I got 107 taps in today. I'm not expecting much tomorrow (a cloudy 37 won't thaw out anything), but I am hopeful the season will kick-off on Tuesday!
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I got 107 taps in today. I'm not expecting much tomorrow (a cloudy 37 won't thaw out anything), but I am hopeful the season will kick-off on Tuesday!
Put up 14 buckets - 28 taps this afternoon in the next door neighbors yard. still have trees in the neighbor across the street. Maybe tomorrow!
So I volunteer at the Dudley Farm Maple Syrup Demonstration, in North Guilford. We are doing the demo sat and sun this past weekend, and the next two weekends. There was so little sap this weekend that we had boil water!
Finished installing lines and put 129 taps in today. Have a few more laterals I can put up so should be around 150-160 taps once those are up. Not much flowing with a high of 30, just enough to get a trickle in some of the drops. Hoping tomorrow will be sufficient to flush out the lines and can start collecting on Tuesday.
I tapped in about 50 taps on 3/16th tubing this am. Nothing running yet at 42 degrees. I am at 590’ elevation, so maybe another day for the trees to thaw.
I tapped this past weekend at 716' elevation. Trees in full sunlight are running well. Woods trees, not so much yet.
So, I tapped a week ago. Had some flow during the two days that were optimal and then another freeze came. Today, a few trees ran really well but most are doing nothing. Should I be concerned that I tapped too early or should I just be patient?
They should be okay once the weather cooperates. I tapped a dozen trees on Sunday and they flowed a little bit that day, but stopped. Nothing at all today when I checked even though it got up to 40. This coming weekend I'm seeing mid to upper 20's at night and upper 30's and 40's in the day and lasting at least a week, so I'm expecting mine to start flowing then. I'm in the Hudson Valley area of NY so not a huge difference in temps, although you may be warmer since CT is closer to the coast than me.
I’m in western CT little over an hour due East of you. We most likely have a very similar climate.
Hopefully tomorrow things start running! I didn’t get anything at all today the temps hovered right around 35 in Warren. Waiting to put my mountain maple controller to the test.
Hope so. I have this one big silver maple in my front yard that's 2 1/2 to 3 foot in diameter and on a good day it pours sap. I've gotten up to 7 gallons of sap from two taps in one day on that tree in past years. I put one tap in it on Sunday and got maybe a pint of sap that day or Monday, but when I checked mid day today, the tube was bone dry. I'm thinking by the end of the week. My only worry is that a few days are forecast to be right at or a bit above freezing at night and I need it colder at night, preferably hitting the upper 20's. fortunately in this case I usually run a few degrees colder at night than the forecast due to my particular location.
Tapped on Friday 2/19. Started to see flow today finally in my buckets. I’m using 8 taps this year and turkey fryer. First year was last year and it made it all worth it to do it again.
2020 5 taps turkey fryer - 3200 ounces (16 200 ounce jars).
Plantsville, CT
Finished tapping all 100 taps. The 30 on 3/16 in the woods were flowing pretty good. Some of the buckets and bags were too. The 5/16 taps in the woods not to much.
It was 28 degrees last night and suppose to be in the 40s today. I have high hopes.
Update: collected 62 gallons 1.9 brix
Flowing great today.
How much snow do you have on the ground in your grove in Willington?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich R
Tapped on Sunday, got a little drip out of the mainline yesterday, and a steady but small stream out of the mainline today. With 129 taps I would have expected more. Any thoughts?
Located at over 1200' elevation here in Warren CT. It is typically a few degrees lower than everywhere else and any forecast. Most of my trees are in the woods on a slight slope down to the north, though many boarder a small field with some in fuller sunlight. Curious if it just needs a few more warm days to warm up or if I need to fix something with my lines? This is a newly installed setup with 5/16 laterals with leader 5/16 check valve taps and 3/4 inch mainline.
Today’s brix 2.0. Same as January.
"Tapped on Sunday, got a little drip out of the mainline yesterday, and a steady but small stream out of the mainline today. With 129 taps I would have expected more. Any thoughts?" Warren was always the coldest town we worked in [CL&P] in the winter - hated it - You need a little more time to thaw than the rest of us. Last night with no frost should help - I got about 100 taps in yesterday, age is showing. 40 more today, i'll be all in.
Couple things.
This morning I had 3 moths. 2 in one bucket and 1 in another. All 3 alive. Thought it was a little early for that.
Also, this is the first time I've pulled a tap that was doing nothing after a few days, when the rest of the taps around it are running. I just went out to collect. This one particular tap is in a nice tree. Granted, all my trees are reds. The tree is healthy, the tap hole was clean and white, and it was tapped just like all the rest. The pail was bone dry. Today I pulled it, and tapped a smaller tree, maybe 15" in diameter, 10 feet away from the dry one. As soon as I drilled the new tree, the sap was running before I could get the tap in. This year, having the possibility of a short season, I won't be so hesitant to pull taps that aren't running. I have around 125 to 150 reds, and only put out 50 taps, so I don't think moving some around will affect the health of my trees.
That seems to be the case with red maples. Sometimes a taphole is just not productive for some reason. Happens more on gravity I think, but can happen on vacuum too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gord
Finally I had one of my 5 taps put out something today, was starting to get worried since it's my first time lol. I only got like 3 cups though
How are your January taps doing? Still producing?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghost
Volume a little less than as trees tapped later, based on drip rate from 3/16. Have not tested brix, they all flow into the same tank.
A while back I read a study from Cornell that trees tapped early never fully catch up to trees tapped later. Still I like your “value” metric to get 80% of a maximum season in 4 or so boils.
Brix are hanging around 2. Three days of collection have been 2.1, 1.9, and 2. The 30 taps in the woods on 3/16 have been flowing all 3 days really good. The buckets and bags a little less until yesterday, which was good The 11 on 5/16 in the woods just started to flow yesterday.
Are you implying that if a tree looses some of its sap earlier in the season ( to a person or woodpecker ) it may reduce its brix on the sap it runs today??Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghost
What if it runs the sap in January but does not loose it. How would that effect the brix of sap run in March by that tree?
My TTT date was Monday.
Yesterday was my best running sap of the week on about 3 out of every 4 taps and perhaps at 60% to 70% of capacity on those.
Was hoping for full capacity on all by yesterday. A bit more thawing to go I suspect.
My brix on some BIG trees is slightly over 2% have not tested the smaller trees, but I bet a bit less.
Hoping for 3% by early March.
My 250 gallon tote is almost full, expecting it to reach capacity this evening as I'm still collecting today. I was lucky enough to hit 29F last night.
Seems I'll be running the RO tonight and firing up the evaporator for my first boil tomorrow.
I hope the rains stay away tomorrow...
Yes, based on the Cornell paper.
Today’s Brix 1.3, and I don’t have an RO. Oye.
Collected 450 gallons this morning, ran it through the RO twice and lit the fire of the year. The collected sap was around 2.2 brix but keep in mind I still have sizable ice blocks in all my collection tanks. Didn't test it out of the tree. Drew off 3.5 gallons ready to bottle. Should have another 400+ gallons to boil tomorrow morning. With a sweep I hope to draw 5 or more gallons tomorrow? Guess we'll see!
I'm not sure what paper in particular you are referring to, but I don't think that is what they were saying, or that is what would happen. I think you are referring to a paper that says if you tap earlier you'll make about the same amount of syrup as you would if you tap later. It is not what all the research has shown. Typically, IF you use vacuum AND you use good sanitation AND you tap early AND there is good weather for a few runs early, then you will make more syrup tapping early. Wilmot (UVM PMRC/UVM Extension) did that research several years ago. https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m0608tappingtiming/ Cornell (Orefice, then later Wild at Uihlein) repeated that https://mapleresearch.org/pub/retapmd1220/ A lot depends on how the year plays out, which you can't tell ahead of time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghost
First boil of the season... It was a success.
I cant tell you how nice it was to spend time outside with the kids, especially my son who is bravely fighting cancer for the second time...
Two gallons of syrup, a pan full of sweet, and some fun lessons about RO, evaporation, and what makes sap good on pancakes!
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Sounds like you had a perfect day! Just think... this is just the beginning of the season. May you have many happy family boiling sessions this season! :)
And your still in my prayers every single night. Looks like you had lots of fun. I miss those times with my kids.
Ditto!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Pdiamond
It so so great to see kids involved and have a blast!
Having two young boys myself I can imagine how overwhelming this must be. If there is anything I can do for you just reach out.Quote:
Originally Posted by bryankloos
First boil this past weekend and bottled last night. Sadly no golden this year....First draw was amber. Oh well. Made 8 1/2 gallons.
This past weekend was my second boil. Small time barrel stove. Boiled 50 gallons. Color was good. Pretty much the same as my first boil.
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Hmmmm....
The forecast is looking a little wonky.
Cold, with a warm up, and then too warm.
I'm hopeful that things cool off after the extended warming a week or so out and get us some more sap.
I'm trying to remember when I hung it up last year.
I've only collected may 20% of last years sap thus far...
Hmmmm...????
It seems like its getting late early. I'm starting to wonder about this year.
Sap flow was fairly meager today for what I would expect.
In my first boil I had only 65 gallons of sap and 35 of that came from a run with 7 taps on it that had a column of sap 50 feet long from the tank, which generated 8 inches of mercury at the top of it.
My other 38 taps yielded only 30 gallons and had no vacuum generated on any of them.
This seems like a year where vacuum is a must.
I am either going to buy a cliff with a bunch of maple trees growing at the top of it or a nice pump.
Great that I got at least some vacuum and a new home built RO that made short work of my 65 gallons.
Thanks to all those who helped.
Just to give you all a comparison, I've only collected around 280 gallons of sap this year. 5 qts of syrup and a pan of sweet still. This on a 100+ taps. Even my 30 taps on 3/16, which were pumping out the sap a week ago aren't doing much. Hoping to collect today from yesterday's late run and today's. Have to fire up the sweet either way.
I’m in the same boat. I think I have maybe 300 gallons off my 77 taps.
My pan is sweet and I have over a gallon of syrup but I’m far behind last year.
I collected 40 gallons yesterday.
I hit 25F at my pump controller last night, so hopefully I get another 40+ today.
I need to fire up the pan regardless, but I’d rather have concentrate to trickle in vs just a boil to pass time...
Fingers crossed the second half of March fills the buckets!
Looks to be one of those off years - Running great today, surprising too as it's 35 degrees and a cold wind -