Ream out tap holes? cold nights coming

[maple sapper]

Is it not worth the work. I have a new (to me) vac set up and I want to see this thing work before puttin it away. Should I try reaming out my holes and wipe down my adapters? Or is it a total waste of time? Anyone else have any sucess with this?

[danno]

Officially, some may say that it's not worth it - but I had good results 3 or 4 seasons ago. Temps got very warm in late March and when the good temps came back, my taps were dry. Reamed about 400 taps going one drill bit size larger. April came in with a vengence with cold and snow through the 3rd week of April. I doubled my syrup from April 1 - April 21 (my last boiling date). Some was buddy, but sold it fine as commercial.

In years prior (or since), I had never gone past April 7.

[PerryW]

They will run again for a few days if you ream then but Nashua may be too far south for non-bud run. I just saw some of the red maples in Franconia budded out. Mine have only been tapped for 3+ weeks so they haven't dried up yet.

[sfsshadow]

Reemed holes a couple years ago. Took about a days work. Made a couple barrels of commercial. At $2.50/lb that's $1650. It was worth the effort. Reemed holes again this year (today), let you know if it pays off again.

[maple sapper]

well, I popped the question and couldnt wait for a response. So I left my house with my black/mapleberry and got a few responses while reaming the tap holes. Got to love technology. So, Id say I got half the bush done in a very short amount of time. Also knowing that its late in the season, I pulled my contaminated cv spouts and put some new (old style) adapters that I have a whole bin of sitting around collecting dust, into the cleanly reamed tap hole. So the thought is a fresh start. Im sure it wont last long. But, If I can iron out any vac issues now, it will make next season easier not to mention wondering about it all summer. At this point all I want to do is burn wood, boil and have a few wobbly pops while doing it. This is the second year in a row that has turned out far less then steller for me and am quite aggrivated to say the least. I should have sucked it up and invested in vac along time ago. Now I got it and the weather turned the wrong way. Thats usually how things work for me, for some reason.

[KenWP]

I tapped new trees this last week and a couple today poured sap. I have lots to choose from still so will just keep tapping untill I wear out or it stops. Want to make a bit of mersh this year for she who must be obeyeds dumb projects.