II have been out in the sugar bush doing some early season preparation. Has anyone else gotten started?
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II have been out in the sugar bush doing some early season preparation. Has anyone else gotten started?
55 Deg F today. We need a cold spell. I am going to get my taps and down tubes and boil them this week. Tapping looks like it is still a few weeks off. While working around the sugar bush last weekend I accidentally nicked a few sugar maple tree roots and no sap was running.
Brian, Its been much too warm to generate any good sap flow. Long range forecast for Missouri may offer some hope, though. I am cleaning buckets, taps, and assembling all supplies. In the last 5 years we tapped between Jan 16 and Jan 22. So we still have a while to wait. John
I have not. The guy down the road from me a few miles has not either, and he has made syrup for a long time. I hope the snow we are getting here will help with production this year.
RiverSap, do you boil your taps and lines when you put them away or just rinse them?
Hey Old Cabin, nice to hear from you. Maybe you can attach some photos of your syrup activites to your profile? Im trying to collect information about syrupmakers in Missouri, to swap equipment, labor, advice, who knows what. Maybe get together in the spring for a pancake feed or something. So far I have communicated with about 25 syrupmakers. Could you send me a private message with your phone number, and maybe info on how to contact the guy down the road from you. To send a private message to me, just left click on my name Unclejohn and go from there. That way only I can see the information you send.
Lots of snow coming down here in mid MO. Its gonna be muddy when I tap next week. But temps might look pretty good. All Missouri readers: please share with us your tapping status! Thanks. Unclejohn
I plan to put out my taps as soon as the snow melts a little. Can't wait to see that sap starting to flow. Hope everyone has a great season.
Well, based on yesterday mornings forecast, (1/15 and 1/17 temps looked good for flow) I dragged supplies and tools across a creek and half a mile through 14" of snow yesterday and tapped 80 trees and hung sacks. No flow in the morning but by mid afternoon, the new holes started to drip a little bit. But now the high temp forecasts have all been reduced and it looks like after 1/17 the temps may be too cold for the next 10 days or so. We need some sunlight and all we have now in mid Missouri is gloom. So rather than tap the remaining 120 trees, I can get the totes, buckets, evaporator, 4 wheeler, trailer etc ready. If sap freezes in the sacks, no problem, it will be preserved and I can harvest it when it melts. In the last 5 years, I have tapped between Jan 16 and Jan 20. So maybe I was a little too eager.
Hello. First time poster, season #5 making syrup. Also got a little antsy with the weather forecast and tapped some trees in anticipation. Seemed like there would be some good flow mid-week but doesn't now look so good. But the taps are in and ready for the flow when it happens.
Small time hobbyist here as well... 70-ish taps. Tapped a few south facing trees yesterday and didn't get a drop today as the temps never made it very high and it was cloudy all day. It looks to me like it'll be another 10 days before we get any real flow so I'm going to wait to tap the rest. Don't want the holes to start clogging up before the season even begins!
I bypassed tapping a couple trees that still had visible tap holes from last year. I'm not sure if I'm right but I feel like the tree must be sickly if it can't heal up it's wound from last year. Does that logic make sense?
-Kyle
The only thing I tapped this week were a couple of bottles of beer and they were sweet.
Got some good news.... My Monday tapping paid off. Sap sacks were swollen with sap today and dripping at a rate of a drop every other second. I had some time to tap 20 more today, makes a total of about 120, heading for 200 eventually like last year. I don't have help, so I decided I better limit my time tapping more today, and spend time collecting. I collected about 60 gallons in totes, and had to leave about 15 more gallons on the trees because I didn't have enough totes available. When I quit collecting the trees were still dripping. This is unexpected... a gloomy day after a night that barely got below freezing, no sunshine, temps about 36 deg with snow cover. I will harvest again Friday before the big cold snap, and we will probably get our pans set up and boil this weekend. Trees will go to sleep for a while with the cold snap coming. Good luck to all!
I set up my concrete block arch thia morning with a friend. I still need to make some finishing touches. I put out a main tubing line but have not tied in the laterals yet and have not tapped any lines along those lines. I did tap 4 trees with buckets and two of those trees were dripping quite well. Rain and snow tomorrow then turning cold tomorrow night. I hope to get the taps and laterals put in tomorrow along that line I put in. That will give me a total of 10 by tomorrow night. We will see with the rain. I need to take some pictures. I hope you collected enough sap on Friday John so that you can do that first boil over the weekend.
Brian, we ended up with 160 gallons of sap. Will begin boiling tonight. I hope you collect enough to boil. John
Excellent John. You cought the early flow. I missed it. I have one run in that has 9 trees all connected on tubing and running down and into a 35 gal container. In to late to catch the early flow. Looks like we could have 10 or so days of cold with little to no flow. I still have 30 trees to tap. I also have 12 walnut trees to tap. Going to try that again.
DIY tubing tool. Works well. Attachment 19235
I was able to get about 40 Taps and buckets out today. Hopefully will get another 40 out in the woods on Wednesday. Neighbor a few miles away already has his Taps and jugs out. It sounds like we're all off to a good season!
Finally able to tap about a dozen trees today. Sap was really flowing. Hope to get enough to boil before the freeze.
Like you Maple Creek I have 12 or so trees tapped. I have not collected enough to boil. I have 20 more to tap. No hurry.
I bought all of my supplies to make my first concrete block arch for evaporating. At least I have something to do while everything is frozen. Will let you know how it goes and hopefully post some pictures of the finished product.
We boiled the first sap batch down to 17 quarts of beautiful golden syrup with a buttery flavor. Now the trees are sleeping, and it looks like this arctic air mass will linger for at least 10 more days.
Wonderful job John. Did you tap the rest of your trees?
Maple Creek if you look in my gallery you can find a few pictures of block arches. They might help you out a bit.
I tapped the remaining 60 or so trees today. Have a lot of sap in frozen bags, and need a couple moderate days to collect before the big freeze arrives. In the sunny afternoon at about 40 deg, the sap resumed flowing and some melt started in the bags. Our slopes are getting muddy so I may not be able to pull the trailer (that holds 24 totes) all the way up our hills, will have to haul sap out on the ATV, that only holds 5 totes. Will collect tomorrow and possibly again Monday with highs projected for mid 30's. Its a strange year, but we're getting enough sap to make it interesting. John
We are trying something new this year. Tapping trees on a friends place and giving 3/16 tubing a try. Currently, have 86 taps on 4 lines going to a 65-gallon tank. Collected 120 gallons of sap this weekend and cooked it down Monday night. Looking to get another 25 to 50 taps in yet this year. So far the tubing is working great and the weather looks promising!
Nice going Matthew. I would like to come across the river and see the tubing sometime. We have a nice steep ridge with about 80 trees that would be great for tubing but we would need a big tractor to get in to a collection tank. And there are so many deer there I would be concerned about them busting the tubing. Our trees ran all night Sunday as the temps did not get below 35 deg. We are still an "all manual" operation with bags and buckets. I collected 180 gallons on Monday 1/28 (when the cold wind started to blow and trees stopped flowing) and we will finish the boil this morning. Speaking of wind, I guess that's another advantage of tubing; we had some buckets blow over and bags blow off the trees in that gale.
I saw your ad on Craigslist looking for sap, hope you find some takers. I've been talking to other MO producers and found a guy with over 500 trees in the Ozarks who burns diesel fuel in his arch. If you ever get tired of chopping wood maybe we can go down there; he invited me to come take a look. John
There are lots of deer in these woods also so this will be a test for this type of setup here. He feeds about 35 every evening. Sounds like you may have a good place for tubing also, I will let you know when I get it all up so you can come check it out. I just got a new Leader catalog and they are now selling oil fired half pint kits. The burner cost more than the evaporator though!
The deer won't cause you much trouble, they learn to duck under it. Now squirrels, those are the real devils of the sugar bush. I hate squirrels with a passion. I can't hardly get a week without them chewing a line. I use up an 800 foot roll of 3/16th tubing just fixing squirrel chews........ARGGGGGGG
Heard that. Little suckers are biting my line this year rather than gnawing through and shredding it, making it hard to find the leaks. I've had years without a single chew (450+ taps). Not this year, though. Now I did have a deer stumble through mine the other day - must have been moving full throttle because it popped the lines off several taps and left a chunk of fur on one of the tees/ trees that it hit.Quote:
Originally Posted by buckeye gold
Got 16 taps out down here Monday. Hoping for epic flow the next couple of days. Best of luck this season.
We got the 5th line in tonight with 21 taps on it, that brings us up to 107 taps going to one tank this year. Looking forward to a busy weekend!
I have a question about tubing lines. I have a number of 5/16 tubing lines that daizy chain from tree to tree. At the trees midline I use T fittings. The perpendicular nipple is used for the tap. Is it important for the tap nipple to orientself itself straight up so that the sap from the tap drips down into the stream? I have not tried to orient them in any particular direction. I never seem to have very good flow on the tubing lines. Also how important is it to get the fittings fully inserted into the tubing. Up until half way through this yead did I have a tubing tool that could fully insert the fittings. All I could do using my hands was get the fitting inserted over the first ridge on the nipples.
RiverSap, I don't think you are doing anything wrong as long as your lines are not sagging. My tee's are generally standing up and I make sure that my drops do not sag. If your trees are on a hill you may consider changing over to 3/16 in the future, I am impressed with mine so far. The tubing only has to be on the fitting far enough so that it does not pull off.
Those worried about deer damage: I have had tubing for 16 seasons. I have had maybe 5-6 times deer caused any damage. Now if I could say th same thing about squirrels it would be great.
The last 3 seasons I have used a homemade spray to help with the squirrel damage. It starts with the hottest hot sauce you can find, then we mix the super hot sauce with water. Then I just spray the tubing where it is touching a tree or close enough for a squirrel climbing the tree can reach it. Each time I spray, I shake the bottle first to keep it mixed. Once on it seems to last about 2-3 weeks, unless you get rain. After each rain I re-apply. This has stopped almost all squirrel chews in season. Since I do not spray it between seasons I do get chews then, and have to make repairs just before each new season.
My brother in law mixed it, I'll get the info for those interested. It worked very well. Once the squirrel gets one lick they don't bother it again. I have to retreat because there are loads of squirrels that need educating.
I have 15 walnut trees tapped. As of dusk last night none of those buckets had any sap. This morning they all have a good amount. Walnut trees maybe flow at night. I will make note of when I get additional flow. I will be collecting maple sap today. I went for a walk with rhe doggies this morning and all of the maple buckets I passed had various levels of sap. I need to rince out the65 gal storage containers. The next time you hear from me I will be a tired RiverSap.
I tapped eight of my nine trees (one is showing stress) Thursday. The temperature got down to -6 Wednesday, but up to 29 Thursday and 61 by Saturday. I had 10 gallons in the buckets Sunday morning. The warm weather has stopped the flow, but we are expecting freezing/thaw this Thursday. I boiled down my 10 gallons to a bit less than two quarts over my home-made evaporator. Poking sticks into to a fire for a day brings out the little-boy in me.
By the way, my records show the following first collections here in mid-Missouri:
2013 - Only noted January
2014 - January 12
2015 - January 27
2016 - January 24
2017 - January 30
2018 - January 26
Well the thaw after the polar vortex really pumped the sap out in mid Missouri. I slogged through the muddy ridges on Saturday in the afternoon and well after dark to collect 108 gallons and hauled it over to the farmhouse to start the 3rd boil of 2019. When collecting, I noticed that the trees were still running, so on Sunday morning we collected 60 gallons. And noticed before the Super Bowl that the trees were still running, so today I collected 36 gallons and first ants of the season have found the buckets! They even cling to the end of the tubing that hangs from the spile to grab a drink. Also had a pileated woodpecker (or maybe the only ivory-billed woodpecker remaining in Missouri?) land on a nearby tree while I was collecting. We looked at each other for a while before he whooshed off to tap another tree. Its nice for this city guy to have quiet time in the woods and take a break from lifting big jugs of mostly water. I never fell once during collecting, but there is a layer of thawed mud below the leaf litter that is particularly dangerous when walking downhill. I will remember the aches of collecting later this year as I enjoy some of this liquid gold. Will finish the boil and move to the kitchen tonight or tomorrow morning to filter and bottle. Also, a family member started tapping his boxelder trees along the creek and has been boiling that down. They were really weeping well during the thaw. It looks colorless so far but has a sweet taste. I will start a discussion thread elsewhere on mapletrader about boxelder syrup to see if there are any experts about that.
Ran like crazy down here the last couple of days, With temps in the mid 60's and even low 70's this week , it seems to have came to a halt. Hopefully it aint over , but , I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see them bud early and shorten our season. Gonna do my first boil tomorrow. 39 gallons. Down a little from last year but maybe we will get a late run.
I don't think the trees will bud early, especially the sugars. Temps are supposed to dive end of this week - should trigger a good "reset" to the sap pump.
Attachment 19362
A couple of my kiddos enjoying maple season.
Looks like you have your own DIY vacuum pumps there.