How far will a freeze get us?

[lafite]

the runs have been great so far in Southern CT. I've never seen such high/consistant sugar content albeit it's only my 4th year.

I've almost doubled last year's total and the forecast for next week looks amazing..(although my friends would like to see and end to winter!)

[killingworthmaple]

It has been a great year so far in this part of CT. I am drowning in sap.

Nathan

[CTfarm]

I hear ya brother. Been thinking about a Gingerich RO for next year.

[bemer]

DR Tim,
You are saying the flow through the sapwood changes direction under vacume?

[DrTimPerkins]

.... saying the flow through the sapwood changes direction under vacume?

Yes....after a period of time it does. After an extended thaw, under vacuum, the sap is moving almost entirely upward (which is what it does when the tree is going into the freeze cycle). At this point the tree can be likened to a somewhat sugar-filled straw stuck in the soil. The vacuum pulls was water from the soil, up through the roots and through the stem (where it picks up some sugar from the ray tissue) and out through the taphole. As time goes on, the sugar in the wood gets progressively diluted, until such time as there is another freeze.