Printable View
Has happened every single year I've been a member here, Diesel. Weather gets warm after Christmas and noobs start asking if it's a good idea to start tapping. Well, if you want to kill your trees by having the trunks split open during the February freeze up, go right ahead.
Roger that Galena, I'm a noob 2nd year coming up but not tapping till I see a good freeze thaw pattern in march
Anybody tapping this weekend?
Millsy...perhaps you should read the rest of this thread first. ....Weather gets warm after Christmas and noobs start asking if it's a good idea to start tapping. Well, if you want to kill your trees by having the trunks split open during the February freeze up, go right ahead. Leave your trees alone til at least March. Noobs!
I had read it. Looking at the 2 week forecast I thought it looked favourable for tapping. Just wanted to see what the veterans thought
Assuming that you're a hobbyist, you have no real reason to worry about starting early in order to fulfil a contract or meet a quota like the pros here who do have such to meet, and yes, maybe they are preparing to tap soon. But they know what they're doing and have hundreds if not thousands of taps and the equipment (i.e. vacuum) and often generations of experience behind them.
I'm guessing you want to enjoy sugaring for years to come? Then be good to your trees. Leave them be, keep your equipment stashed away. Wait for a long-term warming trend; 2 weeks is not nearly long enough.
You aren't going to kill your trees or split them open by tapping early. A hard freeze up after tapping even lasting weeks is not going to harm the trees. If your trees split after freezing hard, then you are tapping them wrong. What will happen by tapping to early is the tap hole drying up before the season is done because bacteria causing the hole to start sealing up.
Thanks BAP that's kind of what I had already researched. Hey Galena I'm down here in the Banana belt of southern Ontario. You are usually tapping another ten days to two weeks after we have stopped down here.
By the looks of the forecast I will wait another week and see. Tapped last year on the 20th of Feb and it was right on schedule.
I'm tapping Friday in SW Ontario. Last year I tapped Jan 31 and had no issues.
Hey Robinson, are you on buckets or tube?