2021 Southwest PA Tapping

[sbedilion]

collected 300 gallons and slowly working my way thru it w my driveway operation.

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[HowardR]

collected 300 gallons and slowly working my way thru it w my driveway operation.

That was a big run on Friday and Saturday! And it was still running today though much slower! I kept my ROs humming and my stovetop evaporator boiling all night Friday just to keep up with it! I'm expecting an even bigger run starting Wednesday.


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[HowardR]

When I got up this morning, the low of 22 surprised me; I was expecting 28 or 29. Then I checked out the forecast for the rest of the week and all of the highs and lows had gone down by about 5 degrees. The cold weather from early February is back!

I'll get some sap today, but not very much until Sunday. Meanwhile, those of you who live south of Pittsburgh generally have temperatures that are about 5 degrees warmer than mine. You could get the run that I was expecting.

[Njh5587]

How much season do you guys think we have left? I'm just wondering how this warm spell will affect us. Looks like we are going to have some decent weather next week. I hope it keeps flowing!

[HowardR]

NJH,

I think we're at the mid-point of the season with 1 to 3 weeks of maple syrup left before the trees start to bud which would ruin the sap. As you point out, next week's forecast looks perfect. The problem is that the old holes that we drilled in February may have healed over during the warm weather this week. We may not get much sap without drilling new holes.

[DRoseum]

I am considering pulling taps and cleaning tubing and gear tomorrow. East of Pittsburgh and the warm week really sped up the trees. Buds are visible and it doesn't seem worthwhile to push it.

[SRM]

I was wondering if the smaller tap holes could be drilled bigger instead of drilling a new hole in a different location. Did anyone do this when the season warmed up and the holes healed up before the season really ended? I'm only running 30 or so taps and this might be feasible since I have both size spiles etc. I recently got half of what I usually have gotten and wonder if this (the holes healing) is what happened? Next week looks like lows in the 20-30 and highs in 40-50? Any suggestions?

[DRoseum]

Its actually bacteria in the holes that stops the flow and not healing up.

You can reem the tap holes but highly doubt it's useful at this point in the season. Even with some decent weather, lots of the red maples are nearing the end (buds) and will normally just "turn off" and stop running around now even with some freeze/thaw cycles.

[SRM]

Thanks for the information.
I pulled a few today, the rest by the weeks end. Then it will be time to order an evaporator and supplies.

[Pdiamond]

SRM what are going to get for an evaporator?