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well after another disappointing week of sap flow i'm pulling my taps this weekend.this winters mild temps and low sugar content, i think are to blame along with the fact that i'm stuck tapping almost all reds.on almost all of my trees wether they're sugars,reds,norways they all seem ready to pop buds anytime. hoping next yr mother nature brings us a better sugaring season.
I tap mostly reds too and the trees have called it quits. In fact, I never really got a good flow from any of them. A good flow was a half gallon on just a few of the trees. Some never flowed at all. I'll second that "hope" that next year we'll actually have a winter and actually get some sap.
I am disappointed with this seasons take (last year was fantastic). I recently "redrilled" a few "good" trees and the forecast calls for a little cold snap for the coming week and if the trees do not produce by mid-week then I will pull the taps and clsoe up shop.
I'm holding out 1 more week. I'm moving 10 buckets off trees that never produced today and hoping the buds hold off till late next week. I'm about 50/50 reds and sugars and neither produced very well for me on gravity. I think the vacuum guys did ok this year. As a side note the sugar was much higher last week, it was about a 45-50:1 ratio (I don't keep track very well) when I boiled wed. night.
I'm holding out for one more week to see if there is any flow. Weather looks to be up and down though. Then I'll pull.
Update:Just made the rounds on 30 of the 40 taps and collected 20 gallons. Poured out a few buckets with yellow sap. Probably from the rain cominig down the tree. I haven't tested it yet, so it could be lot's of rain that got in the buckets. Taps are running though. My other ten taps are bags up in the woods so I'll see how they fared.
I waiting at least another week. I tapped feb 13-14 and have collected around 850 gal of sap off 425 +\- so I'm not doing to bad so far. I hope this week it runs again looking like good sap weather. But who knows anymore. Im not ready to cAll it quit just yet
I'm out.
I have 25gallons on ice for a last boil on Saturday. Bittersweet to see the season go. On a bright note this sugar season didn't overlap my garden season. Like another trader said, time to start the tomato seeds.
Calling it quits this weekend. I will boil what I have an dpull the taps on Sat. It has been a fun first year and look forward to a little expansion next year. Hope for a better season, but this was a great one to learn with.
I pulled my taps today. Poured out about 20 gallons of sap collecting the buckets. That hurt. But I'm out of wood and it's time to turn to the garden.
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I think you guys may be pulling taps a bit early, today and yesterday have been some of my biggest runs of the season, my trees on vac, primarily red maples, have given me well over a gal and half per tap each day over the last 2 days, and my sugar maples on gravity tubing were actualy a little better just shy of 2 gal per tap per day, hold in there a little longer! altho maybe the check valves are helping me here since its been over 6 weeks now they been tapped in most of them. I have sap running thru the ro as i am typing this! gona head out to boil shortly