Printable View
I had considered tapping earlier as well, The cold blast will let me procrastinate maybe, but after this, I am thinking of tapping as soon as we get a favorable ten-day outlook from a weekend start. Last year I did superbowl sunday. I want to be ready the week earlier this time, so two weeks away maybe?...
Spent the last few days fixing my tubing runs. Finished up moving the evaporator under my new shed overhang. Excited to be out of the weather for boiling this year.
After seeing the data from Dr. Joe Orefice from Yale today, seems mid February is still a good plan. Earlier runs may be lighter sugar.
I have a tapping decision to make (eastern CT). My wife and I will be travelling to Arizona from Feb 15-21. If I tap before that, I have to find somebody to collect sap for me (50+ drop lines into buckets--takes me 30+ minutes per day), or I wait until after Feb 21. Would I lose out on a lot of sap if I waited? Opinions welcome!
Unless you really want to get those one or two runs that are likely in early February I would just wait till after your trip. Saves you the trouble of wondering how your taps are doing while you are away. Not to mention the risk of any sap spoiling in possible warm weather by the time you get home.
My drill finger is getting itchy but I have to wait for the taps I ordered to show up so that's keeping me from jumping early. In the next week or two I'm gonna put the 3/16 tubing to work. The coastal weather makes my season start earlier than you inland folks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottyWelden
While late January tapping has been a great success in recent years the days of old are not necessarily gone for good.
Don't worry about it until weather suitable for taping shows up in the long range forecast. It is entirely possible the first reasonable run may not happen until Feb 15 or later.
Don't cross the bridge or worry about crossing the bridge till the bridge is open.
Last year I put most of my taps in in late January in two sets in two different regions 30 miles apart . I put another 6 taps in in late February in a third location and those taps were the most productive of all my taps.
One (yes 1) of my Late February taps was overflowing a 5 (yes five) gallon bucket after just 24 hours. The others were close.
Early tapping is overrated with regards to productivity unless of course enough warm weather blows out the season early, But even in 2019, odds are fairly heavily (at least 80 %) in your favor that will not happen.
Cheers
Early tapping works well for those producers using moderate/high vacuum and excellent spout/tubing sanitation practices. Taphole lifespan (the length of time the sap will flow) can run 3-4 months before productivity drops off substantially. Tapping well before the season begins is fine under these conditions. This strategy is employed mostly by those producers who have so many taps that they need to have a month or two to get all their taps in.
Early tapping is NOT indicated for those using gravity collection (bags, buckets, gravity tubing...note that 3/16" tubing on a slope is VACUUM tubing). Taphole longevity in this case is only 3-8 weeks (typically only 3-5 wks) unless the weather gets really warm during that time. Best to wait until just before the sap will run well for an extended period.
Not that anybody doubts Dr. Tim but my experience with 3/16 tubing on a slope with natural vacuum is exactly as he described. I tapped Jan 19th last year and saw consistent sap flow right up until the end of the season. I use 5/16 spouts and drops tee'd into the 3/16 line to improve tap hole life. Due to my small number of taps I decided it was cheap enough to replace all of my drops and spouts this year to improve my second year sanitation as much as possible.
Of course none of that would be possible if I hadn't learned everything I could reading up on this here.
Now I just need a trick to make my trees give me more sugar, last year I was averaging just over 1%. Maybe some sort of ancient sugar dance passed down thru the generations might help. :lol:
At this point here across southern New England, ( coastal areas not necessarily included ) for the next 10-15 days the forecast shows no good window for sap running for an extended period of time. That as we know can change but if it does not it puts us well into February.
My recommendation would be to take the following steps.
1) Put your drill bit next to or even into your drill. i.e. this is longhand for "have everything ready"
2) Go to Arizona.
3) Have fun in the sun, even bring some of your syrup from last year and tease them with it a bit.
4) Come back on the 21
5) Probably put your taps in on the night or next day you get back, but do check the weather.
I'll bet you 10 gallons ( of syrup ) that the trees will be ready, willing and able!
I like this plan!