2.3% from one tree, one day. All your big numbers make me weep with envy. My average is usually around 1.7%.
All I tap are sugar maples, but many are crowded forest trees.
GO
2.3% from one tree, one day. All your big numbers make me weep with envy. My average is usually around 1.7%.
All I tap are sugar maples, but many are crowded forest trees.
GO
2016: Homemade arch from old woodburning stove. 2 steam tray pans. 6 taps on buckets. 1.1 gall syrup
2017: Same homemade evaporator, but souped up. Still 2 steam tray pans. 15 taps on buckets. 4.5 galls syrup.
2018: Same setup. Limited time. 12 taps and short season. 2.2 gallons syrup.
2019: Still very limited time. Downsized to 7 taps and a short season. 1.8 gallons syrup
2020: 9 taps, new Mason 2x3 XL halfway through season, 2 gallons syrup
2021: 17 taps on Mason 2x3 XL
Don't feel bad. Almost twenty years ago a buddy and me tapped his woods. All but a handful were what I called telephone poles- tall, skinny and no canopies. The sugar content was less than yours! I did that one year and decided I needed bigger trees closer to home!
Steve
2014 Upgrades!: 24x40 sugarhouse & 30"x10' Lapierre welded pans, wood fired w/ forced draft, homemade hood & preheater
400 taps- half on gravity 5/16, half on gravity 3/16
Airablo R.O. machine - in the house basement!
Ford F-350 4x4 sap gatherer
An assortment of barrels, cage tanks & bulk tanks- with one operational for cooling/holding concentrate
And a few puzzled neighbors...
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A friend of mine had a tree near a manure pit in a large open field. He told me the tree averaged 6%. Being a newb at the time I didn't believe him. So the next time I went over there was a bucket on the tree with 8% in it. Haven't seen anything like it anywhere else.
2016- 50 buckets. Made 4 gallons
2017- 100 buckets, 50 taps on 3/4 mainline and 3/16th tubing + shurflo vacuum. Made 30 gallons.
2018- 1000 taps on 3/16 + vacuum, 60 buckets - made 378 gallons of syrup.
2019- 1713 taps on 3/16 + vacuum, NO buckets. Made 500 gallons.
2020- 2793 taps made 1118 gallons.
2021- adding 500?
I run my front pan deeper, 1.5 to 1.75", than when I boiled raw sap. With raw sap I ran it at 1". I still get temperature surges but not spikes. I intentionally draw off heavy and then add sweet from the front pan when I shut down to correct the density.
My sweetest tree which I don't have access to anymore ran 5% plus. It was a big old tree with a huge crown and I used to put 4 buckets on it. It would overflow all 4 buckets in a day while most of the other trees would only fill a bucket 1/4 to 1/2 full.
Russ
"Red Roof Maples" Where the term "boiling soda" was first introduced to the maple producing world!
Algier 2x6 evaporator, W F Mason arch
Lapierre 250 Turbo RO machine
SP-22 vacuum pump
1930 Ford Model AA Doodlebug tractor
1971 IH 454 52hp diesel tractor
A couple of Honda 4 wheelers
About a dozen chainsaws and no chickens
2016: Homemade arch from old woodburning stove. 2 steam tray pans. 6 taps on buckets. 1.1 gall syrup
2017: Same homemade evaporator, but souped up. Still 2 steam tray pans. 15 taps on buckets. 4.5 galls syrup.
2018: Same setup. Limited time. 12 taps and short season. 2.2 gallons syrup.
2019: Still very limited time. Downsized to 7 taps and a short season. 1.8 gallons syrup
2020: 9 taps, new Mason 2x3 XL halfway through season, 2 gallons syrup
2021: 17 taps on Mason 2x3 XL
3% this morning on 11 yard maples.
Our best tree was routinely 7%. Big yard tree, had to take it down last year. Overall, we routinely ran 3% until we went to high vac. Now we're flooded in sap, but at a lower percentage. About 2.4 - 2.6 on average. We only tap sugar maples.
Greene Maple Farm Sebago, Maine
7 Generations of Maple Syrup
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Phillip View Farm
Sebago, Maine
30 Highland Cattle
2 Alpacas, numerous pigs
Chickens, lots of chickens
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