Cornell Maple webinars

[Gary R]

By chance tonight I was looking to see what's going on at Cornell. They are going to have a series of webinars dedicated to maple information. The first one starts in three days, August 5th. It is titled "The latest in tubing research". The link to the site is this:

http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu/webinar.html

For those that have never "attended" a webinar, it is simple. I have not attended a Cornell webinar, but I have for PennState. It is free. You may have to register and get a password to participate in the webinar. If you want to participate they have a scheduled time it will be broadcasted. You need a fairly good connection speed. Usually slides are shown and a speaker explains everything. You have the capability to "ask" questions. Usually the speaker will answer all of them. The other good thing is for those that are shy or can't make the time. They record all of these. Anyone (without registering) can go online and replay the entire webinar. Usually there are accompanying files that can be downloaded also.

So give it a try! Another great place for traders to get the latest in Maple research.:)

[maple flats]

No passwords needed. Just enter your name under guest and enter. From there they usually ask you to enter your county and state. I have attended many of Dr Peter Smallage's webinars for forestry. Very good. Since Peter is in charge also of the Cornell Maple ptogram, these may well be under his wing too.
Dave

[brookledge]

I never knew about this I'm not sure I can be on during that time but I'm going to try
Keith

[Gary R]

Dave, were you and I the only traders on the webinar?

A good reaffirmation of the benifits of the check valve. The last few minutes were of great interest. Losses of vacuum in mainline due to friction. Not sure what it all means. Looks like if you have a lot of pipe, you don't have a lot of vacuum no matter how big of pump you have. Were talking of only hundreds of feet, not thousands.

[maple flats]

The webinar was very good. I only saw about 10-12 names of participants. Seems like more would take the time. However, all is not lost. In a day or 2 it will be available from the recorded session tonight.
Steve Childs covered his research on tubing, new check valves vs. old, in every combination. He also covered results from the silver spouts and one included a silver drop. He tested both vac and gravity and showed parallel test results (trees had 2 taps, one of one description and a second of something else each on separate laterals, with each lat having 5-6 taps and then into a collection canister, all on vacuum. The gravity set ups were into plastic drums, one per lateral. Some very interesting results and some good knowledge for making more profit. He gave a cost vs increased income for many tests. Check it out.
I now have re affirmed I will use all new check valves AND new drops on the vac but for gravity the jury is out. I might even do the silver for gravity.

[Paddymountain]

I participated in the webinair last night, although I was trying to eat supper at the same time. it looked very interesting, and I'm going back to watch it again when I can. I saw the future dates are posted on their web,and I'll try
to participate on them, I'm not sure about everything with the chat,and things,but like every thing computer, I 'll just keep trying.

[chipa]

I participated also.Good research on the hot topic over the past year or so:check valves and the antimicrobial spiles.Nice to go to class without leaving the house!

[DrTimPerkins]

I participated also.Good research on the hot topic over the past year or so:check valves and the antimicrobial spiles.Nice to go to class without leaving the house!

You can watch Steve Child's (Cornell University Maple Program) full webinar on tap sanitation (new spouts, drops, Check-valves, and silver spouts) posted at http://breeze.cce.cornell.edu/p49301873/ Takes about an hour. You'll need a fast (not dial-up) internet connection. Very well done and some very interesting information presented.

Steve generally found even more positive results than we did at UVM PMRC with Check-valves. This is largely explained by the fact that he was using quite old tubing as a comparison, so the protective effect is greater. He also has done some work on CVs with gravity (which we have not). In any case, his work is a statistically valid (replicated), independant, unbiased, third-party confirmation of our results.

[maple flats]

The vacuum loss was for a 1" single line pipe at those distances. Wet dry would be better and 1.25 or 1.5" would be a whole different table. The loss was from line friction, the bigger the line the lower the friction for a given CFM. It was however interesting that at a distance many producers have that regardless of how many CFM a pump generates, the CFM at that distance is still the same (comparing 15" vac on 15CFM, 30CFM, 60CFM, 80CFM and up to 100CFM all netted 9 cfm actual at 200' on 3/4" line, and 6CFM at 300', 1" yielded 8 CFM at 800 ' across the board, and many of us use those sizes. Check it out)

[Dan W]

Just finished watching it. Very interesting to say the least. I do not have nor will I ever have vacuum, but was wondering how this info would differ when using drop lines to buckets. I am going to add 50 to 75 buckets this year and am considering using 5 gallon pails on the ground with drops. I suspect the way to go would be check valves. What do you all think?

[Thad Blaisdell]

It would be an interesting test. You could do 50/50 mix and see if there is a difference.

[DrTimPerkins]

Just finished watching it. Very interesting to say the least. I do not have nor will I ever have vacuum, but was wondering how this info would differ when using drop lines to buckets. I am going to add 50 to 75 buckets this year and am considering using 5 gallon pails on the ground with drops. I suspect the way to go would be check valves. What do you all think?

Just don't put the tubing all the way to the bottom of the bucket, or the tree will suck some sap right back in during freezes. It should work fine.

[brookledge]

I'm looking forward to watching it however been gone on vac for over a week and will get to it soon.
Keith

[red maples]

I didn't know about the webinar I was just looking around this morning and found it here.

The results are simply amazing!!! I already decided to switch to the CV's for the up coming season. I sold enough syrup !!!!:)

[BryanEx]

I wanted to watch the one on Sugarbush management and have been waiting since last month but it seems they've never posted it online. Was that webinar canceled or something?

[DrTimPerkins]

Passing on a message.....

Maple Webinar Scheduled for June 2nd
Cornell Maple Program Invites Your Participation in a Cornell Maple Webinar on June 2nd, titled “2011 Maple Tubing and Taphole Sanitation Research” presented by Stephen Childs, New York State Maple Specialist. This webinar will feature the results of research conducted on maple tubing and spouts during the 2011 sap season. A number of comparisons of various methods of keeping the taphole clean and sanitary to improve sap yield were conducted including new spouts and drops, second season spouts and drops, check valve spouts, silver spouts, and sanitized drops, on both a vacuum system and gravity system. Knowing these results can be very helpful in making future decisions about your sap collection system.

The Cornell Maple Program is providing webinars on the first Thursday of the month from 7 to 8 pm. A webinar link is available at www.CornellMaple.com. Participants need to have an internet web browser and a high-speed internet connection. Participation in each webinar is available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are particularly interested in a webinar topic, please plan to connect at least 20 minutes prior to the start time. Before each webinar, participants will be asked to register into a database so we can monitor the value of the webinars and their geographic extent. No pre-registration is required.

The interactive nature of the webinar is the opportunity to ask questions of the presenter in a real time venue. No additional hardware is required. Virtually all current computers already have a Flash player installed, which is used by the web conferencing software. Access to the web site that hosts the internet seminars is free of charge. Your standard Internet connection charges would still apply. Group host sites may have a registration fee. We are not able to assist users with problems they may have with their computer, connections, or connection speed.

County Extension Offices are encouraged to participate as a group host site as many maple producers do not have high speed intranet connections required for this type of transmission. These webinar programs are not intended to replace or reduce the current maple schools or in county workshops. If you are interested in servicing as a group host site for a maple webinar please notify Stephen Childs by e-mail at slc18@cornell.edu. The list of host sites will be available at the Cornell website. You can access the on line conference site directly at http://breeze.cce.cornell.edu/cornellmaplewebinar at any time.

Past maple webinars can be accessed through the www.cornell.edu webpage. The June 2nd webinar will be recorded there as well for future reference.


Stephen Childs
New York State Maple Specialist
110 Fernow Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-1658
www.cornellmaple.com
slc18@cornell.edu

[Lew56]

I have viewed the past conferences and learned a lot that's for sure. I never have participated in a live one, looking forward to giving it a try tonight.