🍁North-Central Wisconsin Tappers🍁

Thanks TwoSaps2 for sharing your plans. I have to drive about 4 hours to get to my Price County trees, so I have to plan my visits. I’m guessing sap is flowing now given this year’s February temperature swings.

Seeing that others aren’t posting I’m thinking this may be a supremely difficult year ( — especially for someone like me.) I’m wondering how the trees will fair with this short dormant season (so far). Hopefully this El Niño year is not the new normal.

Good luck to all, especially the commercial tappers who have a big stake in the seasons bounty.

Wondering. I'm in the same situation. I live in Oconomowoc area, tap at my property in Vilas County. I'm a teacher, I've been tapping for about 10 years now, just as a hobby. My brother and I joke it is the most expensive syrup on the planet, given drive time, and equipment investment for a few gallons a year. I typically go up 3-5 weekends a year, plus spring break. The last two years, spring break has been a bust. Last year, too cold. The year before, too warm. Hopefully this year will be just right. One of our first years, we tapped mid-end of February with a warm-up similar to this. Sap flowed, for a few days, then shut down again. We've agreed since then not to fall for these early warm-ups.

We are near Winchester. This is always too early, but with the tropical forecast, we caved in to FOMO and put in 51 taps on Sunday March 3. Most were immediately dripping furiously. Then the sun set, it snowed on Monday, and we ended up with a mere 22 gallons after the first day. Just starting to drip again on Tuesday noonish. Not the geysers we anticipated. We'll see. Latest working theory - since there is at least an hour less daylight in early March than when we usually tap, there is much less time for sun/warm to heat up the trees and internal sap before things shut down again for the night. Or maybe our trees are just cranky and uncooperative until after St. Patty's.

Update on the craziness in the far north. March 5-6 were great. About a gallon per tap per day. Some taps yielded 2 gallons per day. Then today, March 7, the weather seemed about the same, and 51 taps produced about 10 gallons. ??

Internet connections are getting a lot more common in the northwoods (including 1/2 mile from my trees!) so I’m hoping someone is gonna post something here in the coming days/weeks. (My motivation is mentioned below in my 2024 post.)

Happy Tapping! What’s happening?:D

Once again, we ignored rational judgment and suckered for the early warm up. Put in 44 taps on 3/12. About half started dripping right away. Will they keep running, or was this just the release of the sap stored in the trees?

Brother put in 44 taps on 3/12. 3/15, I collected & cooked 107 gallons. Nice run, but Saturday too warm, Sunday too cold. No sap flow. Planning to head up 3/21 for a week. Hopefuly the flow will kick back up.