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Oh, I forgot to mention that thanks to this thread I now also know of the word "senescent", and thanks to google, I know what it means!
That's pretty cool!

Wait, wait, wait,
Are you saying everyone is not measuring every tree every year and comparing the output of every individual tap???
(Kidding. I mean I'm sort of doing that. I tap 17 trees)...

Guess I won't try to damage any trees then to slow them down!
Obviously I wouldn't do this anyway, but I think subliminally this question came to me in part because a retired apple farmer helping us...

2024 was my 4th year, but my second year of having a significant number of pails and buckets to clean, dry and put away.
This is not my most favorite.
But I also wanted to mention, it is also not...

A thought occurred to me this year.
I had 2 of 28 taps dry up before my season was done.
Both were south facing, which makes sense, but they were also on what appear to be especially healthy trees....

jungmaria,
I have a murphy cup and have found that under normal circumstances it always gives me the same reading.
On a plain syrup hydrometer there is usually a red line for a 211F sample, at 59...

Gary, I've still enjoyed watching your journey. I think your next frontier is to keep the season to about 5 weeks. One of the sweet aspects of the tradition is that the season is short, leaving us...

I made it to a quart of syrup per tap for our city bucket operation! The final batch was a little earthy and/or butterscotchy... color in the lower half of the "dark robust" range. Think that's...

9.5 gallons per tap for the season. Very clear sap. But it must keep until Friday if it is to become good syrup. Fingers crossed!
10 gallons is in sight now!

Also thanks Dr Tim for the perspective on the tapping and bumping theories. No laws against it, and not even an absolute right or wrong. Just data and personal choice. Speaking of that topic, I've...

OK, now we're getting somewhere! I'm now at 8.6 gallons sap per tap for the season to date. Two southerly taps have stopped flowing completely; haven't seen a drop since the deep freeze. The other 26...

About .6gpt here between Sunday (my 2 latest southern taps ran, tapped March 1 I think) and of course especially Monday (yesterday). Was definitely expecting more. If today is also light I'll be...

Tapping another hole in the same tree in the same season is definitely worse than renewing the same hole! It's basically borrowing from next year to boost this year. Which could be OK if you at some...

I am indeed having a lot of fun! This city sugaring thing is a fun twist on the hobby that I am enjoying enough to stave off any big sugarbush purchases so far, haha! I do see potential for up to 200...

I've added up some numbers for my city bucket operation.
.16 gallons syrup per tap so far. Goal of .25, though last year was something like .37
All tastes good. The lightest was amber, just shy of...

That is a bummer! The only thing I'd say is have some people taste it. I've disliked almost all of my syrup (I'm talking in comparison of course... syrup tastes pretty good even when its bad, let's...

Forgot the sap collection totals in my last post.
I replenish my feed pan with a 2-gallon pail. I track sap yield by tallying this bucket.
If you assume I'm filling my tallying bucket to 1.8...

Update on my bucket operation over here.
I last collected on Friday 3/15 and had it all boiled at least to a concentrate by Saturday. Sap was quite cloudy. The earlier stuff which I think I...

John Allin, I can't argue with you there!
I think I was just trying to mention that the invention was cool, but I had never tried one yet, but its existence gave me the idea of making a sailor hat...

Now 5.7 gallons sap per tap for the season to date. Goal is 10 gallons (though last year was more like 14). The last 36 hours or so was definitely my biggest run yet at about 1.4 gallons per tap....

My bucket operation, mainly tapped on 2/27, now stands at 4.3 gallons sap per tap from mid-morning collection. Spot checking a few buckets just now I'm guessing I'm at or near 5 with what's in the...

Here's how I solved it for now! $20
With both holes open it feeds very slightly faster than the evaporation rate.
One hole stopped with toothpick, feeds very slightly slower than the evaporation...

I'd call that a good year 82cabby!
Can I ask what day you tapped and what day you pulled?

Now 3.8 gallons sap per tap for the season to date. Some potential freezes in the 10 day forecast.

(just realized this was a somewhat dumb thing to say... I've definitely seen 2 gallons per tap before with buckets... but not this year yet... )