Bigsap Warning 2009

Extended forecast for NH shows Sunday through Tuesday above freezing with temps in the 20's following. Watch out guys its coming soon.

Hold onto your shorts Amber Gold. Take look at what is coming out of the gulf for Ground hogs day. I would say either get you boat shoveld out or go fuel up the snow plow! Again! Either way it ain't gonna be good.

Theron,
With those extended runs last year, what was your typical yield of sap/tap/day?

And how agressive did you tap? Did you go after the small cul trees?

Jeff- Last year I had 1250 real nice taps and rougly 300 cull trees. The cull trees were real small and were not tubed in properly. I just went after them with scraps, etc, very long lats with lots of them on the lats. Id say that for the most part on a good run Id get gallon per tap to a gallon and a half per tap during the day and if it ran through the night it could be another gallon per tap that night too. Now lots of times I would have maybe two tanks with say 1200 gallons and sometimes less. Just depended when it thawed out that day. I had a lot of medium runs Id say and a couple humdingers. My best run was the first one in early february. Started running early in the am hours and run 2400 gallons by noon basically. That was my very first run. I think the reason I got so much even with the cull trees was the vac levels. I was always running right at 26 inches of vac. Other thing is like I said before if it was above freezing I never saw it not running even after a few days. Pretty neat. I dont know If I can get those levels again this year with all the new taps. I hope so. Theron

Boy, that first day must have had you thinking!!!

I have a new SIHI oil-bath liquid ring pump, 5 hp, so I am hoping for high vac as well. Getting the oil next Tuesday so I will soon see what it can do.

Made any syrup yet?

I havent made any yet. Im real busy getting ready like everyone else. How many cfm's is the pump. If its 5 hp you probly have a serious pump for 1200 taps and thats good. Youll get a ton of sap. Itll be a blast. Im kind of worried I wont be able to get that big level again. I have a lot of line and connections now but well have to wait and see. Im going to try real hard. Your stuff looks super Jeff. Ill bet your going to be pretty happy. Theron

Thanks SapCsar,
It is a 50 CFM pump. I am up to 1400 taps now, and just finished thinning another part of the woods, so I can go after several hundred more. I am shooting for 1700 by March, 2500+ by next year.
Scary, already talking about next year....

Jeff- Your going to get a lot of sap with that setup and that pump even this year on that many taps. Youve got a half gallon setup there if there ever was one. Just have to wait and see the temps now. Ill bet your dying to see it work. Theron

"Other thing is like I said before if it was above freezing I never saw it not running even after a few days. Pretty neat. I dont know If I can get those levels again this year with all the new taps. I hope so. Theron[/QUOTE]"

I think that is the biggest differance I see with vacuum. Without vacuum, after 24 hours above freezing, sap run would stop. With vacuum, it just keeps coming ...

Checked the weather again. It's going to be in the 40's over the weekend and into next week.

Who's gonna be the first?