Bigsap Warning 2009

it going to have to get pretty warm befor i can tap my big bush is on a hill side on the edge of a 100 acre field the snow drifts are 10 to 15 feet deep in places

i'm down here on the edge of the michaux forest in waynesboro. :)

Dennis- Im hiring a guy to just bring it out and park it. I just want to use it for storage. Theron

Sugarnut, that is only about an hour south of me. It is good to see someone else making syrup in this neck of the woods. There isn't many people around here that makes syrup tat I know of. I believe you are the closest one to me.

So I see you have around 70 taps, did you get more or are you waiting to see how this year goes for you before adding more?

So when were you looking to get going this year? I went out today and man am I thinking I might tap some trees Friday or sometime this weekend.

due to some major budget issues, i may not be able to get the entire 70 in this year. maybe so if i focus on buckets and jugs...i dread the thought as spread out as the trees are, lol. i wanted to run a few more sections of tube, but i will be lucky if i can afford the taps. i will still tap something for sure.

seeing the sap running from sapsucker damage today, i was really tempted to start drilling. i just hate to see them sit frozen with the next round of cold weather. i thought last year was terrible. after a little up and down weather, we had a big freeze at the beginning of march followed by 70 degree temps a week later. many of my trees seem to break bud early. i have no use for buddy syrup, although i was surprised to see folks mention it can be sold commercially. i am too small to worry with it.

so what do you think about the upcoming weather trends? it would be nice to see 10 solid days forecast favorably for tapping. i am just not sure we are there yet.

how big is your operation? it would be nice to see another tapper in action. i would love to see how real equipment is used. my only experience is with my flat pan and a gravity tube setup that only worked marginally at best due to dips from no wiring and a few snake turns, lol.

Russ,

The link I posted about 10 posts ago for Meadow Bridge, WV is real close to my sugarhouse temps. Tommorrow is 49 with lots of sun and it was the same today and close to 40, but then no sap weather for next 10 days. I doubt I would get much if any sap tomorrow as it has been cold for most part her since Nov 12th.

Sugarnut,

I am around 2,600 in elevation where I live and where I tap even though the temp is close to 10 degrees and sometimes 15 degrees colder at the sugarbush. Last Friday night is was 1 where I live and -14 at the sugarhouse, aprox 20 miles the way the bird flies.

my trees are at @ 820 to 870. i'm in zone 6, but really close to zone 7. i'm just "over the hill" from gettysburg and gettysburg seems to get some influence from milder "coastal" temps at times. it just seems that spring comes in spurts here and the changes are somewhat drastic. it's like it will hit the 40's for a 2 or three days, jump into the high 50's and low 60's and then fall back down to a high of 30 in just a week, lol. repeat the cycle a few times and suddenly its 70 degrees.

i get the feeling that it would actually be better to be further south than i am as i wonder if the changes are a bit more subtle.

Sugarnut That is exactly how it is here also. Big Temp swings, Last year I tapped late and I think I missed the best run, I tapped the 2d week in Feb. This year I told myself that I was going to be tapped in by the end of Jan and I am still hoping I can do that. The time to do it isn't the problem, it is the weather.

This warm up that we just had kind of caught me off guard. It wasn't till the 1st day of the warm spell that I realized I should of tapped. Now it looks like Mon of Tues to tap for the next warmup coming Wed.

My OP is very small. Last year I started with 40 taps and with the wonderful weather we had last year I made just 2 1/2 gals.That was the most expensive syrup that I have ever owned. This year I amd adding 100 taps and figure I can deal with having too much sap it that happens.

ALERT!!!! ALERT!!!! BIGSAP!!! BIGSAP!!! False alarm must have just been a dream. Ok guys this is my prediction for at least our general area down here. February and March are going to be cool months. Theres not a lot of frost in the ground to go away so I think there will be a lot of small runs on vac, but maybe a lot of them. The gravity guys will have to watch for the better days. Maybe it will be a bit for that. I have two points I want to make. If the frost isnt there on account of the snow I think they will run after a cold spell better than we think maybe. This is the other point. Last year on vac, and this is the truth, after the sap started running I never saw a time when it was over 32 degrees when it was not running to some extent. That includes three days without a freeze. I can honestly say I never saw it stop untill I shut the pump off at the end of the season becouse I was out of wood and generally sick of it. Just a little insight into my experiance. I know a lot of those days it wouldnt have run on gravity. I think the two are just two different ball games. I think on gravity its smart to wait till the big runs start but if your on vac it could be a little different. Just my two crazy cents. Theeron