Making sense of it all?

[Woody]

been stewing about this long enough.....no such thing as a stupid question, right???

running tubing into totes and barrels from groups of trees but always there's a few trees just far enough away to make you think it's dumb to run a line just for him. Figurin' the price per foot for the tubing and comparing that to the potential output of the tree is it still just a judgement call with factors like how you feel about walking 30 feet to pick up 1 bucket compared to running that much tubing for 1 tree compared to driving over with the wheeler and sap trailer and on and on....

Think I'm sort of over thinking this one????

It's questions like this that are keeping me from starting to string tubing for the season. Get over it you say and just do something, right??

[gator330]

Get a tube to them all!!!! If the quart of syrup this year didn't cover the cost of the tube the one you get next year will. and the year after and the year after.... just when you get to that tree don't look beyond it. You may see another maple. and be right back were you are now.

[backyardsugarer]

I agree with Gator. When I started tubing the woods 2 weeks ago I was going to stay close the the mainline. Now I am running tubing to everything (even trees below the main and now I am into a sap ladder). I should get the last 15-20 trees done tonight. It may cost me $100 to get another 30 taps but that is 30 quarts of syrup in 1 year so on the low end I will make $450 worth of syrup in 1 year. You'll be glad you ran the tubing in about 1 month when the sap begins to flow

Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

One thing to consider about running tubing to one or two trees way out by themselves is that it takes a lot of time for the sap to travel, thus it is going to be lower quality sap because of more bacteria developing in the long line and the sap is traveling so slow, it is going to heat it up more and ultimately, it will lower the quality of all the sap it comes in contact with, especially in the late season.

I am not talking about huge effect, but it will have some effect.

[PerryW]

Don't over-think it. Just buy a bunch of tubing and fittings and start hooking up all the easy trees first and when you run out of tubing hang buckets of the rest. Or buy some more tubing.

[red maples]

I use what #3rdgen.maple always says "no maple left behind" that includes sugars, reds, silver what ever they all make syrup and if you can get to 'em tap 'em!!!!

[Haynes Forest Products]

Im with PerryW tap them all make some great syrup and if its 1/2 catigory down SO WHAT All the calls Im getting for syrup is for the DARK

[ennismaple]

I get em all. When stretching new tube in one of our old bushes I noticed 3 more trees over 100 feet away - so I added them to their own line. It's not ideal but the syrup produced from those taps will pay for the materials in under 2 years. Do as many taps with laterals as short as possible "by the book" and if you have some laterals that aren't perfect it's better than nothing!

[Jeff E]

yea, I agree guys. The expense in this is the evaporator, sap storage, building/shack, etc. The only way to cover these costs is sap. And lots of it.
The 5/16 and connectors is the cheap stuff. If have a tapable tree within 100 feet of a mainline, I am running tubing to it.

$$ ahead in the long run to get them all....

[KenWP]

I will go out in the bush one of these days and find a blue plastic tube attached to a tree and going off thru the bush and down to the cheese state. If a guy could get the tube cheap enough I would probbably do it too.

[stoweski]

While at a beginner's sugaring workshop back in October at the Proctor Maple Research Center, we were shown a system where there was a 5 gallon bucket with a cover at the top of an old mainline that ran downhill to a collection tank. I don't remember the specifics (size of the line, 100% what their purpose was by running this system, etc) but to the best of my knowledge the idea was to empty buckets into the 5 gallon pail and let the sap flow downhill to the collection tank.

Might make sense if you have a few trees that are fairly far away from each other and would rather not run lines.

Maybe Dr. Perkins can confirm that this is what it is used for.

Keith

[Jeff E]

Thats a good idea, why carry what can run downhill?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

It is called a dump station. I used a barrel and laid it on its side and cut out a hole on the other side. Good thing about a barrel is that it has the curved sides, so you can dump into it a 5 gallon bucket in 2 seconds full blast without having to slow down or worry about it splashing over as the side curve up to the top and catch any sloshing or splashing from going out. Also, with a plastic barrell, usually the bungs are threaded for a 1/2" or 3/4" pipe fitting, you just have to drill out the center. 1/2" line should work fine and when you are done gathering, you can drain out everything in the barrell but about a pint or less of sap by tilting it towards the drain or have it setup on a tilt so it already drains. Works great and a cheap dump station. Go to Lowes or home depot and pick up some 1/2" black plast water pipe for a few bucks for 100' or 400' and you are set. Just need to cut a hole out in the top and you can put hinges on the piece you cut out and a sliding latch on the other side, and it will keep you dump station clean and most of the water out of it.

[3rdgen.maple]

Yes sir Red leave no maple behind. Go get everyone you can afford and when you run out of money save what you made and go get some more next year. Then after many years of doing this you are gonna wake up at like 90 years old and say what the hell was I thinking I am to ******* old to be doing this. Then you downsize to 100 taps and the stuff you had is way to big so you go out buy a new halfpint and your wallet is still empty and you got a bunch of maple equipment laying around that isn't worth 10 cents anymore then your wife looks at you and says I told you 50 years ago this was a waste of money. Man I think just summed up my life and I wouldn't have it any other way:D

[smitty76]

3rdgen, you nailed it, the life story of most sugarer's. does'nt sound to bad. I'm looking forward to it.