What’s your best %?

[berkshires]

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

[Bucket Head]

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

[Ultimatetreehugger]

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.

[Russell Lampron]

I made about 6 gallons in 4 hours boiling 137 gallons! The only problem was the temperature surges I was getting at draw-off. Syrup was suddenly way too heavy. How do you guys with RO handle this?
Attachment 21071

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.

[berkshires]

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

Ha! Thank goodness for partially frozen buckets. I just collected this weekend. Buckets were 1/3 or more ice, which I tossed. Remaining sap was up around 2.8%.

GO

[wlatrout]

3% this morning on 11 yard maples.

[Atgreene]

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.