Late start for 2014

[johnallin]

I've had lots of good sap runs on warm nights. It's the cycle between warm and below 32 that matters, whether day or night.
I think we're going to see some real nice runs and then some 2 day "rest' periods...kind of like last year.

[bowhunter]

We've only got 6-8 days with potential for sap flow and then it's over. We'll be into April and no lows below 32. I've only made about 6 gallons on 108 taps....so not very good this year.

[bowhunter]

Another beautiful day....wasted. The temperature cycle looks ideal, but the sap flow is not very strong. Most trees are probably going to do 1/2 gallon with a few doing maybe a gallon. It's hard for me to believe that a day where 60 F is the high following a low of 27 F overnight is not flowing more. The sugar content was 3+% on a few trees I checked this morning so maybe quality will trump volume.

P.S. Just collected 34 gallons from about 70 taps. I hoped for more but at 5:00 pm it was really flowing so may get another 1/2 gallon overnight. Don't think it's going below freezing tonight.

[bowhunter]

Good run in last 24 hours. Averaged a little over 1 gallon per tap which is about the best I've seen the past two years. I think it's pretty unusual to average 1.5 gallons per day on buckets.

[bowhunter]

Small run today. Almost every tree was dripping although the temperature never got above 33. Hope for one more good run this next week and I think it's over after that. I haven't seen any sign of budding, but it can't be far away. It's supposed to be 15 F tonight.