Saginaw

[TimUSA]

First timer, please help... When to stop? I put in 5 taps on Feb 21st. Thru March 9 I got 80 gallons which made 15 pints of syrup. From March 10 to March 16, basically nothing. March 17 morning got 10 gallons. This morning got 7 gallons. Trees are starting to bud. After nothing for a week I was going to quit, but now that it is flowing again how much longer can I or should I go? Thanks...

[maple flats]

Tim, What kind of maples are they? If silvers or Reds, are the flowers open yet? Basically reds will shut down sap flow so if you get sap, it should be good if kept fresh until boiling.

[TimUSA]

I'm gonna say they are Silver Maples... I was trimming last year about this time of year due to storm damage and the sap was pouring out so I thought I'd give it a try this year...

[michiganphil]

I am down by Kalamazoo.

A lot of the reds and silvers have completely flowered over the last week.
The buds on the sugars have not started to swell yet. The canopy is starting to change form the wintery gray to more brownish red, so the trees are waking up.
That said, as long as the sap is flowing and the buds are closed you can keep going.

All my taps are on buckets, and even during a long season I have always had my taps go dry because of unfavorable temps a couple weeks before the buds open.

I think this weekend will be the end for us... not getting cold enough.

[TimUSA]

Thanks for the feedback... Yes in looking this morning (basically no sap collected) buds are all flowered out. Looks like I'll boil this weekend and clean everything up and put away for next year.

[Pdiamond]

My sugar maples are still tight. We collected about 60 to 80 gallons today from 53 taps boil that tomorrow. I'll go through the weekend and see what happens, suppose to be cold into the first of next week, after that who knows.

[TimUSA]

Well my first year is over...Boiled down short of 20 gallons last Sunday and about another 15 gallons today that I got on Monday and Tuesday. Everything cleaned and put away for next year!

[Balrog006]

Well my first year is over...Boiled down 20 gallons last Sunday and another 15 gallons today that I got on Monday and Tuesday. Everything cleaned and put away for next year!

You seem to have had a good first years, congrats!

I too am pulling taps and gathering buckets to clean them-nothing since Monday and no freezing temps in the forecast-I pulled half of them today between the raindrops.

Near as I figure I collected 122 gallons of sap and made 20 pints-but on 26 taps so your 7 taps were stellar!

[TimUSA]

Thanks... I had to correct my "signature" numbers as I missed a row in my excel spread sheet. Also, basically only 5 taps produced, I put in 2 more late in the game and only got about 1.5 gallons from them... I'm very happy and LOVE the maple syrup I made. Can't wait for next year!

[Pdiamond]

Well I finished canning up the last of my syrup today. So here are my totals for the year. 53 taps produced 962 gallons of sap collected, of which I had to dump about 40 gallons that was really milky. My total syrup production ended up with 16.25 gallons of amber with only a very few that were dark amber. Getting started late didn't help but I don't believe it was a bad year either. The only thing I noticed this year was there was more nitre and the sugar content of the sap was lower than last year. Good luck to all in the off season and may all your future plans work out for you.