Broke my sap hydrometer but bottled a few gallons today at 46:1
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Broke my sap hydrometer but bottled a few gallons today at 46:1
Weather is very iffy starting next week. Reds have buds that are starting to swell.
I’m thinking the next couple days may be it for me....
Record sap flow for me last week. One 11 tap run on 5/16 was on a steady stream into the barrel. Probably had some vacuum on it. Managed to keep the 55 gallon barrel from overflowing but just barely. Other 5 gallon buckets were unfortunately putting a little bit of sap into the ground.
My trees have been running quite a bit one and two days or even three days after it has not fallen below freezing the night before. Has anybody noticed this also this year??
I tapped Feb 16 which is 19 days ago and it seems like sap has run at least some on 17 of those days.
Yeah, I'm still getting good sap flows. I have trees in cold hollows and up around 1K feet so I tend to collect later than most. I have about 600 gallons to boil this weekend and we'll see how the sap flows into next week. I just wish we had the snow to keep things cold.
Floated a sleeve of ice in my 600 gallon tank last night.Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB
This could be the most "Snowless Winter" in my 55 years.
4 sure!
In spite of a near perfect frost of 26 Thursday night, 16 of my trees up & quit - After 60 degree weather coming Mon & Tue, the end of a great year is just about here.
At least some of my trees started going buddy. The sap I was getting at the beginning of the week tasted bitter and off coming directly out of the tubing. I've already started cleaning and pack up for the year as the weather doesn't predict any temps below freezing for at least another week or more. Still ended up with 12.5 gallons of syrup in the end which for me is a great season.
I have never seen as many moths as this year - Started early Feb, now I get 6 or 8 in a bucket, what a pain. No sapsucker damage this year though - maybe the moths ate the birds? 8 more taps didn't run today.
Trees ran well today. Boiled for a while this morning and finished 9 gallons between Friday night and today. Left a pretty thick pan and 50 gallons of 6% sap in the head tank will get finished tomorrow. With whatever runs tomorrow I'll flood the pan and let it set for a few weeks. Seemed to help with clean-up last year.
Should end the season with 40 gallons. More than I need and better than last year.