NH Fall Sugaring 2012

With the great cold-nights and warm-days weather pattern forecasted, I figured I'd try a little science experiment... On a whim, I tapped two trees about a week ago. As of today (8 days total) one of the trees has produced about 2.5 gallons of sap, the other zero. I boiled down the 2.5 gallons inside on the kitchen stove and got some good tasting Grade A Light.

Has anyone else ever tried sugaring in the fall on a larger scale? BTW, I'm not planning to tap those two trees again this spring, figuring I'll let them recover.

I have been doing a little experiment on fall tapping also. On November 16th I tapped three large maple trees all being 36 inch or better. I also tapped 12 smaller trees that are 8-10 inch. I used buckets on all trees so there was no vac at all. Last sugaring season I tapped 100 taps on gravity in a lower section of my woods. I wound up getting 2.6 times as much sap from my high vac system then I did with these 100 taps on gravity. Because of this my thought is whatever I get in my fall tapping experiment it is safe to say I would have gotten 2.6 times as much using high vac. Here is what I have come up with so far.

1) The big trees gave 3.5 gallons of sap (per tap) that tested at 1.8% —3.5x2.6=9.1 GPT using high vac.
2) The little trees gave .87 gallon of sap (per tap) that tested at 1.0% —.87x2.6=2.3 GPT using high vac.

Even though the temps are cold today the spouts will be left in the trees until the end of December. I feel there might be a handful of warm days that could give me more sap before the end of Dec. As of right now if there was no more sap the big trees would have giving me .19GPT of syrup. The little trees would had giving me .03 GPT of syrup.

It is safe to say that tapping small trees 8-10 inch would not be worth while in the fall (at least in my woods). Although tapping big trees might be worth while if .19GPT could be made. My thought is if I tapped 300 big trees in the fall with just one tap per tree then could I re-tap that tree in the spring with one or two more taps? It would be nice if Dr.Tim could share his thoughts on this issue. If a person could make .19GPT in the fall and then make another .40GPT in the spring that would be real good production from your woods. If a person only had 300 big maples in his/her back yard and could increase their production by .19GPT that would give that person 57 more gallons of syrup. If you could average $60.00 per gallon selling in small jugs or glass you could stand to make $3500.00 more dollar per year. People that are interested in fall tapping can go to the PMRC site and type in (Fall Tapping). I found their studies to be very interesting.

Spud

Rumor has it Theron has made 300 gallons so far this fall...

If that rumor is true I sure wish he would share his numbers with the rest of us. I know I would find it very interesting and I am sure others would too.

Spud

Spud and Eric- I havent hit 300 yet but I think Ill go over that next boil maybe next week. Im having pretty good success as far as Im concerned so far. I didnt really know what to expect till I tried it. Brannons in vermont have had the best success Ive read about so far. They tapped in the fall with quarter inch taps and did a quart per tap in the fall and then as I understand reamed them in the spring and did four tenths on the same holes with 5 sixteenths taps. Thats how I understood it. Im kind of doing what they did. I used checkvalve taps on stubbys and then bought quarter inch adapters to put on the end of the checkvalves and tapped shallow with quarter inch holes. My theory is to do that and make my fall sap and then in January ream the quarter inch holes to five sixteenth and then put the checkvalves in the holes. Im not going to decide if Im happy with the fall thing till January is over. Reason is I should finish making fall syrup in december and I now have the advantage of having a lot of line and equipment problems figured out by sugaring early.. That should let me capitalize better on January runs if there are any. Last year the only syrup I lost was not having all my taps in in Januaryearly enough for all the taps to run on all the run weather in that month. Some of the things I have found that are interesting. You can tap, put 25 inches on trees with no freeze and you can just make them run. Sap is weak like youd think, Just figure 1 percent. If it hasnt froze itll be one and if it freezes itll be up to maybe 1.5. Run days are very short just like Dr. Perkins has said and it is a substantial loss of sap. Itll get 25 degrees at night and with it overcast and such things arent going good till about noon and by 4 ocklock its winding down and 5 its over. If it runs all night you do better but sugar gets weak etc. Ill have to wait and see how happy I am with the fall thing come next fall. IF the holes go the whole way its good extra money and Im really well prepared for regular season. IF the holes dry up early I probly wont do it again. I just wanted to try it becouse Ive always wanted to and it seemed like we get so many good freezes in the fall. Ive tapped a bit over 3000 taps and still havent made 300 gallons so It doesnt appear Im having as good success as Brannons had. Im sure theres a lot of variables and reallistically I cant do as good a job as those guys with having a town job but thats been the extent of my experiance so far. Theron

Thank You Theron

Is the flavor the same as springtime?

Wiam

To date the stuff has tasted great. The last batch was medium amber and for me the best tasking stuff yet this fall. If I remember right, in the beginning it was dark amber. It's been a lot of fun seeing the sap come in.

Scott

The syrup is terrific. Its got good flavor and good color. It just takes a lot of sap to make it. I can see why grandpa sugarmaker didnt do it. You have to have vacuum to get any big amount of sap and then have to have ro machines to process it. I think if you were hobbying and wanted to have some fun you could tap some trees with buckets like Spud did and you could definitely make some good syrup and have fun becouse some of my days it was running gravity. I really question that its practicle on a large scale. The Brannons were the only ones that kind of continued to do it. The other large producers didnt becouse it was hard to ream holes and things like that. Its probly best to just be real on top of ones regular season whenever that may be for your area. I kind of was more ready than normal this year so decided I could try it. Have to really just wait and see when everything is over. Theron

That provides some serious thought into what will happen in my bush next year...... one months work for 1000 gallons of syrup..... hmmmmmm

The fall thing is kind of neat becouse its so out of the ordininary but I personally think for me the money is in the fundamentals and thats going to be what Im going to focus on in the future. Theres people out there that are getting between half a gallon per tap and a gallon every year. Proctor usually does six or seven tenths. Im not a half gallon guy, I average around 4 tenths pretty consistently. Im all done hooking up trees in the future now Im going to go for eficiency. I think the fundamentals hurt most peoples production. This year I moved my releaser to make it a better fix but theres very little slope. Id come home from work and sap running but come to find out it was freezing up right before the releaser and holding things from running for a while. Over a season thats big loss. Totally fundamentals no fancy trick. Went to bed tired after cleaning tanker trailer forgot to close the valve on the back ran at least a 1000 gallons of good sap right after a freeze on the ground, fundamentals. Get water in suction line to remote releaser, fundamentals. All things that cant happen if going to make huge averages. Thats the things I work on year around. No embarrassment in having them happen, but if it continues to happen your not doing the job you need to. Thats the stuff I struggle with but I try to just keep doing better and better and every year it does get a bit easier and we learn more etc. Theron