Thinking about pulling out

We have 53 taps out, and looking at the weather forecast, I think we are going to pull everything out tonight, gather the remaining sap, and be done for the year. We have gotten a poor 85 gallons of sap, plus whatever is in the buckets this evening. With the unseasonably warm weather the next 10 days, and the fact that we cannot gather sap daily, it Makes sense to me.

Thoughts? and thanks in advance, Pat.

(We are in southern Indiana, with forecast temps nearing 70 the next few days... no sign of going below freezing for 10 days)

It wouldn't hurt to leave them in. If your on buckets just let the sap run on the ground. If it does get cold again you're still in the game. It ain't over till it gets buddy.

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Originally Posted by Deereman76

We have 53 taps out, and looking at the weather forecast, I think we are going to pull everything out tonight, gather the remaining sap, and be done for the year. We have gotten a poor 85 gallons of sap, plus whatever is in the buckets this evening. With the unseasonably warm weather the next 10 days, and the fact that we cannot gather sap daily, it Makes sense to me.

Thoughts? and thanks in advance, Pat.

(We are in southern Indiana, with forecast temps nearing 70 the next few days... no sign of going below freezing for 10 days)

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We are all looking at this warm spell and wondering too.
We will get several days of good runs then its going to stop running till the next freeze.
So if you can collect then it might be the thing to do. Because any sap out there will need to be gathered the same day it runs or its going to get sour quick.
Regards,
Chris

Hey Deereman, I'm around the Mt Vernon area in So. IN and been considering same thing, but I'm leaning towards what psparr said. Stick it out a couple more weeks and hopefully we'll get another couple good runs.

We are talking, and I think we are going to gather tonight, and take some water, rinse the buckets real quick, and leave the taps in, but running on the ground, and see what the weather does... If we get good weather again, we will just have to go out and put the hoses back in the buckets. Thanks for all your input. Pat.

I agree leave them in I don't always trust them weather folks. I'm leaving mine in. just my thoughts.

Our bags can get pretty gross sitting out there with sap in them, or blown off the tree, or chewed. We may use a modified version of Deereman's method & bring them all in, rinse them out & hang them to dry. Then if we do get more sugaring weather we can put them back out, or if not they're already collected.

I am hoping what I collected since last Sunday hasn't turned on me...going to head down to my property around noon tomorrow. I have five 3/16 lines running to two 275 gallon storage totes, and when I head home late Saturday or Sunday I will pull them from the totes and let them run on the ground, rinse the totes to keep out the bugs, but leave the taps in hoping for one more run before the trees bud. Before I started doing this I thought a week of 60's in February was the greatest thing ever!

In 2015 I took in about 1/3 of the crop in the last 10 days of an 8 week season. That was the first year I tried check valve taps on about half my trees. Lots of roller coaster weather may come in March. Since I have the mess made, I will stay in to the dregs.

John, are you using the check valves with 3/16" tubing?

Mine is 5/16. 4th year on this tubing.

Hello from the far north east corner of the state. We had temps in the middle to upper 60's for 3 days and went out today to check our bags and found several trees starting to bud. The sap looked ok but last night it dropped to 22. Looks like this week we are going to have several nights of good sap weather. The question I have is this. Since the trees are starting to bud should we go ahead and stop for the season ? Sap looks decent ( not as sweet but not bitter ) or should we go ahead and leave them in and wait since the weather looks like it is going to work out for us. I hope it is not too late. We have boiled over 200 gallons this year but want to keep going...

Thanks in advance.

Hey ferratus!

I have some soft maples tapped and was wondering about the about the buds too. From looking at old posts one Maple Trader mentioned spot checking his trees with a metal cup and a torch. He heats a sap sample and checks for off odor and flavor. I have stainless steel measuring cup and plan on trying this. My taps have only been in three weeks. I am in for the long haul.

ferratus, are you tapping soft maples or sugars, i am pretty close to you and my sugars are not showing signs of budding yet. hope to get couple more runs.

The silver maples I spot checked for buddy odor/flavor are all fine despite the warm weather. Some of them have run a good bit while the hard maples are resting. Buckets are clean, ready to make some more syrup!

We had this on Saturday (25 taps on 3/16"), but our taps with bags are barely running. Probably should have reamed them to squeeze out a little more, but we're out of time now. No more freezing temps in the forecastAttachment 15884

Just one little peeper singing in Bug Tussle tonight. He is the first this season. With some more seasonal weather forecasted this weekend I am still set up to make syrup. Not much quick or easy in the sugaring....

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Originally Posted by JohnM

Just one little peeper singing in Bug Tussle tonight. He is the first this season. With some more seasonal weather forecasted this weekend I am still set up to make syrup. Not much quick or easy in the sugaring....

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Peepers are singing in chorus down here!

We pulled our tubes out of the tank last night thinking it was the end, then woke up to a forecast that's calling for sugaring temps through the weekend. Buds on the sugars are not opening yet, so we may try to make a little more.

I just pulled all my taps Sunday and collected what was left (around 100 gallons of sap). Was boiling down last night and my father-in-law called telling me how the forecast changed.... Pretty unbelievable! I had my taps in for just over a month but probably only experienced a week and a half-two weeks of good temps. Ended with 12 gallons from 100 taps.

We were going to pull taps today, then saw the forecast & decided to ream the holes, leave the taps & see what we can get. The trees haven't budded yet, so we're hoping for a bonus run. After the wind today we're probably going to be putting some bags back up, but it's supposed to freeze tomorrow night.