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by the looks of the flow currently, this will be the best run for me so far this year! I've been very pleasantly surprised how cool the temps have compared to how well the runs have been! I don't recall this happening before... however I'm sure it has.
Yesterday started out a bit slow for me even though the sun came up early. I was beginning to wonder if I would get much sap at all. By noon it started picking up and by 8 pm I had one gallon a tap. It was a nice day to start pruning some apple trees. I have a slight correction from a previous number I gave the other day. I am now at 47% of last years numbers. Looks like no sap for at least 10 days but that could all change. Hoping the season last well into April.
Spud
Sap has been running so good and I'm so busy I can't even keep track anymore the gpt's per day. It all blends together. You'll have that when you're hauling from four different places. I can say that it is over a gallon per tap, way over..... Mostly all light Amber, looks to be another good year don't know how good that will be for next year's prices, I'm a little concerned
What grading system are you using?Quote:
Originally Posted by blissville maples
Between the small flows on Saturday and yesterday afternoon we got about 5,000 gal of sap to RO this morning. Will send it off to the bulk tank and probably boil on Friday.
It was slow to get going yesterday here as well but I did pull in about 1000 gal. before it froze up last night. I was also able to find a couple drops that had popped off during the last hard freeze that revealed themselves when the vac. dropped after everything thawed out. Back up to 27".
The niter started to show up during the last boil so I soaked the syrup pans and will clean them before boiling later today. Not sure what the next few days will bring but I'm not expecting much. But, it has run well every time it has snowed recently....
The sap started running today at 2:00pm. Right now it is running 525 GPH. It may leek running for several hours. Very surprised on some of these sap runs. Seems way to. Old.
Spud
Tim, do you mean that you will RO and hold it until Friday? I'm using RO for the first time this year - unbelievable - but what I want to ask is whether it's ok to let it sit like that for a couple days. Unless I was going to fall behind, I wouldn't have any problem holding on to raw sap that long if the weather is cold. But I was under the impression that concentrate is more likely to spoil if not processed quickly. Could you share a bit of your experience with respect to how long you can keep it at different temperatures? Thanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins
We have a bulk tank that keeps the 30-35 Brix concentrate at 25 deg F. It’ll last a good bit of time at that temp. Without it we would boil immediately.
Yesterday to my surprise the sap started running at 2:00pm. Before long it was rolling and continued till 6:00 when everything froze up. In the 4 hours it ran I got 1700 gallons. Sap testing at 1.9%. Did anyone else get sap yesterday? I could not believe the sap ran yesterday. I give up trying to predict sap runs from here on out. It's crazy.
Spud
Same thing here. Once it thawed early afternoon the sap ran as hard as it ever does and I pulled in about 500 gal. before it froze up. Sugar snow I guess...
Last night we made almost 30 gal. AR from about 1500 gal. from the last couple days. Looks like we may get a bit of a break today....
yeah, I was surprised to see the sap running well here to... for a few hours. started here about 1-1:30 and was all done at 6. pulled in a good bit in that amount of time though. I'm starting to not be surprised when the sap runs at 33 degrees in crap weather!
I started my pump up yesterday when I left for work hoping it'd get up to 36ish degrees which for whatever reason seems like the magic number this year. At lunch time temp was 33 degrees so I didn't even go home and check it. Got home after work at 3:30 and to my surprise sap was dripping in but I had no vac at releaser. Quick check and one of my elbows was froze solid. After chiseling on it for 5-10min I was back up and running full vac and the sap was just puking in! Couldn't believe it. In the last two days I've had a little over 1500gal picked up. not bad for 515 taps. 425 of those gallons were off my new 3/16 set-up with 80 taps on it. No complaints here.
I am beginning to think I may have to switch to 3/16 fir my gravity lines next season
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Pulled in another 700 gal in about 5 hours yesterday. At about 50% of what we made last year. The vacuum pump has been on for weeks and looks like it may be on until april...
Its always interesting to compare output by the different regions of Vt- We're at a little better than 30%- sap barely ran for about 2 hours yesterday, it just wasn't quite happening.
EBG18T, I switched this year and am blown away by the difference. I had planned to put in 120 this season but am stopping at 60 (okay, maybe I'll throw in another 10-20 in the next week of low temps and low flows...it's hard to resist!) because I have so much more sap per tap than I'd expected frommy 5/16" days.
Got zero flow here yesterday. But between yesterday & this morning we got another 10 inch of snow.
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Are you just doing 3/16 drops? Or everything down to your main?Quote:
Originally Posted by alexa.holleran
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Alexa I am also being blown away by sap and I have 20 buckets that I never hung because mine 3/16 lines are running so hard. I am also trying to come up with a new pan that might boil faster before the big run next week.
Sap didn't run at all for me this weekend. course we never got about 32 degrees either, and added another 6-8" of snow. Hoping today things take off, then it looks like another cold snap and more snow.
Pulled in 6-700 gal. each of the last three days. Today should be decent as well. Going to be a busy day getting ready to boil later...
Same situation here in Underhill. Might get a little sap late this afternoon, otherwise just more snow headed our way.Quote:
Originally Posted by rhwells2003
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins
Same in Wolcott. What was in the 55 gal barrels was frozen solid. Nothing new appeared. :-(Quote:
Originally Posted by rhwells2003
Set up heat trace cable on my 3/4 inch line from head tank (outside) to float tank to prevent it from completely freezing solid again like Friday night.
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Sap started running at 11:00 this morning. There is still a lot of the woods froze but I have been getting 275 GPH for the last three hours. Should run to 8-9 pm.
Spud
same here. started running around 11. lots of laterals frozen up, but should thaw out before the sap shuts off completely... for a while!
Many way a moderator can get it fixed so a quote/inch “ sign does not do that?Quote:
Originally Posted by EBG18T
We pulled just over a gallon per tap in the last 24 hours. Even the buckets kicked in late today. Our south facing trees did well. Sugar was 1.6, which is becoming our norm ;(. Im going to pull until it freezes, then take the rest of the week off. We are just passed 4K gallons of sap to date.
Just pumped the barrels. Maybe 0.1 GPT today, kinda disappointed.
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775 gallons syrup, no official tally but around 35-40k gals of sap....will be fun hauling in snow today picking up last night remnants. Sugar still 1.7-1.9 depending on bush. Should make another 50-60 gals today.
Will we be sugaring into may/ June In the north I take it!!
Got 1 gallon per tap yesterday. Sap ran until about 1:30 this morning before freezing up. Looks like no more sap for about 10 days or more. I shut the pump down this morning. I am at 53% of where I was last year.
Spud
It pounded at my place yesterday. I took an early lunch, headed home and started the pump at 11. It was just starting to come in. By the time I got home at 4:30 it was pouring in, releaser releasing ever couple minutes. My daughter wanted to get her 13 buckets out so we tapped those at 5, they were dripping really good. I knew we had a week of cold so I didn't want a half gallon of frozen sap sitting in them for a week so we gathered them at 6:30 figuring things would shut off soon. We got 4 gallons in 1.5 hours. at 10 sap was still coming hard so I went and gathered her buckets again and picked up another 6gal. I checked the sap one last time at 11:30 and it was still coming good so I just let it go into the night. This morning I figure I picked up 700gal on my vac system (440 taps), 200gal on my 3/16" (80 taps), All in about 15 hours. Then 10gal on 13 buckets in 5 hours.
Last year I think I picked up around 8500gal. I'm currently at 6300gal, hoping we're only halfway done.
It ran hard here yesterday as well with about 1.5 gpt from about noon until whenever it froze last night. When the lines thawed the sap was exploding into the releaser. I have been having this persistent issue the last week where because of the dramatic shifts between totally frozen and vigorous sap flows, every day I have to go find disconnected drops. Two days ago I had 25 drops come off overnight and the vac was down to 14". The VFD was shutting off the vac. pump on over amperage (which is good as it protects the pump) because the pump was working so hard. I have never seen this problem be so dramatic.... perhaps a drop or two here or there on occasion but not 15-25 every day for several days.
We boiled and made almost 50 gal from about 2500 gal. of sap. Half AR and half GD. Was starting to push it with niter at the very end. Cleaning syrup pans every boil now and will probably try to process less sap an once...
To top off a hectic day dealing with some other equipment and tubing issues, the motor on the filter press pump died. At first it smoked a bit and we thought it was the belt, but then it tripped on thermal protection. We got it going again but then no go after that... My friend had the brilliant idea of using a drill to turn the pump and turns out that works! We got 40 gallons through the press, albeit at about half the usual speed, but it kept us filtering through the boil.
Attachment 18113
What are you using for spouts that come out?Quote:
Originally Posted by GeneralStark
Smart spouts and CV2s both without barbs....and I forgot to mention that this issue has been mostly on 3/16 lines.Quote:
Originally Posted by BAP
A few years ago I got some CDL tubing that was extruded a bit to large. The tubing slid on and off the spouts way to easy. I had to replace those drops. On a few of them I cut about 4-6 inches off the drop and then the tubing went on tight.
Spud
General, we have been having issues with spouts pushing off from Leader dropline at our small bush. First year using CV2s and we've never really had this issue before. My theory is that we didn't push the spouts on far enough past the ring, and the ring on CV2s doesn't hold as well as other spouts. We don't seem to be having this issue on our larger bush where we mostly have CDL dropline. Pain in the butt but I think we found most of the hanging drops yesterday.
Really good sap flow yesterday, probably 1.5 gpt. Our Jericho woods really haven't been running as well this year. Usually Westford runs a bit colder but things seem switched now. Hopefully we go well into mid april, who knows though.
Lots of hanging drop lines here too! The stubby pops off the CV. 15 to 20 every day. A real pain in the legs. We've been using CV1s for years this is first year with some CV2s. Had this problem before but only one or two hanging after a hard freeze.
The worst is when they don't hang and just pop off and from afar it looks like the drop is still connected. And yes for me this has been primarily with the CV2s though a few smart spouts have been culprits.
I had issues last couple years with my 3/16” using 5/16” drops with stubbys and the black cv adapters. When we had a freeze that was below mid 20’s, the stubby would pop off adapter. Last year I tried 25 of the polycarbonate adapters along with the black and they staid put. This year I used all polycarbonate adapters. I think the issue is because the 3/16” stays full of sap when freezing, it takes better fittings to stay together than 5/16” tubing