tapping

hope winter starts soon weather aint looking to good anyone got any thought of tapping early

Tested, I think it got to cold now, must wait

We plan to tap third week of jan, takes us a week to get done and fix any new damage. Top of sugarbush is winter herding grounds for moose. They are getting used to tubing, seen them duck underneath the lines.

Will u really get runs in early February? Just seems weird to me

So I see that quite a few of you guys up north of me are planning to tap early in January. Are you guys thinking that we will have a warm winter/spring again, and need to tap in quite early?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ClarkFarmMapleSyrup

So I see that quite a few of you guys up north of me are planning to tap early in January. Are you guys thinking that we will have a warm winter/spring again, and need to tap in quite early?

---

My thought is there is bound to be a few warm days in Jan and Feb. If I could get a few good runs before the real sugaring season starts it could mean thousands of dollars in my pocket.

Spud

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spud

My thought is there is bound to be a few warm days in Jan and Feb. If I could get a few good runs before the real sugaring season starts it could mean thousands of dollars in my pocket.

Spud

---

Okay that is what I was wondering. For everyone's sake I hope we have a better winter than last year so that we all get a "more-normal" year.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by adk1

Will u really get runs in early February? Just seems weird to me

---

It is very possible we could get a few warm days in Jan or Feb. The way the weather has been changing over the years in this area has caused many to tap a little early. We (almost) always have a January warm spell that may last 3-5 days. PMRC got 5 gpt in about 3-4 days in early January back in 2006. Again in 2007 they tapped in January and wound up getting 6 gpt more then the trees they tapped in mid Feb. If I could get 6 gpt more sap just by tapping a little early that could get me 35,000+ gallons of sap. I see no risk in doing this because PMRC trees went on to out produce all their others trees that were tapped later in the season. I would feel real dumb if I missed out on $15,000 of early sap. For a person that only has 1000 taps or so they can just watch the weather and tap as soon as they hear the temps are going to go up. The five day forecast seem to be pretty good but the ten day is ify. So a person that can tap their whole woods in a day or two could just sit back and wait until the warmer temps come. For me it will take 10 days or so just to get a tapped in.

Spud

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spud

It is very possible we could get a few warm days in Jan or Feb. The way the weather has been changing over the years in this area has caused many to tap a little early. We (almost) always have a January warm spell that may last 3-5 days. PMRC got 5 gpt in about 3-4 days in early January back in 2006. Again in 2007 they tapped in January and wound up getting 6 gpt more then the trees they tapped in mid Feb. If I could get 6 gpt more sap just by tapping a little early that could get me 35,000+ gallons of sap. I see no risk in doing this because PMRC trees went on to out produce all their others trees that were tapped later in the season. I would feel real dumb if I missed out on $15,000 of early sap. For a person that only has 1000 taps or so they can just watch the weather and tap as soon as they hear the temps are going to go up. The five day forecast seem to be pretty good but the ten day is ify. So a person that can tap their whole woods in a day or two could just sit back and wait until the warmer temps come. For me it will take 10 days or so just to get a tapped in.

Spud

---

I'm with Spud on this. I know a local producer that had alot of sap end of Jan. last year. He wasn't even done tapping. I'm going to watch the weather .If the winter is normal I plan to start in mid part of Jan maybe ending part. Plan to be tapped by the 30th of Jan. If the weather is warmer I'll then go earlier. I don't believe you can put a date on tapping anymore. You can have a plan but need to be able to bend if the weather says to.

I tapped last year on Valentines Day. This year I will wait another week. even with last years warmer weather, took better part of a week for my trees to run on gravity