Little Sap Warning

[802maple]

Beware Big Sap Czar, I went old school today. I sold the main woods of Mt Grant Sugarworks several years ago, but I did not sell the 40 taps that were still available around my house.
After hearing about all the doom and gloom about this season and seeing that today was the average date that I used to tap, I wanted to see if all the hype was true about sugaring not being like it used to be. So I got stupid and tapped them between Noon and 1 o'clock this afternoon.
I just got in from gathering and brought in 60 gallons of beautiful bucket sap from those 40 that reads 3.1 percent on the hydrometer which will make just over 2 gallons of syrup. That makes me 1/5th of a season in just 6 hours.
Theron I gave you a month and a half head start and I am reeling you in buddy. I went to all my trees this afternoon checking for leaks and everything is tight. You better get out there tonight and tomorrow and tightnen that system of yours up, because with this freeze coming I am going to catch up.

The race is on between your vacuum and my late tapped (or just right in my mind] buckets.

[maplwrks]

Bean---What the hell are you doing?? My trees are starting to look like they are about to give up, and you're tapping?? I hope you don't flood the commercial syrup market!!

[802maple]

No commercial with this clear sap except when it gets mixed in with Bens

[KenWP]

Still a bit of season left here also. Have to move a few more taps and would tap a few more if I could find buckets. Have to beat Jerry. I never had time to test for sugar but if it's 2 percent I will be okay.

[PATheron]

Jerry- I know your a professional and you understand the power of the bucket but im taking you down anyway. You bring on the averages Im going to take you down anyway Im making syrup till June. Im not afraid. Thee(if I have to tap 3000 more trees in april to do it Ill do it dang it)roooon

[802maple]

Game on buddy, game on. All these guys that gave up must have some more buckets for me. I got the whole Green Mountain National Forest sitting right behind me. Lets do this.

Jeee (old school) rrrry

[maplecrest]

just walked in from the biggest run this season. 34 hours of a full bore run. going to boil rest in today.jerry you are on the money. mike i walked and tighted my woods this week and it paid off. 19 degrees here now. i think the 2nd half of season about to start dont give up

[PerryW]

My 50 buckets had the best run of the season (so far) yesterday. Unfortunately, my 700 taps on pipeline only produced 100 gallons of sap as they are at lower elevation and did not get a good enough freeze

[Brian Ryther]

Jerry you have inspired me to hang another 20 buckets. Now I might get a Little (more) Sap.

[sapman]

I hung buckets last Sunday in anticipation for the big one. Hope it pays off in the next few days. Yesterday was a bust for me. 500 gal. from 1800 taps.

[802maple]

Brian,Lets hang coffee cans or whatever just so we can over take the sap barron from PA. Lets get him I know we can.


Jeeee(old drip from the mountains)rrrry



Jerry you have inspired me to hang another 20 buckets. Now I might get a Little (more) Sap.

[driske]

Flatlander envy has struck. You hill folk seem to be having an inordinate amount of fun badgering each other.
Waiting for sap here in Wisco, after last years chaos, that feels so strange.
Went out for a Friday night fish fry. Downed a couple Bloody Mary's to ease the anxiety. Too hot, too cold: oh well, sure not wearing out any equipment this year. Firewood looks like there will be plenty left for 2011.
Hey, Karoake man, hand me that mike. I be ready to sing some blues.

[Russell Lampron]

Gathered my buckets yesterday. Got 40 gallons from 88 taps. The big trees have just about stopped while the little ones produced about 1/2 a bucket each.

[PATheron]

Jerry- How you going to boil your LITTLE SAP? If you want you can ups it down here and Ill concentrate it and send it back to you and you can do it on the stove. Theron

[802maple]

Don't you worry PA sap barron, I still have connections. I am going to flood the market..

Russ it sounds to me like those big ones are still in the waiting. Typically its the little ones that give up first. Hang in there.

[Brian Ryther]

My 20 "Jerry" buckets gave me 25 gallons of sap today. I will take that Little Bit More Sap.

[Russell Lampron]

My "Jerry Buckets" gave me 85 gallons of sap today. I didn't do the gathering so I don't know how many of the 88 were still running but the ones that did produced about 1/2 a bucket each.

[red maples]

i was going around pulling buckets and taps yesterday they all had gross jelly like nasty growing stuff that at the bottom of any sap that was in the buckets. mmm ropey rotten sap !!!!

[802maple]

My forty buckets gave up another 100 gallons of sap today that had a sugar content of 3.2 percent. That will make another 3.8 gallons of syrup. The sap is crystal clear with absolutely no slime. The buckets are running quite hard right now 9:30 with about a 1/2 of a gallon in the buckets and I gathered at 6.

Another day like today and that will make me an average year with a quart of syrup per tap and all of that in just 4 days.

[KenWP]

Today my buckets actually put out again. The only problem is that i have to wade through a foot of mud to get to it. Took me hours just to get it half way to the house so I had to cache it out in the woods and finish tomorrow in the light. Have no idea what there will be tomorrow as they were still running when I emptied them tonight. That will be the last of it as the temps are supposed to go high starting thursday friday.

[802maple]

We had a small freeze last night, just enough to stop them from running over night and it was snowing a few minutes ago. The temperature right now is 32 and headed up. Should be another good day.

[802maple]

Those forty buckets produced another 60 gallons of 3.0 sap today, now they are 40 to 50 gallons of sap from an average year of a quart of syrup per tap.
We only had a high of 39 today here, I hope the weather gods are wrong for another day and I will have my season of sap in a week. My neighbor made another 100 gallons of grade A medium tonight and it is still a good flavor for the grade.

[PerryW]

Day 4 without a freeze here in northern NH but still got another 200 gallons of sap. Made another 3 gallons of good tasting dark amber for a total of 109 gallons.

[802maple]

Sap took off to running here again today, looks to be a gallon to gallon and a half in the buckets. I will gather tomorrow AM so it doesn't set there through the warm weather tomorrow and Saturday.

[802maple]

Got another sixty gallons off my huge operation today. It has finally dropped down to 2.8 percent. That will make another 2 gallons approx. That puts me over the quart per tap plateau, Theron old buddy, I'm reeling you in.

[802maple]

Pulled 50 gallons more at 2.4 percent and I am throwing in the towel. The sap is still running some but it turned buddy today and I will practice what I preach and stop when it turns bad. I had fun with my little project, I tapped 10 days ago, and my forty buckets made 11 and quarter gallons of syrup for a average 3.5 pounds per tap.

[PATheron]

Jerry- You beat my whole season in ten days. Im going back to buckets. You think if a guy tapped in that late with a regular setup youd see similar results. I read lots of studies on early tapping and it showed that you made more usually but it also showed a guy could make almost as much tapping late like you did. Theron

[802maple]

I tapped that late intentionally as I was continously told this year that I couldn't tap that late this year and get any syrup as it was such a screwed up year. Now as I said earlier that was the date on average that I tapped and when my father and grandfather ahead of me tapped also. All of our records show that the earliest we ever tapped for over a hundred year span was March 17th, 1947 and the latest was April 6th, 1974. Interestly enough in 1947 my father only made 97 gallons with 800 tapped and 1974 we made 625 gallons with 1450 tapped.

In 1981 my father only tapped 800 as he said he could make all he wanted from them as he wasn't going to give the extra that he made to the packers for .60 cents a pound. I had a additional 800 already to tap but he wouldn't let me. He had tapped on the 21st of March and I kept bothering for the rest of them. Finally on the 7th of April he said go ahead and tap them as he had never payed me anything for helping over the years and I could keep all of the syrup that was made from them as pay over the years. Well I grabbed the tapper and was out the door, that evening I had 800 more running into the North woods tank. On April 20th when the trees went buddy he had just under 200 gallons of syrup and I had 250 gallons. The kicker to the whole thing was when I tapped on the seventh he already had just under 150 gallons. Mine ran sweeter for the season and much more from the time that I tapped.
This is the 3rd time that I have tapped these trees that I tapped this year late since I got rid of my woods bush and all 3 times I have done this they have run sweeter then they did when I usually tapped along with my other woods. 4 years ago I tapped them with my neighbor on April 2nd and I made nearly a half gallon per tap and 5 years ago I tapped them on March 29th and made just under 1/3rd gallon per tap.

Do I say that small sugarmakers should wait as long as I did this year, absolutely not because I don't know the window of producing the most syrup for your area. I do know that alot of small guys get wrapped up in tapping when they here that the big guy down the road is tapping., He is tapping for a reason, he has to if he expects to get done before season gets here. My personal opinion is if you don't have vacuum and and you are tapping with buckets and gravity systems you better wait as long as you can and make sure those holes don't get bacteria started before the sap really starts to run. This was a oddball year, but having said that if I was serious about sugaring this year, I most likely would have only started a week before I did.

Lets hear other opinions

[Revi]

802, you are at over 1000 feet in Lincoln, Vermont, so you may run later than a lot of people, but I think you are right about the late tapping.

I had a friend who tapped late here in Central Maine and had almost as good a season as those of us who tapped early.

[802maple]

Revi you are right, I"m actually between 1500 and 1600 feet and my old sugarwoods was at about 1800 feet. We were much later then most of my neighbors. My point though wasn't to tap as late as I would but for sugarmakers that could easily tap out in a day and that didn't have vacuum to not get caught up in the early tapping that is going on by bigger sugarmakers. I do believe they would make more in the end.

I have been on this sight for nearly 3 years now and I see alot of sugarmakers that are getting a gallon of syrup for every 8 or 10 taps. Now some wouldn't do any better than that as they might not have high producing trees, but it does seem that at first sign of a thaw in January it is getting more and more common for sugarmakers to hurry the season. Now if you are under high vacuum and putting out new spouts every year you can get away with that, but if you are not you can expect a short season.

[danno]

This is an interesting subject -

Curious how long taps will run GOOD, before they begin to slow down - I guess every bush is different.

I run moderate vacuum (18/19") and usually tap right around March 1 in lower elevations of central new york. We warm up pretty quick around here. That said, in most years, even with vacuum, my taps slow down considerably after 3 weeks. And when I pull my taps, holes are pretty darn clean. It's like they close up from growth as opposed to bacteria/gunk.

The one year I reamed taps, it was almost like starting over with freshly drilled holes.

Sure is hard not to pull out the cordless when you are anxious and know the clear sap is flowing though.

[Yellzee]

This certainly gives me something to think about for next season.

I usually end up tapping early and patting myself on the back for catching the first run.

And I get tired of the work after 3-4 weeks... now if I could tap later and shorten the season to 2-3 wks..........

[PerryW]

This was not the year to tap late in my area. I tapped on Feb 28, (which is about 10-15 days early for me) and it was basically over in a month. 2/3 of my syrup (and all of my good syrup) was made before march 13.

I believe that my tubing starts slowing down after 4 weeks, so I usually try to tap between March 10 and March 15 (Buckets on Mar 25). The 2 weeks of April is usually when the peak runs occur.

[KenWP]

I did good with my taps at the end as I moved almost a 100 0f them to new trees due to budding near the house. Those trees were onky tapped two weeks at most by the end of the season and some were a week old as I found more buckets and taps. Last year was even better as I got all my sap almost in 11 days with most of them new tapped trees. I had 2 gallons made before that and then the other 18 came all at once. Any new trees tapped filled their respective buckets sometimes twice a day compared to the older taped trees.

[802maple]

I don't want you guys to think that I want you to wait to the date that I tapped. I have alot of history to go for my area and I know when my best window is for making syrup here. I always try to hit that window with the freshest taps I can. It has worked for me for a lot of years. Now if I lived in Connecticutt for instance, I wouldn't have any idea at all when that window is, so you have to create your own data. That is why notes are so valuable. This was a strange year and yet I had a good year by trying to stick to my system that has worked for me.

[DrTimPerkins]

Revi you are right, I"m actually between 1500 and 1600 feet and my old sugarwoods was at about 1800 feet. We were much later then most of my neighbors. My point though wasn't to tap as late as I would but for sugarmakers that could easily tap out in a day and that didn't have vacuum to not get caught up in the early tapping that is going on by bigger sugarmakers. I do believe they would make more in the end.

I have been on this sight for nearly 3 years now and I see alot of sugarmakers that are getting a gallon of syrup for every 8 or 10 taps. Now some wouldn't do any better than that as they might not have high producing trees, but it does seem that at first sign of a thaw in January it is getting more and more common for sugarmakers to hurry the season. Now if you are under high vacuum and putting out new spouts every year you can get away with that, but if you are not you can expect a short season.

EXCELLENT ADVICE.

[GeneralStark]

Interesting thread. The woods I tapped this season are at 600 ft. in Monkton, VT. I put out 32 buckets on thirty sugar maples. About half are old field trees, and the rest are about 40-60 years old. I started tapping on Feb. 23rd and all the buckets were out by Feb. 28th.

I pulled all the taps on April 2nd. Most were still flowing, but it was getting to warm to keep the sap and the bacterial growth was really taking off.

I collected a total of 475 gallons of sap, and made 6 gallons of syrup. Not all of the sap was boiled to syrup as I was working full time and during the biggest run in early march I couldn't keep up with the boiling so I sold some of the sap. I also lost some when my storage tank drained after a valve came off due to freezing.

Sugar content varied from over 3% at the beginning to about 1.9 at the end of the season.

Anyway, that makes 14.8 gallons of sap/tap and .1875 gallons of syrup/tap.

My biggest run was over the sixth and seventh of march at which point I collected twice each day. One tree gave up about 5 gallons in 24 hours during that period.

I suspect that I could have tapped about a week later, but I think the trees would have shut down the same time due to the extreme warmth. Would I have collected more sap or sweeter sap if I had waited? I don't know, but that is an interesting thought.

A bush at 600 ft. in Monkton is very different than a bush at 1500 ft. in Lincoln, and it seems that the bushes that are higher tend to do better than those lower here in the Champlain Valley.

It does clearly make sense to keep good records and really get to know what is going on with your trees. This is why I think I will keep going with buckets despite the advantages with tubing and vacuum. I still think I will be able to maximize production of high quality syrup with buckets, but it will take more observation over time.

My goal for next year is about 100 buckets and 25 gallons of syrup, and then to continue to expand a bit every year. I can probably get about 200 taps where I am tapping now, but then I will need to find another bush to lease. I am realizing that finding one higher and colder would be advantageous to take advantage of the peak runs at different time during the season.

[PATheron]

Guys- When its getting toward season Im always getting on here and getting everyone fired up. I do it all in fun becouse I know everyone on here loves sugaring and enjoys that kind of thing. Now I tap early down here, earlier than I probly should, but Im running enough taps pretty much on my own thats the only way I can do it. My dad helps me a ton in season but Im the woods man pretty much. You cant tap like Im doing with the buckets just like Jerry said. The high vac and the new plastic and the continuous vac is a completely different ballgame. I tapped early down here with the buckets years ago and they dried up. Its just a different deal alltogether. Sap will run forever the way im doing it but If I had my drothers Id tap later too but Its so much work for me I have to do it the way Im doing it. Theron

[maplecrest]

just pulled my last tap and shut off the last pump. pulled 9400 taps in 4 days.started tapping feb 3 and the sap was running as i pulled my taps. as i walked away from the tank pulling taps this morning i could hear the releaser dumping pretty steady. 7 hours later as i made my way around back to the tank i heard it dump the last time this season. a sound i will have to wait to hear again next year

[Revi]

I have decided to get out of Maine for April vacation and I'm going to head over to Vermont to check out the Proctor Maple Research station and other maple related sites. I have never been there. Is it okay to stop by?