Tapping now in southwestern Ohio

[esetter]

Laz , thats mind-blowing that you have already got 7000 gallons of sap. Impressive! I just collected my 5th gallon.......

[buckeye gold]

Buckeyeboy, Here is a link. It's a good program and you get to shoot the bull with a bunch of Maple Nuts.....

http://www.ohiomaple.org/documents/O...Flyer-2017.pdf


Good to hear your getting a lot of sap Lazarus. My bags quit on me yesterday because of the warm. I too am only getting 1% on sugars, hope it gets better. I am seriously thinging of putting up some 3/16th on a steep slope of 40 taps. I get tired of the fickle runs on buckets and bags. I'd like to make it down and visit you sometime, if that would be ok. I'm still thinking about some of your bag holders if you have some left. Thing is I made all these PVC holders and hate to toss them. Next week looks like a good week too.

[Lazarus]

You are most definitely welcome to visit! Starting next weekend I will have generally open sugarhouse hours Sat and Sun 1-4 throughout the season, but if you want to come at a different time, just let me know and we'll set something up. I still have plenty of holders and taps if you are still interested.

We've slowed in terms of sap collection with the recent cold spell, but the taps are still running a little. Definitely the vacuum takes some of the fickle-ness out of the trees. Vacuum can trick a tree into running with an artificial pressure differential when it otherwise wouldn't, especially near the edge of freezing or not. It can also make it run longer during warm spells and definitely longer before the hole closes. But the sugar content will typically be lower and the volume significantly higher, so an RO is basic survival. I never tried just tubing as I am on level ground - a pump is required if I want to collect anything.

I'm planning to try to finish tapping this weekend if I can dig out from under the sap I have sitting in the tank before it's too far gone. I'm making a lot of very, very dark syrup right now.

[buckeye gold]

Lazarus, I wondered if you were getting all that sap processed and cooked before bacteria got to it in this warm weather. It's crazy, it is either freezing cold or 60s. I could have had a great early season if I had not had so many warm days, however it is still a pretty good early season for sap. The other thing is the low sugar content has kept my syrup production off. I have actually gathered the most sap I have ever had in the fall, which still isn't a lot compared to spring. I bet if I had some form of vacuum it could have done really well. If this is a precursor to spring everyone better be getting ready to go, because it may be a short spring sap season.

[asknupp]

Agreed! Waiting on a buddy and headed to start. Hoping the weather returns to normal after this coming week.

[Lazarus]

Good question on whether I'm staying ahead of the sap, especially considering my vastly undersized RO and equally undersized evaporator. I'm definitely having trouble, even with all the hours in the day available to me. I had planned on a new RO for this year but the loss of my job put that off.

The sap is definitely past its prime, helped along by the start of season crud washing out of the lines (mmm, tasty). I don't think I'm in stringy territory yet but it's getting close. Making very dark stuff I dont mind. I get a lot of demand for that and I usually don't make enough. This stuff rivals even what I made years ago on my slowest rig. Dark as coffee.

I am hoping to get caught up today. The seven day forecast doesn't have anything remotely close to freezing temps in it, so I may get a break to finish my taxes.

[buckeye gold]

I hope all this warm hasn't stopped your sap Lazarus. I decided to pull my fall taps today as everything was slowing and the warm temps were making everything start to slime up. I need to wash up everything and take down the pan and clean for spring and I thought now was as good as anytime. Now I'll be clean and ready for tapping my main woods the first part of February. Maybe I can find a day in the next week or so to come down you way. This is the most sap I have ever cooked for a fall tapping, I just wish the sugar content had been better.

[Lazarus]

Well, my trees are still running and so apparently I am too. It's been forever since we had a freeze but no one told my reds. I still have 500 more to tap, so I was out yesterday, and the tapped trees were definitely slowing a lot. I've only been collecting 400-800 gallons each day for the past few days.

Seemed like it would stop after yesterday, but today I had a solid 1000 gallons waiting for me today. WTF?

Oh, and WILL IT PLEASE STOP RAINING ALREADY!!?? It's been raining every day for weeks. I'm gonna need a boat to keep tapping.

OK, I'll stop complaining now.

[newman_maple]

I have been wanting to tap, but it has been crazy warm. I may start tomorrow on my home trees. I modified check valve spouts for sap bags so I am OK tapping while warm prior to what might be a freeze of several days. I need to get started as I will not be tapping on my steep areas due to a few herniated disks. I hope to get 100- 125 taps in when finished.

[buckeye gold]

well I pulled all my early taps January 18th and here I sit waiting for the real season. What a odd year with all this warm weather. I may get my regular taps out this week, but the latest I've ever went is Feb 8th. I figured it would swing to the colder side for a while, but that may be good news for my regular spring sugar season. all that warm was no good, we needed to reset the trees.

My early taps done quite well for fall taps, so i hope spring is as good when it gets rolling. Looks like mud is the word for this year, I usually hope for some stiffened ground to run on, but I fear my sap roads will a soupy mess real soon. I did take advantage of a warm day and tore down the evaporator and completely washed the pan, head tank and equipment. So I'm all cleaned up and ready to roll.