Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[GeneralStark]

Hey Doc P.

Quick follow up to my son's post yesterday on sap flow (or lack of).
We are collecting sap is 2 areas, Westford and Jericho.
Tuesday night a good freeze in both areas.
Wednesday ran good in Jericho (a gallon/tap over 12 hours or so), but Westford maybe 1/4 gallon per tap same time period.
Same 5/16 cv spouts, same vac, same tubing mostly.
Westford tapped a week or so later.
Son and I back and forth over reasons, with me saying Jericho froze one night a week ago or so and Westford did not.
I think this caused trees to move to next phase of life, sap movement not a big part of that.

What factors are at play here?

Thank you!

Tom Dunkley

I would argue that the trees are not the major factor and instead it is variations in tap hole closure rates in the two different woods. Many contributing factors to tap hole closure... im still getting good flow on tubing except
For some south side taps and those with older drops and cv spouts. New drops and spouts (1/2 my taps) are still running well though flow diminished since yesterday without a freeze last night. I tapped two bucket trees a week ago and they are still flowing well.

I’m probably a little a ahead of you depending upon your woods’ aspect given that I’m south of you in the Champlain valley.

A decent run here since yesterday with about 1.3 gpt on tubing and 1gpt on buckets in 24 hours with no freeze. Planning to boil everything collected since last boil tomorrow. I suspect that will be it given the forecast...

[PARKER MAPLE]

Same here...started just about noon. Flow has definitely tailed off a good bit. Sugar at 1.5 Brix. The next couple of days will probably be the last decent run for us -- no solid freezes in the forecast for a week, and several days of 50+ deg F. Sometimes this time of year and being higher in elevation means inversions that keep it warmer higher up.

Hope your back gets better quickly Spud.

Anybody else notice this thread has now exceeded 750,000 reads? By far the most popular thread on MapleTrader.

I keep reading this thread every day
Can’t believe I started this a very long time ago that it would keep on going like it has. But it has been a great spot for us VT sugar makers to gather and express our thoughts and experiences
Thank you to all that keep this going

[tcross]

collected a hair under a gpt of sap yesterday from 230 p.m to 530 this a.m. testing a measly 1.3%. still running alright and should pick up as the day goes. i'm at about .34 gallons of syrup per tap... don't think i'll get to .5 with the crummy sugar content and lack of any decent runs earlier in the season. i didn't' start getting any good runs until the last week or so, then the sugar content dropped off. we'll see.

[spud]

Parker is King of the Trader. . Yesterday I did not get a lot of sap but it did run a bit. It froze here early evening but got warmer as the night went on. This morning it’s 38 at the house and I have 1700 in the tank. Sap is still testing at 1.6%. It would be nice to get 1000+ gallons per day for the next ten days or so. My weather is showing that could happen.

Spud

[spud]

collected a hair under a gpt of sap yesterday from 230 p.m to 530 this a.m. testing a measly 1.3%. still running alright and should pick up as the day goes. i'm at about .34 gallons of syrup per tap... don't think i'll get to .5 with the crummy sugar content and lack of any decent runs earlier in the season. i didn't' start getting any good runs until the last week or so, then the sugar content dropped off. we'll see.

tcross let’s keep going till May. . I’m sorry to hear about your low sugar. I talked to two of my sugaring friends yesterday and they both said that 1.2-1.3 was normal for them all season long. They are both in Berkshire and their woods are at 500 feet. What’s your elevation? Good luck to you.

Spud

[Parker]

Spud...really? Ha ha..quite a compliment comming from you..i just post what i do...looking forward to visiting you one of these days

Westfordsugarworks; what are the soil types for your 2 diffrent woods..post them in this thread please..im guessing that might be the diffreance,,but,,just a guess..

[tcross]

Spud, i'm at 1200 feet. i'm staying in the game until i run out of wood. i figure i have enough to get through another 1500 or so gallons of sap. 2/3rds of my trees are red maples. could be part of the low sugar %, but most years they run right around 2%. it is what it is... i'll keep cooking it!

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Playing catchup here. Brought down 2000 gallons at 2am at 1.7% sugar. Around 4500 more headed over in a bit.

[DrTimPerkins]

Around 3,000+ gal sap at 1.5 Brix since noon yesterday. Temperature was a bit too cold to run...only about 1/3 of the bush probably thawed out well. Hovered around 34 deg F most of the day. Good dusting of new snow on the ground this morning. Hoping it picks up as it warms today.

11:25am Update: Starting to come in a little better now. Still a bit too cold for a good run, but should improve as the day goes on. A bit windy.

proctor4-3-2020.jpg

[GiddingsHill]

was happily surprised to find about 3500 gal in the tank since 4pm yesterday. looking at temps logged last night on monitors in the upper woods we came pretty close to another freeze. the bulk of the sap is coming from lower woods right now. didn't bother to test it, super clear though.