Tapping 2019

[twitch]

Is it just me or are the trees starting off kinda slow ??

[Danthemapleman]

Absolutely....I can't believe I've not had a better run given the weather. So slow.... Hoping things will trun around soon.

[woodsy]

Slow for sure. Most of my sugar maples are starting to give some but the few reds I tapped are still dry.
Might get 5 gals sap from 24 taps by days end.

[Jal-Bear]

Very slow out this way also. Have about a dozen or so that are running well. The rest are just starting to weep or doing nothing.

[bees1st]

Last 3 days have yielded about 800 gallons of sap. Just enough to sweeten the pans and then some. Firing up tomorrow.

[Mvhomesteader]

The number of people who are seeing slow starts validates what I'm seeing here. You wonder what's going on till you hear what's happening with others. Is this season typical of what one might expect with mapling? My three previous seasons were not like this at all, but I'm too new at this to know!

Oddly I have one tree that is acting like it's done flowing, giving only a small amount of yellow tinged sap like it might be buddy. This is usually a good producing tree. I wonder if the warm snap in early February made it run sooner since it is in a sheltered southern exposure? Maybe I'll grab a sample and boil it separately to see if it is buddy.

In any case, today was an improvement with 12 gallons gathered bringing the tally to 40, so a boil is on for this weekend.

[Road's End]

I'm not surprised by the slow start, there's 3-4+ feet of snow in my sugarbush. I sank to my waist yesterday when I broke through a void space next to a piece of ledge, and I was wearing snow shoes. I think this warm weekend will get stuff going.

[Page Meadow Maple]

So, my giant old sugar maples are slow to start, but the other trees are starting to run. Finally got my first sap of the season up here north of Bangor! Collected 34.5 gallons in the last 24 hours from buckets on 80 taps. Sugar is 3.0 so I am hoping I can turn that into a gallon of syrup tomorrow. The flow seems to have stopped this morning, with the exception of a few drips from taps on the west and north sides of my biggest maples. Too warm I think—until (hopefully) Monday.

[maineboiler]

It’s finally started here In Oxford. Collected 85 gallons the past 2 days. Not huge but the trees are waking up. Sugar concentration should be high as I threw out a lot of ice. I’ll do the first boil this weekend. Much later than last year

[abbott]

The number of people who are seeing slow starts validates what I'm seeing here. You wonder what's going on till you hear what's happening with others. Is this season typical of what one might expect with mapling? My three previous seasons were not like this at all, but I'm too new at this to know!

Oddly I have one tree that is acting like it's done flowing, giving only a small amount of yellow tinged sap like it might be buddy. This is usually a good producing tree. I wonder if the warm snap in early February made it run sooner since it is in a sheltered southern exposure? Maybe I'll grab a sample and boil it separately to see if it is buddy.

In any case, today was an improvement with 12 gallons gathered bringing the tally to 40, so a boil is on for this weekend.

When you say "three previous seasons" you nailed it. 2015 was a very late spring and ended up being a very poor year. Not to say this year will be bad, but if it warms up too fast we're in trouble. Based on the amount of snow and cold we have had, it is not at all surprising that the trees have been slaw to produce.

Your one tree is not buddy. You've got a month before that happens. It's possible you tapped too close to a previous taphole or other damaged spot on the trunk. It's possible it will come out of it when the sap really starts to run, but I would guess not. Just for fun, pull the tap and shine a light in there to see how the wood looks.