How many hours can a tree run ???
How many hours can sap run if temps don't go below freezing?
I ask due to my weather forecast tomorrow.
Freezing outside right now and will continue freezing all through tonight, ( trees just starting to wake up for the season) , temps and sunny tomorrow are perfect.
The problem is no freezing temps tomorrow night.
Will sap run all day and all through tomorrow night also? How many hours straight can a tree run ?
Thanks.
2011- 35 taps, ,,,milk juggs and buckets-propane turkey fryer !!
2012 -75 taps,,,,, 40 on tubing into buckets, and 35 buckets - 3nd hand Homemade arch, brutal.
2013- Just over 115 taps and still adding more.
2014, new SS flat pan and new arch built, guessing 75-100 taps this year.
2015, 50 taps on Shurflo pump.
2016- Getting a line across my creek this year.
2017-took a year off, Jamaica was fun !
2018- 45 trees tapped, keeping it fun !
I've had runs of three days with buckets, but that's rare. 48 hrs is probably the max. A couple days with no flow will give you a chance to wash stuff and spent time with your family before it gets cold again.
I've had runs close to 48 hours usually during rainy spells when night temps are above freezing and the air pressure is low. If I remember correctly, I think Dr Tim said the sugar content drops the longer the tree runs so long runs may not be as productive as they seem at first.
Last edited by happy thoughts; 03-05-2016 at 08:40 PM.
“A sap-run is the sweet good-bye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost.”~John Burroughs, "Signs and Seasons", 1886
backyard mapler since 2006 using anything to get the job done from wood stove to camp stove to even crockpots.
2012- moved up to a 2 pan block arch
2013- plan to add another hotel pan and shoot for 5-6 gallons
Thinking small is best for me so probably won't get any bigger.
We had an extremely unusual run here in early March where it ran continuously 4-5 days in freakishly warm weather. Usually it's 1-2.
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300 trees • 700 taps • sugaring these woods since 1882
6th generation drinks sap right from the buckets (fortunately most of the woods is tubed!)
happy to be raising homegrown kids in the family farmhouse at the maple woods • married into maple and brought my marketing background, learning production
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With my trees, it makes a big difference on how big the tree is. The smaller, 1 tap trees stop after the 1st day. The huge trees flow for at least 2 days, and sometimes 3 without a freeze cycle.
Our biggest tree ran 4 days straight this year with no freeze.
There was still an ice pack the first 3 days and the ground was still frozen 1 inch down on the 4th, I believe this contributed to the long run.
On gravity, my longest run dried up by about 8 PM the second day after running all through one night. That was last year during a more normal season. It was only my larger trees that ran that long. All my trees are reds.
CE
44° 41′ 3″ N
2019 -- 44 Red Maples - My home and sugarbush are for sale.
2018 -- 48 Red Maples, 7 gallons
2017 -- 84 Red Maples, 1 Sugar Maple, and 1 Silver Maple , 13 gallons
2016 -- 55 Red Maples, 8 gallons
2015 -- 15 Red Maples, 6 Birches - 3+ gallons maple syrup
An awning over my deck is my sugar shack.
An electrified kitchen sink and an electrified steam table pan are my evaporators.
I pulled all my taps yesterday. The last freeze was Monday morning and every tap was still dripping about once every 3 seconds. Most of those trees were >24". Like Michiganphil said one tap trees would stop much sooner.
RC Maple
14X14 sugarhouse - new for 2012
RO Bucket - RB10 - New for 2019
2x3 barrel evaporator with continuous flow pan
55 taps - most on buckets
This is next year!
Like most things, the answer is -- it depends. As others have noted, tree size is an important variable, mostly because they have a larger internal reservoir of sap, but also because some parts of the tree will take longer to thaw out during a warm period, so sap may continue to dribble out for a period of time. The second important factor is temperature. If the temperature increases, you get more gas bubble expansion in the lumen (the hollow space inside the cell), which pushes more sap out of the fiber area into the vessels where it can come out the taphole. So if a one day is warmer than the next, more sap will come out. Typically though, after 2-4 days, sap flow under gravity conditions is pretty much done -- at least until there is another freeze/recharge.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
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