I know it's early :)

[netsplitter]

But, I am already excited for my second year. I went up through my mountainside yesterday and was trying to get an idea of how and what I would do this year. Late November early December depending on the weather, I am going to tap a few walnut trees again and make some syrup. I started to last year, but the sugar content was not good enough - at least I thought (.5%), but regardless this year, I will make some.

I have three large maples trees that are close to my house, the sun exposure is excellent, and they produced 95% of the same I boiled last year (around 75-80 gallons).

Up my mountainside, where gravity lines would work well due to the slope, the tree's there did quite poor. There are some monster maples up there, but I barely got anything out of them. Most of them I had two taps in, and I tried to strategically place the taps where the best sunlight exposure would be (but given they are on a mountainside, there isn't great sun exposure). I taped 15 trees up there and barely got anything. I keep wondering if I did something wrong (maybe I didn't put the tap high enough, or maybe I just really had an unlucky position on the tap, etc). I want to get more sap this year, and I have lost one of the maple trees near my house due to it splitting in half (it was in poor shape when we purchased our property), so now I want those trees to produce more than ever.

I am thinking about trying to run gravity lines from the very top of my mountainside to a much more manageable access spot. When I get off work, towards winter time, it is difficult to check those lines before it is pitch dark. I have seen a few videos and done a little bit of reading on how this is done. Does anyone have any resources that would be beneficial for someone pretty green? I only used food-grade buckets last year beside the trees.

Appreciate any thoughts, or advise!
-Gabriel

[maple flats]

Use the 3/16 line with 5/16" taps and drops. Don't try to focus on the sunny side. Since you should tap all sides of a tree within a given time period, if you tap all on the sunny side one year then at some point you would need to tap all on the least sunny side. If you go on the 3/16" laterals you shoud tap about 1/4 on the north face, 1/4 on the east face, 1/4 on the south and 1/4 on the west. While you do not do it using a compass just as you work the hill, do randomly spread the tapping orientation using all sides. Using the gravity vacuum of a 3/16 lateral you should tap 1 side (or 2 on trees over about 20" DBH) this year using all orientations but trees with 2 taps should be on opposite sides of the tree. Then next year tap at about 180 from the 1 tap trees and 90 degrees from the 2 tap from the previous year. With vacuum (the 3/16 with good drop in elevation gives you good vacuum) I never put in more than 2 taps, on buckets I used to do 3 on a tree that was over 25" DBH. In fact I have very few 2 tap trees because of the vacuum even though I have about maybe 5% of my trees well over 20" DBH.
That all being said, fall tapping will make some syrup but not much compared to the late winter/spring sap season.

[netsplitter]

Thank you for the reply maple flats,

I have so many questions, so I will try and keep them simple.

Are you saying use 3/16 mainline with 5/16 taps and drops? This kind of throws me off, but I will be sure that is what you were saying first.

From my reading, it seemed best to use 3/16 taps/lateral lines, and then a 5/16 mainline. Given that this is all gravity, I am curious to learn how you clean the mainline and what you do with it after the season is over?

When you say that you have very few trees with two taps on the vacuum, why is that? On a gravity system, is sap production not increased as much with more taps vs a bucket system?

Thanks again,

[maple flats]

No, the other way around. Make the taps and drop lines in 5/16 (less sap gets pulled back into the tap hole just before freeze up because the gasses pass the sap. Then use a T that is 3/16 x 3/16 x5/16 out the side for the drop line. Then in the 3/16 lateral line, the sap does not pass the gasses so you will see sap/air(really carbon dioxide gas) sap/gas/sap gas etc. Since the sap does not pass the gasses gravity creates a vacuum from the pull of the sap flowing downhill. If the drop is long enough that the sap portion of the sap/gas march is near 30', then you will get the max. possible vacuum for your location which will depend on your elevation and the barometric pressure that day.
To clean it after the season first just pull the top tap and let the lateral drain, you can also flush it with good clean water from the top.
On mine I run mechanical vacuum even on my 3/16 laterals. When my season is done I pull the last tap on each lateral and then I run the vacuum to dry the lines out. I have several mains, some 3/4" but most 1" that my laterals run into, each has a valve at the beginning on the main. When drying the laterals I run just 1 main at a time for better air flow to dry the line. As each line looks dry, I plug the taps until only a few taps remain open, then I open the next main line valve. After that first lateral is fully dry I close that valve. Some laterals only take 2 hrs to dry others might take a whole day. Using gravity vacuum with the 3/16 laterals you could be drying all at the same time because each has it's own vacuum until the column of sap is gone. Then try to put some water in at the top to flush. For that some use a dedicated tank sprayer, one that has never had anything except good clean water in it. Fill it and carry the sprayer to the top of the hill, pump it up and go to work. On a smaller scale you could get a few sprayer bottles at the $ store, fill them with clean water and use them to pump enough water into the top tap to initiate flow and let it work it's way down. You may want to repeat after a minute or 2.
Another idea, you could use a 2 gal picnic jug, filled with water and make up somthing to add to the dispensor spout that you can push the top tap into or onto and let the water run for 6-10 seconds. Then move on to the next lateral.
In case you don't know, a lateral is the line going from tree to tree, a drop connects the tap to the lateral using a Tee.

[netsplitter]

For the T that is 3/16 x 3/16 x5/16, is that almost impossible to attach to a lateral line without a two-handed tool?

If I were taping only 20-30 trees on a mountainside, would it be possible/effective to just use 3/16 lines for what would be the lateral, and mainline?

Thanks for the great ideas/clarification.

[Super Sapper]

For the T that is 3/16 x 3/16 x5/16, is that almost impossible to attach to a lateral line without a two-handed tool?

If I were taping only 20-30 trees on a mountainside, would it be possible/effective to just use 3/16 lines for what would be the lateral, and mainline?

Thanks for the great ideas/clarification.

I would just run one 3/16 the whole way with that many taps. There are several ways to add in the drops on the line. One way would be to string up your 3/16 from start to finish and tighten it up and then mark where your drops will go with a marker. Loosen it up and add in your drops and then tighten it up again. Remember that when you add in your drop it lengthens the line some if you did not cut a small piece out to compensate for it. If you end up with not taking enough out and your drops are past the trees a little on part of the line, you can side tie parts to make them line up better. A side tie is find a tree 90 degrees from you line and pulling it towards the tree with some rope or twine. This will take up some of the slack.

[netsplitter]

Thanks 220, I fully agree. I have probably have watched every tubing video I could find on youtube, it has given me a bit more confidence towards what I will be doing. The setup does not look too difficult for the size that I am doing.

A couple more questions I do have.

1. If I have 3/16 tubing that will act as both the lateral and mainline If I have a handful of trees that are in an odd spot, would it be fine to simply run a separate 3/16 line to them, and then use a 3/16 tee to connect this line to my "main" 3/16 line?

2. When I was looking at tubing, there was a bit of a price difference between leader rigid tubing and leader max flow, anyone used both and can suggest why?

3. If I had one long 3/16 running going somewhere close to my house, and then 3 separate 3/16 lines all tied into this long 3/16 run, is it true to say any leak within any of those 3/16 runs would affect the flow of everything?

4. What time of year do you start to run your lines / be fully ready to tap? Or better yet, when would you "like" to be completely done and ready?

[Super Sapper]

I also use the hollow core rope at the end tree and just put my gauge or end tap on the end of the 3/16. You will need a 3/16 X 5/16 connector if you run the 5/16 drops on the rest.

[Haynes Forest Products]

The Old Chinese finger handcuff trick.......a wrap of tape on the end helps keep it tight.

[maple flats]

To add my gauges where I want one, I have both 5/16 and 3/16 x 1/4" female adapters (the 1/4" is a female pipe thread, for the gauge, the other 2 are barb fittings to attach to the lateral or sometimes the drop. Most often I start at the lateral with a tee just like for a drop line but then instead of having a tap. I attach the adapter and screw in a vacuum gauge. Vacuum gauges are cheap and will not all be very accurate, but I only change on if it appears way off. They are there just to help find leaks and to satisfy my curiosity of what the lateral is doing. Don't spend too much on them, a high quality gauge is not worth it for a lateral, if you have a vacuum pump someday, you may want a better one just at the releaser, but I use the cheap ones there too.