IM WONDERING IS, HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE TAPPED AROUND 200 OR SO TREES, ON AVERAGE HOW MUCH SAP TO THEY YEILD?? AND I USING A 2X6 WILL THIS THING KEEP UP WITH ANY MORE TAPS, I ONLY HAVE NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS TO BOIL??:o

[caseyssugarshack93]

id say a 2x6 would handle 200 taps easy, i ran 1900 on a 2x6 but with a r.o so id say if your getting around 35 - 40 gph rate on the evap and you get a gallon run you would figure 200 gallons of sap if you have good trees and whatever mother nature brings for that season, theres really to many little variables to perdict on how much sap you will get, and if your on vac or gravity ect.


just my two cents,
hope i helped some anyways.

nate

[caseyssugarshack93]

i noticed you have a homemade 2x6 do you have a flue pan or flat pans, if you have flat pans ? Because that would make a differnce on howmany taps you can handle too,

[PARKER MAPLE]

its a 2x3 front pan and a 2x3 flue drop pan.. also i gues what im looking for is how much storage i should be ready for.. i have seen these awesome 275 gal square storage tanks with metal cages forsale and thinking about t=getting a couple.. what do you pros think???

[dschultz]

I'd say 200 is pushing for a 2x6. I had that size when I first started and you really had to push it to 35 gallons an hr threw it.I don't know if you have any help with this but if your going to do this alone your going to be busy if you only have night's and weekends

[cncaboose]

I've run 180, 200, and 230 taps the last 3 years, all buckets, with a 3x8. Our trees run well so we had some days with 300+ gallons and one day of 430 gallons this year. Working full time, starting to collect at 3 or 4 PM with my wife, led to several boils til 11 PM or midnight, sometimes 2 or 3 days in a row. We are real likely to cut back next year. Unless you are on all tubing so collecting time is minimal, a 2x6 is going to be way too small for 200 taps and working a full time job. Remember this is supposed to be fun. Just my thoughts.

[tuckermtn]

Ian- do you tap some of the old maples (roadsides) around town in Canton? Stay away from the ones in front of the SLU sororities- I think I pee'd on a few of the ones in front of Kappa Kappa Gamma back in the 90s...

[SPILEDRIVER]

guess it depends on your prospective i guess.we ran 180/230 taps for years on a 2x6 grimm with forced air.never kept track of the actual boil rate or gallons of sap but loved every minute of it.had more than a few 10 hour boils but dosent seem to matter much when your loveing it.made 50 gallons of syrup a year(average) did a hundred gal.a time or 2.
if your crunched for time and are trying to make a buck id probably go with a bigger unit but you gotta start somewhere:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[3rdgen.maple]

My 2 cents I ran 385 taps on a 2x6 this past season. 2x4 drop flue and 2x2 syrup pan I got a consistant 40 gallons an hour. Ran all buckets. Own my own printing service business so you can say I work a little more than a full time job. I had no problems keeping up. In fact I am increasing taps this year and I am pretty confident in this setup. You gotta remember if you are running gravity you do not get consitant runs so it is not like you have 12 hours of boiling night after night. Get enough storage and I think if you are not afraid of a little work you can keep up with 200 taps with time for sleep. If you have a efficient sap gathering setup, your wood is all taken care of in the off season, have plenty of filters and prefilters and even have an extra syrup pan you will have a pretty good setup. You will not have to shutdown to clean syrup pan, just swap it out and clean the dirty one while boiling on the other. Plenty of filters means you can keep filtering and not have to stop and clean filters, if you have plenty of wood you don't have to give up a boil day to put up more wood. The closer the wood pile to the arch the less time you will spend carting it to the evaporator. An efficient means of gathering will cut down on time in the woods and more time for boiling. I truly believe that off season preperations are key to a succesful syrup season. The more you do now the more boiling time you will have when it counts. Take a look at Theron's past year. He did what most would think impossible but efficiency and preplanning and consitant tweeking to get things running smooth is the key.

[PARKER MAPLE]

thank everybody, 3rdgen just curios how mech storage you have for all your taps. also yes all of mine will be on tubing and gathered from two pretty close bye locations. what i was thinking was for tanks out in the sugarbush at each location i would place a 275, and at hts sugar house i would have a 375, my thoughts here were collect from each one every other day. if poss..hoping to make in the area of 100 gal for next session.

[3rdgen.maple]

thank everybody, 3rdgen just curios how mech storage you have for all your taps. also yes all of mine will be on tubing and gathered from two pretty close bye locations. what i was thinking was for tanks out in the sugarbush at each location i would place a 275, and at hts sugar house i would have a 375, my thoughts here were collect from each one every other day. if poss..hoping to make in the area of 100 gal for next session.

Im guessing when you say tubing you are not on vac? I go by the general rule of 2 gallons of storage for each tap. On accasion the gathering tank is full awaiting to be emptied. It has not been a problem cause I can get caught up with a few hours boil time. How many taps are you looking at? If you figure a quart of syrup a tap on a good year with gravity you are looking at 400 taps to get you near the 100 gallon mark. You are gonna have to get a year under your belt with your new setup to be sure on all that is needed. So you will have 550 storage in the woods and 375 at the sugar house and however many gallon gathering tank you have I would think you are gonna be okay.

[cncaboose]

Ian- do you tap some of the old maples (roadsides) around town in Canton? Stay away from the ones in front of the SLU sororities- I think I pee'd on a few of the ones in front of Kappa Kappa Gamma back in the 90s...
__________________

Eric, I tap about 100 roadsides but they are all out of town. I always wondered why that one maple in front of the Kappa house is so big and healthy. Must be the special fertilizer over the years. The state took down a bunch of the trees on Main St a couple of years ago. Got a forester to label them "dangerous". Most of the butt logs didn't have a speck of rot though. A guy could still piece together a decent sugaring operation just with the roadside and yard trees in Canton. Ian

[PARKER MAPLE]

Im guessing when you say tubing you are not on vac? I go by the general rule of 2 gallons of storage for each tap. On accasion the gathering tank is full awaiting to be emptied. It has not been a problem cause I can get caught up with a few hours boil time. How many taps are you looking at? If you figure a quart of syrup a tap on a good year with gravity you are looking at 400 taps to get you near the 100 gallon mark. You are gonna have to get a year under your belt with your new setup to be sure on all that is needed. So you will have 550 storage in the woods and 375 at the sugar house and however many gallon gathering tank you have I would think you are gonna be okay.

THANKS 3RDGEN, THATS JUST WHAT I WAS LOOKING TO HEAR. NOTHING OF MINE IS GOING TO BE ON VACUME YET, POSS DOWN THE ROAD ALTHOUGH, THIS SUMMER IM STARTING TO WORK ON MY NIEGHBORS, TO SEE IF I CAN TAP THERE LAND IN THE NEAR FUTURE. THAT SHOULD ALOW ME TO GET AS MANY TAPS AS I CAN HANDLE. WERE IM LOCATED IN THESE HILLS ITS SEAMS EVERY WHERE YOU LOOK YOU SEE MAPLES..I WILL PROBABLY HAVE TO UPGRADE TWO A BIGGER EVAPORATOR IF I GET TOO BIG..

[Brent]

I have what I think is the same evaporator as 3rdgen.maple. The Phaneuf 2 x 6 gets a better boil rate than most because it has deep flues and more of them than many others on the market. That makes for a lot of surface area for heat transfer. I also think I am getting 40-45 GPH (with a hood and preheater in it.)

Now you say you have a 2x3 flue pan. Without knowing the flue configuration, I'd say you can't expect to get close to 40 GPH. I think you need to plan on a few more hours in sugar shack after midnight, especially on the days when the flow is high.

[sapman]

One thing to consider, if you are going to be holding the sap for much time, I'd highly recommend trying to come up with a stainless vessel or two for storage. I've heard that storing in plastic can reduce the sugar content, not to mention quality, of sap. Of course, as stated, if this is a hobby, perhaps the extra expense cannot be justified. But something to keep in mind if that sugar content becomes a highly valuable commodity someday for you!

All the best,
Tim

[Brent]

One more thought, is that you Grandfather's evap.

If so, you might want to check if its soldered and if it is you might want to
check if the solder is leaded. You might get some good advice here on what to do if there is lead in the solder.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I run 525 gravity taps on a 2x8 if that helps you any. I don't thing 200 gravity taps on a 2x6 with a 3' flue pan should be much of a problem.

[PARKER MAPLE]

hey guys thanks so much for all of your advice. i have sence been reading all of you suggestions and bought a 375 horizontal storage tank for the sugar house, and looking for the best deals on the tanks for the bush. my next adventure is a 2x4 or 2x3 flat bottom preheater pan that will set above my flue pan and gravity feep into it. going to homedepot then tsc to check price on mainline. going i think with just black 3/4, with high tensil wire. thanks again m.r