NH Sap Outlook

Help me out here. Still not sure how this should go. I understand it's hard to predict and all but what should I normally expect for the upcoming days? Looks like tonight is cold (11deg) and by the time things warm up later on tomorrow (40deg) it'll probably be a slow sap day but Wed. will be up to 47deg so Wed. should be flippin' sap-tastic.

After that is where I am not so sure It only is supposed to get down to 36 on Wed. nite and Thursday is a rainy 54 deg. Still no freeze Thu. nite and Friday is a partly sunny 49. What should I expect for sap on Thurs & Fri?? I have mainly 3/16 gravity lines. Will it just keep on running after a (probably) good Wednesday?

Just trying to figure out which day(s) I need to try to get off from my day job. :o What are you guys planning?

Mon - Low 10
Tues - Hi 40 - Lo 19 - partly Sunny
Wed - Hi 47 - Lo 36 - Partly Sunny
Thur - Hi 54 - lo 38 - Rain (does it keep running??)
Fri - Hi 49 - Lo 22 - Partly Sunny (still???)
Weekend - Super Sappy!

I would guess that it won't run much tomorrow because it's been so cold and the trees really won't get going till late in the day. Wednesday will be somewhat the same thing except the sap will keep running thought the night.

Assuming you have 125 taps, I bet you will have at least 125-150 gallons of sap to by thursday morning (maybe more if they are good trees). I also suspect that because the trees are frustrated, they will also run some during the day even though there is no freeze. Maybe 50-70 gallons.

If there is no freeze on thursday night, probably not much on thursday night and friday.

If the 3/16 lines produce a good vacuum once it gets started on Wednesday it will run until it freezes again. The rain will be a factor too. Sometimes it helps and makes the trees run good and sometimes it shuts them down. I'm hoping to boil 1 more time before I have to save the sap for Maple Weekend.

I wanna be boiling tuesday, wed, thursday and friday. I will save 100 gallons and simmer it I don;t care as long as I have syrup to sell. Will most likely be boiling sat PM and then bottling that too. darn slow start to the season stressing me out!!!

I was lucky enough to make 20 gallons so far and I have that all jugged up and ready to sell. I am on vacation this week and took today to make maple cream and maple butter. My wife made the nuts last week so we are all set for day 1. I am hoping to boil Thursday night and will save Friday's sap for Saturday.

It was minus 1 degrees both this morning and yesterday morning, but I'm guessing be thursday the sap will start flowing for me. The lack of an overnight freeze on wednesday is just what I need to get things flowing.

Thanks for your opinions guys. Some good info to consider there. Still, as always, it's really just wait-and-see I guess. I am starting to get excited though! It's getting close! Best of luck to all of ya.

It's a balmy 19* here now after a low of 7* with a high of 39* in the forecast. If it warms up as fast as the forecast says I will be turning the vacuum on around noon. It looks like another low in the teens tonight before the warm up tomorrow. Tomorrow night's forecast is for a low of 35* so we will see. The temps here normally run lower than the forecast. I am hoping that we don't get a freeze until Friday night when it supposed to get into the teens yet again. They're forecasting a high of 35* for Saturday so it looks like I may not be boiling much on Sunday for the Maple Weekend visitors.

Next week the freezes look to be around 30* which for me usually means the ideal temps in the mid twenty's. I'll just have to wait and hope for the ideal sap flow temps that could happen.

Had four degrees here this morning and ten degrees tonight, warmed up enough today that some opened up and some did not, I predict at this point when it comes its going to be hard and fast that we will work our butts off to keep up and then boom done.

Got about 1/3 gallon of sap per tap today, 60 gallons. Lame. Was hoping for more!! Sugar was about 2.5% which is awesome for my trees. Drew 3 gallons off the evap today. Pan was pretty sweet to start I guess. Sap was still running out of the 3/16 lines at sunset. One of these days I'm gonna hike down there and those drums are gonna be full. It has to happen at some point! Has anyone in Southern NH had a good sap day yet?