I got 3200 gallons yesterday. The woods did not completely freeze up last night. A trickle of sap ran on the south/east side. Should have a good day today. Sap still testing just 1.1 gpt. I’m up to 65,000 gallons on 3400 taps. Hoping for more.
Spud
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I got 3200 gallons yesterday. The woods did not completely freeze up last night. A trickle of sap ran on the south/east side. Should have a good day today. Sap still testing just 1.1 gpt. I’m up to 65,000 gallons on 3400 taps. Hoping for more.
Spud
had our longest boil of the year yesterday. a good 9 hours. had sap from friday/ saturday's run to boil. that combined with a very strong run yesterday kept us busy all day. nitre is becoming a real PITA. sap testing 1.8%. the 10 day looks real good. We're getting a new GSP puppy Friday. sure hope he likes the sugar house, cuz it looks like he's going to be spending some time in there with me over the weekend!
Didn’t get any sap today. When I got home I had no vacuum at my releaser. The pump was still on but was acting like the moisture trap had set off. But the trap was not set off from what I could tell. I turned the pump off, disconnected at the slip connect, reconnected, turned it back on and got instant vacuum. In two hours since getting vacuum back I got about .25gpt.
Sorry you lost vacuum for part of the day. It’s good you got some sap though. Sap slowed down for me yesterday. I got about 1500 gallons in all. Woke up this morning to 24 degrees. Should have a very good run today and then all night. Weather man is saying I could get up to 14 inches of snow tomorrow. This will recharge the trees and give us another week or better. Good luck everyone.
Spud
In case anyone missed the big story yesterday...
https://www.uvm.edu/news/story/uvm-t...-syrup-reserve
Good one...:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins
That’s funny Dr. Tim. You had me believing until I got to the fighter jets for our maple security.
Sap ran pretty good today. I have 1800 gallons in the tank right now and it’s running at 90 gph. I should have about 2800 by morning. That a little under a gallon per tap. I’m hoping the big storm helps us to have another week of sap flow. Time will tell.
Spud
Spud,
I’m so glad you moved back, your daily updates keeps me logging in and checking how you’re doing, 65000 gallons from 3400 taps. Keep on rolling hope you post your final numbers in two weeks!
Mark220maple
Thanks 220 Maple. Sap ran a trickle last night and woke up to 2100 gallons in the tank. Supposed to get 8-18 inches of snow later today and tonight. I’m hoping this recharges the trees and we go another week or better. Sap now testing at 1%. Sap is a little cloudy but very good.
Spud
Sap really slowed down today. May wind up with 1500 gallons by morning. It’s raining now and the snow is on its way. We could be done by weekend. Today’s sap test .9%.
Spud
I am holding out hope that the snow storm will charge up the trees one more time. Just not holding onto too much hope!
woke up to a good 9-10" of snow this a.m. supposed to get another 4-8 i guess. boiled last night what came in yesterday... which was not a whole heck of a lot! trees are slowing down big time. hopefully this snow will help. last nights boil had a little different smell to it. sap is clear and syrup tasted perfectly fine. hoping to have a couple more good runs over the weekend if the sap quality holds up and the snow recharges the trees a bit. never ended the season with snow on the ground. there's a real possibility of that this year now.
All done in poultney vt ...2000 gallons if sap at .9% just isnt exciting! Weird seeing snow and being done. Unfortunately the trees have nothing left. With this cold weather and no freeze the trees are in shutdown mode as I call it and wont produce any amount of sap unless we had a prolonged freeze of atleast 12-20 hrs which wont be happening this year. Polar vortex has been favorable for cold but it never materialized. We just had a median zone reversal and split PV which usually happens in February and triggers severe winter weather but not this time, this will likely lead to a cool april, but unfortunately did nothing for the maple season.
Weather has sucked to say the least our last week has featured a low of 31/33 for 2 hrs...5am to 7 am, not enough cold to induce sugar production from the trees. We saw 1.7 for a run or two.
70% of our sap was less than 1.25.
Less than an average year we only made .48# per tap far cry from.last years 6.3 which was our best year ever. We usually have several days making 160-200 gallons of syrup. This year we made 170 once and 130+ only a few times.
My biggest take on the last two years is that mother nature controls the maple industry! Sanitation, 28" vaccum, 4 taps per
line, CV's, none of it matters. Its 80% weather dependant, there is
no normal or standard in this industry theres what mother nature allows in a given season that's it!
Good luck to those still going, im going RO shopping
Woke up to near no sap in the tank. The woods froze up at 11 pm last night. Getting very heavy snow now and the roads are terrible. We have about six inches of snow now, with another foot to come. The woods could stay froze till Saturday which would be great. Hoping for a few more good runs.
Spud
13 inches of the white powder today and still had school!
We got around 16 inches and the trees are white. I let my kids stay home from school yesterday. Once the branches thaw we could either get a great run, or the season will be over. Usually when a person ask for a miracle, they say the planets have to line up for that miracle to happen. On Monday some of the planets will be lining up. This is a good sign. 😁🤞🤞🙏.
Spud
Best of luck spud, our trees are white over here in western Maine as well with fresh snow. 1 bush was still pulling this morning but the others are all done. We seem to have a very similar start, heavy run and end as you. Hope you get some more, we're all done tomorrow.
Sap started running at 10 this morning. I checked again at noon and it running 300 gph. Should run till 10 tonight and then it will freeze up. Hoping for a good weekend. Thank you everyone for posting and joining in on the fun. Let’s hope the price of syrup is good this year.
Spud
It did not run today for me. Thinking I’ll be pulling taps this week.
It's coming in pretty slow today for us. I think by the middle of next week we'll likely be done if no sooner.
Mike
Spud
Same event happened here in West Virginia off of snow storm where the snow was coating the trees for a day just about a week ago at the camp that shutdown on the last day of March, they got a good sap run after, taps in 8 weeks, so I’m hoping same happens for you! How long have your taps been in production?
Mark220maple
My first run was Feb 9th. I’m thinking by Wednesday I will be done. If I could get another 10,000 gallons, I might be able to afford a set of Ping golf clubs. 😁
Spud
Yesterday I got 2100 gallons and today it’s running at 250 gph. It’s going down to 27 degrees tonight and then 48 and sun tomorrow. We have three more freezing nights and then things warm up on Wednesday. Sap quality is cloudy but very nice.
Spud
I just checked the tank and I have 1750 gallons from yesterday’s run. Right now it’s 25 degrees at the house. Supposed to be full sun and 45 degrees today. Hoping for a good run.
Spud
Saps running 300 gph and testing .9%.
Spud
Turned off the pump today because of minimal production over the last week. Sap is milky and .8%
End of year numbers:
800 taps
18,175 gallons of sap
235 gallons of syrup (just over a barrel short of last year)
Tap holes stayed productive for 9 weeks plus one week of small production.
Good luck to all who are still going!
Woke up to 1800 gallons in the tank. It never froze in my woods last night. I suspect I will be shutting the pump off later today. No more freezing nights in my forecast. Sap is testing .9%
Spud
i unfortunately pulled the plug friday. Took a trip south to pick up a new puppy friday a.m. Returned to full tanks of 0.9% sap. without an R.O, that's not worth my time. it was odd because our last run was 2 days before and the content was 1.8%. sure would have liked full tanks of that! the sap was pouring in yesterday without my pump on... still tested 0.9%. all in all, we had a very average season.
Sap still running a bit up on the mountain in Underhill, but we're clearly in the phase of the season where sanitation is critical to maintaining good sap flow. The nice cold and snow we had bumped the sugar back up some, running 1.7 Brix in the main bush and 1.3 in the lower section. We will probably be OK for at least a few more days, and perhaps more, but nothing close to a freeze in the 10-day forecast, so the end is coming. We're within our normal season-end window.Quote:
Originally Posted by spud
It'll likely end up close to an average season for us, mostly because we got nailed by the wind storm in early-January (the bad thing about being high up on a mountain with western exposure), which took over a month of work to clean up. If the snow had been deep it would have been disastrous. But it did mean that tapping wasn't able to get started until later than normal and we missed those early sap flows. That and a ****?&&& pesky leak somewhere in the mainline system (we suspect UNDER the road where we can't get to it right now) hasn't allowed us to get the vacuum to where we want it. If not for those two factors, it'd probably have been a really good season. But...we're satisfied with what we got. Some seasons tend to be more of a struggle than others. Hope to have some preliminary results within a week or two.
I should also note that I'm largely a spectator myself this season...since I'm out here in Michigan where I can only see what is happening at PMRC via the cameras/sensors/data. Can't do much other than provide advice and consolation as needed and asked for. Thankfully we have a real dedicated and experienced crew that doesn't need me to tell them what to do anyhow.
Sap is running 125 gph and I think I will keep the pump on till tomorrow. I plan to pull spouts as soon as I shut down. I still have 200 more apple trees to prune. Lots to do this spring. Hoping to get my other new woods set up this summer.
Dr. Tim. I hope you’re enjoying your new living conditions. I’m sure the grandkids are happy you’re there. I hope you enjoy the quality time.
Spud
I shut the pump off this morning. Woke up to 1100 in the tank but the sap had stopped. My total for the season is 74,300 gallons on 3400 taps. Not the greatest of numbers but I’m still happy. The season went great and I had no issues at all. I will start pulling spouts tomorrow and then finish up on pruning my apple trees. I hope everyone has a great summer.
Spud
Thanks for all the updates Spud, have a great summer
Still going here in lyndonville. Slow but steady and low sugar. Like PMRC I have been hunting a leak all season and a constant battle with a lifting pump. That said I am still having a record year. I'll post totals when available.
This season's last boil was today. Ended with 277 gallons on 825 taps under vacuum. Our latest season end April 15, so were finishing in a reasonable time frame. Our sugar content is normally low, maybe 1.5-1.75%. We fought a few leaks early on this year. Due to my full-time job, we were behind trying to finish projects we wanted to do last summer/fall so we started later than we wanted. We have an addition at the sugarhouse to complete (16' added to the garage area). Double the size of a collection point from 800 to 1600 gallons (double he length of the building and build a warm room inside) and upgrade from a mechanical releaser to an electric releaser at this station. We plan to install a solar system (with batteries) to run the electric releaser. The tank swap will require removing the 1600-gallon tank at the sugarhouse and replacing it with a 2100-gallon tank (need to cut a hole in the wall for this one). That should be a fun day. Great to hear about everyone's successes and learning opportunities.
Mike
Boiled what was in the tank on Sunday. Pulled taps on Monday before the eclipse. Sap was only testing .9-1.0%. we have about 13 gallons bottled and maybe another 1.5 ga waiting for bottling.
We're done. Sap still running, but too slow to keep it fermenting in the lines. Last boil was this morning. Trees are ready for the next phase and so are we. Overall not the worst or the best season, but happy with what we got. Now we need to finish up a bunch of measurements, clean-up, and pull taps.
I’m about 3 weeks from tapping. Hoping to have another great season. Good luck everyone.
Spud
I'm living in Michigan now, but if things at Proctor are operating as usual, they'll likely start tapping in the next couple of weeks. Generally they shoot for mid-January.
I think several of the field studies will focus on the new (organic certified) antimicrobial droplines and spouts.
I decided to try out Middle Valley Maple’s antimicrobial barbed spout adapter. Excited to see if there will be any noticeable impact on my typically low sugar content (usually around 1.3-1.5%). I ordered 800 today and they are being shipped today. Bob was excellent to work with over there. I’m also 3-4 weeks out on tapping. Good luck to everyone this season!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins
Antimicrobial droplines and spouts sounds interesting. Can you elaborate on the benefits?
Thanks