Highest yields you know of?

So I'm wondering. What is the highest yield of syrup you have experienced per tap? What is the highest you have heard about?

I installed a completely new 3/16 system in mid Feb and about two weeks ago it turned on like a faucet. I have made a bunch of syrup. So far the season is not slowing down and I have received about 1/2 gallon of syrup per tap. (27 taps on sugar maples)

I read that it's normal to get between 1/4 and 1/2 gallon per tap but I can't find any info on higher yields.

I was thinking it was a lousy year because my buckets have been mostly useless.

Is this just the vacuum effect I'm experiencing?

Thanks,
John Sanderson


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I have a friend who taps one bucket in his front yard and regularly makes a gallon of syrup. I'd like a few thousand of those!

Yes vacuum will save a bad year for buckets. Vacuum at 15" will double production of buckets.

Double is nothing, My buckets have produced about 1/16 a gal of syrup per tap. So I'm 8x better on Vac. However my buckets are on reds and Norways. That might explain something.


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With a good vacuum system a bad year would be less than .5 gal per tap. That is where I set the standard
Keith

Yes it's the vacuum that is created in the 3/16" tubing that is getting you your sap. With vacuum most producers will be in the .5 gal. per tap range. I get about 1/2 of that because I have a cold woods and mostly red maples. Gravity tubing and buckets are more dependent on the weather conditions being just right to run while the vacuum will keep running until you get a freeze.

I guess I just never expected to go beyond the 1/4-1/2 gallon mark because nobody seems to talk about anything higher. I'm in a presumably not great area for sugaring but boy am i proving that wrong.

It makes me wonder why average yield for each state seems to be consistently around 1/4 gallon. is this because most producers still use buckets?or is it due to cleanliness of the lines? It just seems too easy and i guess I'm wondering why the average yield is so low.

I am on new tubing on large sugar maples, and my trees are in an absolutely ideal southern location with huge crowns and no competing trees. So theres that.

im trying out vacuum for the first time this year too. regrettably, i hung most of my acreage with gravity tubing that wont hold vacuum. theres 12 little 8-10" trees in the back of the yard that i put a pump on, and they have given me 10 times the sap of all the big trees on gravity-33 nice 18-20" healthy maples with big open tops. sugar isnt any less either. my gravity line barely runs even on good days since its been so cold for so long. my wife asked me yesterday if i was sure the woods trees i tapped were maples.... im just glad i decided to test the waters this year instead of doing all 300 trees on this gravity setup. all will be on vacuum or 3/16 from now on

Our 11 yr average at UVM PMRC, with good vacuum (usually > 25" Hg) and good sanitation practices (replacing spouts each year or using CV spouts) is 0.60 gal syrup/tap. Worst was 0.49 gal/tap I think (2012), best was 0.75 gal/tap. Our woods aren't anything super special either....we don't tap our sweet tree plantation as part of our production bush.

In some individual sections of our woods that we measure separately we have gotten in the 35-45 gal of sap/tap range with some regularity.

You will almost always find the highest level of production when you retube your woods, unless the season happens to be particularly bad.

For new installations that are well-designed and well-installed, on vacuum, with good sanitation practices, 0.5 gal/tap is readily achievable and is now being met with some regularity.

We're new to the game, so I'll readily admit to a learning curve we are still climbing.

That being said, either I'm extremely good at this, or very, very, lucky.

This is our third year making syrup. The first year, on buckets, we had 17 taps and made 10 1/2 gallons of finished product. Last year, we had 64 taps and made 31 gallons of finished product. This year? Between a late start and calendar dates that are not weather dependent, I'll most likely pull the taps long before the season runs it course.

It is not at all uncommon for a hobbyist to see high yields, especially with open grown, big crown sugar maples. I used to tap some trees with buckets that would sometimes yield 25-30 gal. of sap/season with sugar content over 4%.

This is my first year and I have 7 taps in 5 trees. So far, I've collected 55gal of sap and made 1.25gal of syrup. That works out to 0.21gal per tap - so far so good! My sap/syrup ratio is almost 45. Hopefully that will improve as the season progresses!