How Many Taps on a 5/16 Line

[lharris1]

Thanks for the replay. By "the end taps", do you mean the highest on the run. Also, I imagined we were getting some benifit from vacuum with at sealed system and if I vent it, I would lose that benifit.

[treefinder]

if you think your having trouble at the bottom then put some there instead of at the highest that shouldn't affect the natural vacum right?


_______________________
kevin

4x10 oil fired
1500 on tubing

[Parker]

I dont claim to know much but,,,,,I would never vent any of my tubing,,,I would not want outside air getting into my system that easily,,I would worry about my grade being affected immedatly and worry about my taps drying up due to the bacteria traveling into my taps with that ease ,,personally I think the 5/16 tubing has to have a certin "carring capacity" and once you reach a certin # of taps on a good run the tubing just cannot keep up,,on my systems I try to keep it aroung 5 taps per 5/16 line,,,,,,BUT I made .16 gallons per tap this year ,,,,,

[NH Maplemaker]

Parker is right :!: The last thing you want is away for bacteria to get into your tubbing system, and lowering your grade!! With all the talk on this site about tap hold sanitation that would defeat any atemp to kill bacteria. ops: Jim L.

[Mike]

Leader has a page in there catalog that says strive for 5-6 taps, not more than 10??? Dont run the 5/16 more than 100 ft......I think theses are the numbers i read........

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Yeah, but Leader also makes and sells a ton of tubing and wants to sell as much as possible. In my opinion, 5 taps per lateral is way too low. Less taps means more tubing, spouts and fittings and more money for manufactures.

I would think 10 would be a good number and 15 is fine, basically it is just what works for you. Larry Harris had some in 2005 season with 30 to 40 on a line and he made .4 per gallon gravity. 8O Wonder what Leader and all the other "experts" have to say about that. 8O

[MASSEY JACK]

A sugarmaker with 15,000 taps all on vacuum told me at a tubing seminar to strive for 5 with no more than 10 on vacuum and strive for 10 with no more than 20 on gravity. These are good guidelines. I also think it will matter if you are tapping 12 inch trees or big ones. The idea of pulling out a tap at the bottom and seeing if you have pressure coming out is a great way to test your set up.

[mcmp]

I agree on the 10 tap guideline. A 5/16 line can flow a given amont of sap. Try to flow more and you will have a slow down. Once the sap slows down, you have more of a chance for the sap to warm and sap quality to go down. Keeping with the 10 tap guideline, the sap will transit the 5/16 to the mainlines quickly. I believe a lot of sap problems are in the tubing and the band aids are UV and air injection. High Quality Sap must be moved from the tree to the holding tanks quickly as possible, with each stage along the way keeping the sap as cool as possible right to the introduction to the evaporator.

Paul

[lharris1]

Related to Westvirginia Mapler's comment: I am pretty much dazed and amazed at our results the first year. I think our max number on a 5/16" line may have been about 28 then.

This is changing the subject, but, in ourt first year (2005) we had no bulk storage. Our storage consisted of about a dozen 30 gal drums and two drums connected together for the feed tank. This avoided cross contamination so that if one durm had bacteria, it did not affect the others. We boiled as soon as we would get 180 or so gallons. All of our production down to the final boil out was identical in appearance in pint jars which was medium amber. Maybe lots of 30 gal drums for storage in a small operation is not a bad idea?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Larry,

If you can keep the sap from intermixing, it will keep the lower quality sap to a minimum and definitely help make a better product in the long run vs 1 big bulk tank.