Based on the weather I tapped the front yard maple on Sunday. Nothing flowing yet...
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Based on the weather I tapped the front yard maple on Sunday. Nothing flowing yet...
Two test taps today. One dripped , one didn't?
I got nothing either in V-beach, so far. i'm hoping next week cold snap is going to help.
Tapped 3. Got 1/2 gallon. Still too early……
Mine are still dry. High of 29 on Monday so maybe that will get things going later in the week
Walked into the woods this morning and sap in then bottles for 2 out of 3 trees. 2.5 liters. Checked the 30 inch diameter tree I the front yard nothing on two taps that have been in for 3 weeks. Scratched my head and went for the drill added tap # 3 and came back this afternoon to a dripping line.
Went to a neighbors to tap his 30 inch tree and the first one was immediately dripping :D so I put three in that tree and one in another. I will check them on the way to work. They are all running. My system is very basic; two feet of blue line connected to the tap draining into a 2 liter soda bottle. Have the blue line going thru the cap which makes it easy to pull off a full bottle and add an empty.
If it runs all week then we may boil this weekend.
though year for Virginia with the whole elninio thing going on
13 liters today. 10 of them off of two trees with 4 taps. 10 taps total for now. My daughter checked the woods today and came back saying we need to add another tap to one tree that is really flowing. Then when I came in from the neighbors with 6 more liters she broke into her maple sap dance.
I only have 4 trees and I got 3 gallon so far this season
I am recording in liters since I have the tubes connected to 2L soda bottles. We figured it was 5 gallons last night. Got 5L today but the warm up of the last day hurt production on our best tree. Hope it will pick back up with the 40/20 degree swings over the next few days...
4.5 gallons today off of 10 taps. Went back tonight and added three more. One tree had sap dripping from the bark. Boil is on for this weekend. With 10 gallons already and hope to get 5 more on Friday....
I have 20 to 25 gallons to boil off this weekend in Waynesboro, Central Shenandoah valley
So the sap really ran Friday and Saturday. Got 5 gallons midday on Saturday which extended my boil into Sunday. Got 3 more gallons this morning. Still boiling but all the sap is in at noon. Just need to finish and bottle.
Had 7 gallons as of yesterday. Takes me to 10 so far that I have boiled down. Looks like 2-3 gallons more collected today. I still need to get 7 more taps out. Been a little warm. A couple of my buckets on reds in the woods were full of mosquitos , I dumped them. I need to makes some tweaks to my wood fired boiler.
esetter - If you start dumping sap with bugs in it, you'll end up with no sap. I just run my sap through a filter before I store it. Gets most of the debris/bugs out. The boil and final filtering will take care of any leftover impurities.
USMCLtcol - I used to have about 6 acres in Lynchburg, outside town in the hills looking down on the James River. I used it as a camp site when I was stationed in Hampton Roads in the 90s. Sold the property about 10 years ago, but still have fond memories of the area.
Thanks for the advice. I usually don't dump buckets with a handful of bugs in them , these were absolutely full of deer flies and mosquitos. I guess anything left by them would be killed by the boiling temps huh?
I think so (unless it's far worse than I'm imagining). Get some good cone filters to clean everything up.
Been reading a lot about this ziki virus going around in the u.s.that is carried by mosquitos. Been tons about it on the news too. Just being cautious. It was a swarm in the buckets. Looks like back down in the 20's later in the week , should be less bugs and more flow.
Warm temps no sap. Hope things get back to flowing this weekend and next week.