From my past experience, I do not think any of you would really be tapping too early, but tap holes will be drying by April 15th, at least in most years. Every bush is different, and of course depends somewhat on your ability to process small amounts of sap should all your trees not be running. I hope everyone has an enjoyable season.
Southfork, I'm curious what you and others think about how long a freshly drilled tap hole can remain active before it starts to heal and slow production? I've read here that vacuum systems heal less quickly than gravity drains (like mine) do, but how many weeks do most experienced folks think? I was very surprised and excited at the same time to hear you are pulling some sap already on vacuum.
I tapped on buckets(700) for about 13 years. Rhinelander tapping time varied from late February to about March 10th. Almost by the clock our tap holes would dry up and spiles loosen by mid April. It seemed tap hole drying from yeast, bacteria, etc was more a function of temperature and maybe sunlight, than simply number of days. Most of the bacteria and yeast grows late in the season, not so much in February. Around April 15th on buckets it was pretty tough to keep moths and other bugs from the sap, bags do better.
Tubing creates more of a closed system with less air exposure, this too slows bacteria and yeast growth so tends to extend the tap use by an additional two weeks or so, into late April, maybe early May in some years. Insects also are not a concern in a closed system. Consequently, sometimes sap production on high vac lasts until the sap is actually too buddy and poor quality, IMO. Much has been written about late season syrup production, so I will not join that argument.
I am no expert, have 5000 taps on high vac and concentrate is processed by Wes Schoepke at Maple Hollow in Merrill.
Last edited by southfork; 02-28-2018 at 04:37 PM.
Thank you Southfork. Much appreciated. I will definitely tap this weekend even though next weeks weather is a cooling trend, things are starting to break lose.
Good luck, this weekend will not be too early.
Hey Sugar Camp Amateur: You must be in the deep southern part of Sugar Camp ha ha Kidding aside. I'm thinking about two or three weeks before we tap on Sand Lake road. I've been tapping around the second week of March as an average. Friends of ours start earlier and get some results but flow seems to start and stop for them depending on temperatures until later in the month. Now today with the snow and daytime temps going below freezing again will probably shut down anything that started with those few warm days we had. I did plow my logging road yesterday so I'm getting ready also Good luck everyone and Happy Sapping JayOriginally Posted by SugarCampAmateur
Zucker Lager
Hi Jay, Funny, Yup I am about seven miles south of you, haa, ha, I'm east of Hwy 17 off Rolling Acres Rd. Your insight is interesting. I guess I'm just nervous and don't want to miss anything. We had a really poor season last year and I don't really know why. We tapped early like during the February heat wave, then things cooled off and locked down, when the trees did come back to run in March we seemed to have a really weak run and didn't know why. How did your February and March run go last year? How does your sugar bush look at this point? Ours is still very winter like with lots of snow on the ground yet and frost in the ground, but a few more warm days like we have forecast could change a lot pretty fast.
Thanks for the info guys. I’m going to do a few test taps this weekend and see how it goes. I’m running strictly on buckets, which creates a bit of a challenge in the knee deep snow. Will report again after the weekend.
Good luck to all!
OK right behind Jenny Webber Lake. A friend on Mill Lake, did exactly what you did last year and had the same issues. I missed that first early run then tapped two weeks later on March 20 and all were dry for almost another week then when sap started running it was very weak. The daytime temps were just barely over freezing most days. I only had one week of collecting before I had to pull taps early to go visit family down south. When the sap was running here it wasn't as good as past years so it may have been the weather / cold temps? but tap holes do dry up so later in the run that could have been the issue for you? When I plowed the woods two days ago the ground was muddy already even under two feet of snow. Fun stuff hey Jay
Zucker Lager
Thanks Jay, that's interesting to hear you observed similar things last year. I was also interested to hear you're tapping all Red's, as I am also. I really look forward to sharing notes with everyone over the next month to see what happens! Have a great weekend, Rick.
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