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Thread: 2019 Missouri Tapping Season

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Florissant Missouri
    Posts
    137

    Default 2019 Missouri Tapping Season

    II have been out in the sugar bush doing some early season preparation. Has anyone else gotten started?
    Crazy River Sap
    55 sugar maple, 15 walnut taps on plastic buckets and tubing
    Block arch on driveway

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Florissant Missouri
    Posts
    137

    Default

    55 Deg F today. We need a cold spell. I am going to get my taps and down tubes and boil them this week. Tapping looks like it is still a few weeks off. While working around the sugar bush last weekend I accidentally nicked a few sugar maple tree roots and no sap was running.
    Crazy River Sap
    55 sugar maple, 15 walnut taps on plastic buckets and tubing
    Block arch on driveway

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    hills west of Jeff City Missouri
    Posts
    134

    Default Missouri weather certainly is confusing this year

    Brian, Its been much too warm to generate any good sap flow. Long range forecast for Missouri may offer some hope, though. I am cleaning buckets, taps, and assembling all supplies. In the last 5 years we tapped between Jan 16 and Jan 22. So we still have a while to wait. John
    2020: 220 trees, most smaller than 20" diameter, made 25 gallons
    remote location in western Cole County
    5/16" plastic spiles, drain into plastic buckets or sapsaks
    haul sap out of woods using atv & trailer
    wood-fired pans on concrete blocks
    one Leader Half Pint 24 x 33" plus 24 x 30 ss pan from a junkyard
    cook batch process then finish in the kitchen;
    we dont sell our syrup; its for family & friends
    see website www.mosyrup.com

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Location
    Franklin County MO
    Posts
    29

    Default

    I have not. The guy down the road from me a few miles has not either, and he has made syrup for a long time. I hope the snow we are getting here will help with production this year.

    RiverSap, do you boil your taps and lines when you put them away or just rinse them?
    Lots of trees, bees, rocks, firewood, and syrup.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    hills west of Jeff City Missouri
    Posts
    134

    Default

    Hey Old Cabin, nice to hear from you. Maybe you can attach some photos of your syrup activites to your profile? Im trying to collect information about syrupmakers in Missouri, to swap equipment, labor, advice, who knows what. Maybe get together in the spring for a pancake feed or something. So far I have communicated with about 25 syrupmakers. Could you send me a private message with your phone number, and maybe info on how to contact the guy down the road from you. To send a private message to me, just left click on my name Unclejohn and go from there. That way only I can see the information you send.

    Lots of snow coming down here in mid MO. Its gonna be muddy when I tap next week. But temps might look pretty good. All Missouri readers: please share with us your tapping status! Thanks. Unclejohn
    2020: 220 trees, most smaller than 20" diameter, made 25 gallons
    remote location in western Cole County
    5/16" plastic spiles, drain into plastic buckets or sapsaks
    haul sap out of woods using atv & trailer
    wood-fired pans on concrete blocks
    one Leader Half Pint 24 x 33" plus 24 x 30 ss pan from a junkyard
    cook batch process then finish in the kitchen;
    we dont sell our syrup; its for family & friends
    see website www.mosyrup.com

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Location
    Boonville
    Posts
    10

    Default

    I plan to put out my taps as soon as the snow melts a little. Can't wait to see that sap starting to flow. Hope everyone has a great season.
    2016: 5 taps. 5 gal of sap. 1 pint of syrup. Hooked on syrup making!
    2017: 12 taps. 50 gal of sap. 1 gal of syrup. 1 cup of brown sugar. Turkey fryer evaporator
    2018: 25 taps. 120 gal of sap. 3 gal of syrup. 2 burner propane evaporator. Bought a Brix meter.
    2019: Planning to tap 25 trees. Building a concrete block evaporator.

    I use 7/16" aluminum spiles connected to 3/4" plastic tubing and draining into covered 5 gal buckets.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    hills west of Jeff City Missouri
    Posts
    134

    Default

    Well, based on yesterday mornings forecast, (1/15 and 1/17 temps looked good for flow) I dragged supplies and tools across a creek and half a mile through 14" of snow yesterday and tapped 80 trees and hung sacks. No flow in the morning but by mid afternoon, the new holes started to drip a little bit. But now the high temp forecasts have all been reduced and it looks like after 1/17 the temps may be too cold for the next 10 days or so. We need some sunlight and all we have now in mid Missouri is gloom. So rather than tap the remaining 120 trees, I can get the totes, buckets, evaporator, 4 wheeler, trailer etc ready. If sap freezes in the sacks, no problem, it will be preserved and I can harvest it when it melts. In the last 5 years, I have tapped between Jan 16 and Jan 20. So maybe I was a little too eager.
    2020: 220 trees, most smaller than 20" diameter, made 25 gallons
    remote location in western Cole County
    5/16" plastic spiles, drain into plastic buckets or sapsaks
    haul sap out of woods using atv & trailer
    wood-fired pans on concrete blocks
    one Leader Half Pint 24 x 33" plus 24 x 30 ss pan from a junkyard
    cook batch process then finish in the kitchen;
    we dont sell our syrup; its for family & friends
    see website www.mosyrup.com

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Webster Groves MO
    Posts
    3

    Default

    Hello. First time poster, season #5 making syrup. Also got a little antsy with the weather forecast and tapped some trees in anticipation. Seemed like there would be some good flow mid-week but doesn't now look so good. But the taps are in and ready for the flow when it happens.
    OmannMaple
    45 taps
    Tubes and buckets
    Block arch and buffet pans

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Location
    Defiance, MO
    Posts
    10

    Default

    Small time hobbyist here as well... 70-ish taps. Tapped a few south facing trees yesterday and didn't get a drop today as the temps never made it very high and it was cloudy all day. It looks to me like it'll be another 10 days before we get any real flow so I'm going to wait to tap the rest. Don't want the holes to start clogging up before the season even begins!

    I bypassed tapping a couple trees that still had visible tap holes from last year. I'm not sure if I'm right but I feel like the tree must be sickly if it can't heal up it's wound from last year. Does that logic make sense?
    -Kyle

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Florissant Missouri
    Posts
    137

    Default

    The only thing I tapped this week were a couple of bottles of beer and they were sweet.
    Crazy River Sap
    55 sugar maple, 15 walnut taps on plastic buckets and tubing
    Block arch on driveway

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