Your highest sap % ever?

[Lano75]

My signature maple tree was putting out 5% last year.

[Trapper2]

Those are some nice percentages, i usually average 1.5-2 on vaccum....gravity 2.5, and one big large bucket tree gives 3-5......I strongly believe that vaccum dilute the sugar with the extra water pulled in, as soon as I went to vaccum the sugar dropped

Interesting: Next year I will be putting in a 25 tree line on 3/16 for the first time. I also will have about 80 on buckets again. I will report back when I compare thee two tanks. Thanks for the idea Bliss.

[skixcvt]

Back in the late 80’s my dad had a run of 5.2% on about 400 sugar maples. He thought his hydrometer was broken so he called some sugar making neighbours, they also had 5-6%.

Highest we’ve seen recently is 3.5%.

[DrTimPerkins]

...that vaccum dilute the sugar with the extra water pulled in, as soon as I went to vaccum the sugar dropped

Some comments.

1. Research studies indicate that vacuum has only a minor (if any) effect in reducing the sugar content of collected sap. The exception would be for prolonged (multi-day) runs without a refreeze, there would be a slow drop off in sap sugar content as the sap run transitions to vacuum-induced flow rather than pressure-induced flow.
2. On gravity, you're going to NOT get much if any sap on those multi-day thaws, so the issue becomes, is it better to get some sap with slightly lower sugar, or no sap with no sugar.

I think the issue thing that people might experience at times is they go from what were at one time fairly mature and widely spaced trees in a sugarbush, pasture, or roadside to areas that are in the woods that are smaller trees at higher density. Sap sugar content (and sap yield) is related to tree size and canopy position. Bigger trees with larger sun-lit canopies will produce more and sweeter sap.

[Msboucha]

We have 24 taps on 12 mature trees, only tapped 3 years now. They sit in a grove by themselves with hemlocks. We usually see mid 3s in the tank throughout the season. Our highest tree is a red on the edge of the grove and gets sun on most sides through the day, which is usually mid 4s and have seen over 5.

[DrTimPerkins]

Our highest tree is a red on the edge of the grove and gets sun on most sides through the day, which is usually mid 4s and have seen over 5.

That's great.

Sun is the fuel for the photosynthetic engine. You want your trees to produce sweeter sap, give them more fuel -- thin !