I’ve been at it for five years. I’ve yet to hit stained wood. I’ve sort of gone about it In An organized way using points of the compass for tapping spots.
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I don't check and/or haven't noticed
Very rarely (< 2%)
A little (2-5%)
A good bit (5-10%)
Fairly frequently (>10%)
I’ve been at it for five years. I’ve yet to hit stained wood. I’ve sort of gone about it In An organized way using points of the compass for tapping spots.
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Some of my trees are very old and its hard to find new wood. I have a stash of 4 foot ladders around my woods to get above it.
44 27'08/71 27'56
300 totalish taps 250 on tube and bosworth sap sucker
50 bucket and bags about 40-50 gallons a season
on a 2 by 7 home made evaporator and sugar shack
1st gen circa 1966 still learning stuff
Can you tap any lower, or is it all tapped out there too?Originally Posted by MapleCamp
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
Bump...please keep the poll responses coming folks.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
Getting near 100...if you haven't voted, please do so.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
I plan on changing some of our practices in order to avoid stained wood. what should we be doing when we do hit stained wood?
Still learning after all these years.
That is a personal decision/judgement you'll have to make at the time. The proportion of stained wood in the taphole dictates the amount of sap you will get. If half the taphole is stained, you'll lose about 50% of your "potential" sap yield. If it is just a small amount, the lost yield will be correspondingly low. If it is almost all stain, you'll get very little sap from the taphole. We'll have a video addressing some aspects of that soon. If you hit stain a lot...you definitely need to make adjustments to reduce the frequency of it happening. Every time you hit stain you lose sap and money. To reduce the chances this happens, you can:
1. Tap below the lateral line (if you are on vacuum and are using good spout sanitation practices).
2. Use longer droplines.
3. Tap those trees/areas shallower for a while (10-20 yrs) - will result in less sap yield
4. Use smaller spouts (1/4" or even 3/16") - will result in less sap yield
5. Reduce the intensity of tapping (reduce the number of 2 and 3 tap trees)
6. Don't tap those trees.
7. Thin your woods to encourage better growth
Option #1 gives great results and is very simple.
Last edited by DrTimPerkins; 04-30-2020 at 12:26 PM.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
When taping below the lateral should the tee be facing up or down? Maybe someone can post a photo of the proper orientation of the tee and drop in relation to the lateral?
First introduced to making maple syrup in 1969
Making syrup every year since 1979
3 x 10 oil fired
Revolution syrup and max flue pan
Almost 1300 taps total with 900 on high vacuum
Bought first Marcland drawoff in 1997, still going strong.
Link to UVM's video about tapping below the lateral:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-EEYgL7Lt0
It works good, even for us just running Shurflo pumps.
305 taps on 2 Shurflo's, 31 taps on 3/16" and 229 taps on gravity. 565 in all
Mountain Maple S3 controller for 145 of the vacuum taps
2x6 Darveau Mystique Oil Fired Evaporator w/ Smoky Lake Simplicity Auto Draw
Wesfab 7” filter press
The tee can face up or down, but more importantly, the spout should point downward (the normal orientation). This creates a small air gap so that sap is not always held against the taphole where it can impact sanitation and freeze and result in spout heaving.
TBL orientation.jpg
https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m1216belowlateral/
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
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