Tapping too early

[Cuttingedge]

I have been tapping and making syrup for a few years as a hobby with friends. I recently moved from NY to Maine and now have approximately 100 acres with many Maple trees. This year I had a barrel stove evaporator made and have upped the number of tapping supplies in order to accommodate tapping a larger number of trees. I started tapping last weekend and I have not seen a drop of sap. I know that with the weather that we are having it may have been a little early to tap. Are these taps going to be OK? So far I have done approximately 20 trees that have 5/16 or 7/16 Spiles with the Sap Sak Holders. Should I hold off with the rest of the trees?
Advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jason

[Jal-Bear]

Your taps will be fine. Very little happening for me as well. I fnished tapping a week ago and have only collected around 15 gallons out of the 200+ that are tapped. I would go ahead and tap so you will be ready when it starts to flow. Last year I didn't start to get good runs untill the last week of March. Mother nature just doesn't seem to want to let go of her grip on winter just yet.

[Cuttingedge]

Your taps will be fine. Very little happening for me as well. I fnished tapping a week ago and have only collected around 15 gallons out of the 200+ that are tapped. I would go ahead and tap so you will be ready when it starts to flow. Last year I didn't start to get good runs untill the last week of March. Mother nature just doesn't seem to want to let go of her grip on winter just yet.

Thank you, I will tap the rest of the trees today and Friday.
One other question for you if you don't mind,
I have about 100 plastic taps and tubing. I plan on using some of this and will place it into either 5 gallon water jugs or 5 gallon buckets. How do I ensure that I have enough line from the tap to the bucket? In some places I have 3 feet of snow and don't want to cut the tubing too short. Can I place it all the way to the bottom of the bucket? Will sap still flow with a submerged line?

[western mainer]

Make them long enough because at the end of the season the snow will be gone!
Brian

[optionguru]

The sap will still flow through a submerged line. I cut all my drops a little longer this year because I ran into the same problem last year. As the snow melted my tubing wouldn't reach my buckets anymore. I cut all of mine just shy of 3'. Then each year you can cut the old tap off and still have enough left over to re-use the tubing a couple of times. Good Luck

[GotSap?]

Shovel! I dig down to the ground for every bucket. No need to worry about melting snow or chasing buckets after windy nights like last night.

[n8hutch]

that's exactly what I do also. Shovel right to the ground, sap stays cool & out of the wind. If I man really wanted some sap he would shovel the whole base of his tree out. The only trees that are running have about a 2'area around the base with no snow. But I can wait till it melts.

[stephen wheeler]

We did the same thing, we did the hard work of shoveling, but we won't have a lot of the alternative problems later. We have approx. 200 taps out so far and have collected about 50 gallons. We are just keeping it cold and hoping for the weather to get better. Shoveling and Ibuprofen - a nice combination. Good luck, hope you have a great season.

[CampHamp]

I would think that if your drop line were below the sap level in the bucket then it would be more likely to freeze and block the next morning's flow. If you don't dig down, then maybe curve you tube or run it around the tree once...

[Super Sapper]

You can always cut your drops so they are long enough when the snow is gone and just set the pails farther away from the tree to start and move closer as the snow melts.