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Thread: Started Tapping on 1/7 and 1/8 Monongalia County

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Morgantown, WV
    Posts
    31

    Default Started Tapping on 1/7 and 1/8 Monongalia County

    Good flow today. Adding more trees at lunchtime. Sunshine. 44 degrees. Yay! Hope to fire evaporator this weekend. My Bender Releaser and Harbor Freight vacuum pump are working. Need some tweaks but I've got sap. Earliest ever in my life.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Daniels, WV
    Posts
    21

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    Awesome! We're down here in Raleigh County. We were toying with the idea of putting in some taps early but opted against it. Mainly because we don't quite have everything in place yet, but also looking at the extended forecast we haven't seen a sub-32 degree temperature predicted until the 24-25th. Best of luck! Let us know how it goes.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Sistersville Wv
    Posts
    73

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    We put about 300 hundred around 1/10 also , but will hold off putting in all 700 till this warm patch is finished . The weather here has be windy, wet and no sunshine the trees don't like that at all . Tyler county here 3 miles from the ohio river .
    Sweetcreek Sugarworks
    3x12 dalliare & hoods & preheater
    300 ro & vacuum
    Ls 4 wheel Drive 58 horse
    kabota 4 wheel drive 20 horse
    lt50 woodmizer saw mill
    36x40 sugar area

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Bruceton Mills, WV
    Posts
    66

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    Good luck all West Virginians. I am not quite ready yet. Still cleaning, running lines, etc., so I am not tapping yet. I will probably be ready by (and I am shooting for) the beginning of February for a run of the appropriate weather, although this warm weather certainly has me thinking

    Keith.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    west virginia
    Posts
    966

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    WVKeith sounds like your just like me not quite ready to tap yet, my goal was the third week in Jan. this year, the weather has turned very warm though, my weather app shows no freezing thru next Friday, I prefer to drill frozen trees, I just like the idea when they start running they all start at the same time. When they are running during tapping I always feel I'm losing sap because I can't get to the next tree fast enough. Dry Fork Maple started last Monday, I don't know how many tappers they have, they probably are boiling this weekend.

    Mark 220 Maple
    1100 taps on low vaccum, 900 on gravity.
    900 plus taps leased and on high vacuum
    35 cfm Indiana Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump
    80% Sugar, 20% Red MAPLES
    http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/g...Maple%20Syrup/

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Location
    West Virginia
    Posts
    13

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    I'm new to maple tapping and I'm also from Mon county. I ordered a dozen taps and tapped a tree yesterday just to try it out. I'll be interested to see if I have any sap tonight when I get home from work. I really don't have the proper equipment to boil it all down but suspect I'll try making a rocket stove out of cinder blocks and start boiling in a 20 qt stainless steel stock pot.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Bruceton Mills, WV
    Posts
    66

    Default

    Hello Superchunk:

    Welcome to WV Maple Syrup production. I am in Bruceton Mills, Preston county, but I work at WVU in Mon County. Did you get sap today? Seemed like good weather.

    Your plan sounds reasonable, but you may get a lot of sap. On a good run, you may get 1/2 to 1 gallon sap per tap per day. You will probably be close to 1 gallon per hour boiling with a 20 quart pot.

    Keith
    Last edited by WVKeith; 01-31-2017 at 08:14 PM. Reason: Punctuation

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Location
    West Virginia
    Posts
    13

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    That's cool. I live just outside of Morgantown. When I got home yesterday I discovered my catch jug had tipped over and I lost the sap. Urghh! So I learned what not to do. I reset the jug and used a bungy strap to hold it in position. This morning I checked it before coming to work and I had almost an entire gallon! How cool is that! I transferred the sap to a bucket in the fridge and set it back out. Should be full again when I get home.

    I was reading a little yesterday and I may try using cinder blocks and some stainless steel steam trays to make a DIY evaporator.

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