Maiden voyage on 3/16"

Diesel, the temps here in NW PA have been the low to mid thirties yesterday and today, it did not freeze last night but the sap wasn't running much at all. this evening 2 of 3 lines are running fairly well, the lines mostly full of sap with some bubbles although not running fast as it does on those 50 degree days. It's supposed to freeze tonight so they may come to a halt overnight.

I have about the same number on my lines, and on slow days I wonder if I should have put more taps on each, but on those high flow days I don't the lines could handle any more.

The weather man has been so far off lately I don't know that I trust the forecast, but Sunday should be a good run into Monday and for that matter all week looks promising. I'll get a chance to see first hand Sunday how it goes.

Today was maybe 35° tops and overcast all day. I was watching the south line at about the 4th tap from the top and clocking the bubbles at about an inch per second.

Diesel Pro my runs are doing the same thing. Yesterday when the sun came out they finally came to life. steady stream out of two of my runs. they did not get going until 2. They froze last night again so I am hoping for a quick warm up this morning.

Ran 2 North facing slope lines with 25 taps per line on March 16. Was the first day above freezing in a few weeks. Weather hasnt been the greatest, Friday was sunny and 36, Saturday was overcast and maybe got to 36. So far i'm pretty impressed with the 3/16. Sap flowed both days, really slowly, but flow it did. Vac was consistent at 23", once the lines thawed and the sap started moving. Did a test, took 12 min to collect 1 litre. Works out to .63 american gals/tap/day. Not a great number, but better than 0. My only concern was some of my drop lines stay full of sap, if you watch them closely you can see the odd air bubble rise in them...Is this normal???....On a sidenote, it is really mesmerizing watching the sap zoom down the line to the tank

it's seems normal for mine. Even on mechanical vacuum, some trees just seem to stall for a while with their dropline full. They don't seem to stay stalled. It seems like it happens more on the lines with more taps.

I added another 20 tap string for good measures and comparison sake. Much shorter than the other two. I'll watch and see how they do. If I have to I can always split up the other strings and pick up a couple of tress that I skipped.

I also need to work on my termination at the tank. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do there yet. For now I looped the lines around the cage on my tote.

I used a chinese finger trap made with hollow core rope. I wound the rope around a tree at the bottom of the line, (Not tapped tree) and then thread the end of the line through the hollow core rope to snug it up before dropping into the tote tank

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Originally Posted by GramaCindy

I used a chinese finger trap made with hollow core rope. I wound the rope around a tree at the bottom of the line, (Not tapped tree) and then thread the end of the line through the hollow core rope to snug it up before dropping into the tote tank

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I do the same, but different. i attach the hollow core rope to my tote and then use a tree as end turn for the 3/16 to take all the weight.Attachment 16158

Trees seemed to open up a bit more on Sunday / Monday. Both lines were about as fast as it can drip, without actually making a stream. Pressure gauge showed 15, which seemed about right because I had previously guessed my elevation drop was somewhere around 15'-20'. Previously had only gotten 12 on the gauge, but found a hollow tree, bypassed it, and all good to go.

I noticed that I hardly had any air bubbles in my lines, like one every 10-20'. I assume that is a good thing? Most drops were backed up with some sap so guessing any air out of the tree was staying at the top of the drop, in lieu of being sucked into the line? Again, a good thing?

I had 3 lines with a steady trickle Sunday, but I think we are seeing short duration runs at present. Things get started at around noon and run until a bit past sunset. Upcoming weather has overnight lows in the low 30's so we may get some long runs.

If your going to install vacuum guages where is the best stop to get the most info about the line? At the top where the highest about of vacuum will be or at the last tap on the line?

I put my gauges at the end of the line. Might be interesting to see what it reads at various points along the way.

For natural vacuum, the top of the line reads the highest level of vacuum and if it seems too low, you need to go looking for problems. With mechanical vacuum, it's important to know whether the pump is sucking hard, so that would be right at the pump. For a hybrid system, it's good to have both, especially if you have a large number of taps on the line.

Is this a leak in the dropline or just gas from the tree??... that tree was running really well
IMG_1156.MOV

No vid shows.

Ya I see that now...😪

My taps have been delivering just shy of 1 gallon per tap per day over the last 5 days. I've been chatting with Biz and am working on installing a shurflo and if it helps I plan to add one of his controllers.