Southwest Ohio

Looking like we are going to get some consistently warm days coming up next week, thinking of tapping tomorrow to get the season started!

It has been a weird winter though, so I am really unsure of what this season is going to hold from a sap/syrup production perspective.

Interested to know if anyone else is planning to get started anytime soon in Southwest Ohio (I am about an hour west of Columbus).





Hobby Producer
~5 Trees / ~8 Taps - Maple / ~4 Gallons a Year
~3 Trees / ~5 Taps - Black Walnut ~1 Gallon a Year
In a small village in Southwestern Ohio

I boiled 16 days in January. I'm in south central Ohio. I expect it to be very short season in February for us southern Ohio guys. Too many warm days forecast, I hope I am wrong. I'd get those taps out this weekend for sure.

I think this coming week is the best window for this season. Things will start warming up afterwards if it's anything like the past few years. This season may end up being almost non-existent for us mid-southerners.

Tapped the 100 taps in my main bush Saturday 2/4. Some were weeping, but most still froze. I look for an sap tsunami for a couple days or three then a rapid fall off. I hope it still runs enough for my Maple Day this Saturday for the regional Forestry Association. I'm probably done by early next week. I will have reached my goal.

Tapped three Maples (each with two buckets), and 3 Black Walnuts (each with two buckets) yesterday about 2:00 PM EST. Collected everything about midnight and ended up with around 6ish gallons from the Maples, and probably ~2 gallons of Black Walnut. All of the trees were running pretty good.

That much off of the Black Walnuts is rare, normally they are quite a bit slower than the Maples, but the syrup from the Black Walnuts is AMAZING!

Only had one tap that leaked on me...first one I put in, of course, but I will take those odds!

Agreed on the season, I suspect a short one as well, too many warm days earlier in the winter, and not enough/long enough freeze since then. We will see.

Hobby Producer
~5 Trees / ~8 Taps - Maple / ~4 Gallons a Year
~3 Trees / ~5 Taps - Black Walnut ~1 Gallon a Year
In a small village in Southwestern Ohio

I had 165 gallons today, but it was slowing up a lot this aftertnoon. The forecast is for warm weather and that will shut it down until we get a reset. I think iam calling it quits after this weekend maybe a couple boils Monday Tuesday. I have reached my goal.

Pulled off ~35 gallons of Maple so far, and about 10 gallons of Black Walnut.

Trees ran pretty well so far, getting good freeze at night, and run starting pretty regularly around 39 Degrees.

I agree though, this week may pull the plug on this season, unless there is some wacky extended freeze later this month or early in March.

If we get through this week with a full run, will still get pretty close to last season's sap total, so I will be glad for it!

Good luck to those of you that are producing for income, I am sure that extra would really help the bottom line, especially this year.

Hobby Producer
~5 Trees / ~8 Taps - Maple / ~4 Gallons a Year
~3 Trees / ~5 Taps - Black Walnut ~1 Gallon a Year
In a small village in Southwestern Ohio

Pulled my taps and started cleanup today. Made all I wanted, b ut was still getting sap. Made 16.5 gallons and yet to finish sweet in pan, so 17-18 total. A good season, but odd

update - my final tally was just over 18 gallons

Sorry for the tardy response/update, wrapped up the syrup season, and jumped right back into my house remodel project.

In any case, ended up with a little over 2 gallons of Maple syrup, and just over 2 quarts of Black Walnut.

Both have great flavor, but I agree...weird season. Sap was running really well at the start, but shut down the quickest I have ever experienced since I started making syrup. I will be paying more attention next season to hopefully catch a short early run to hopefully get back to my typical ~4 gallon Maple, and ~1 gallon Black Walnut finish.

Hope everyone has a great offseason, now it's time to start plants for the garden!

Good sharing with you all!

Hobby Producer
~5 Trees / ~8 Taps - Maple / ~4 Gallons a Year
~3 Trees / ~5 Taps - Black Walnut ~1 Gallon a Year
In a small village in Southwestern Ohio