Figuring GPT numbers

[Clinkis]

And that 3 brix is on vaccumi I'm assuming? It seems the further north you go the higher sugar content, do others see this also? That's impressive, if I see 1.8-2 I'm happy!! Are these trees larger than average, have great crowns? I suppose juat food genetics is possible. Its hard for me to understand and will likely never know what contribute to these high sugar levels.

I’m not too far from Ennismaple and my sugar content is similar and I think its fairly average for our part of the continent. Not sure if it’s climate or genetics? I almost never drop below 2 and not uncommon to be over 3. I’m all on vacuum as well and have mainly sugars with a few reds. And a mixture of small and large crowned trees. When I hear people talking about sugar content near one I cringe at the thought!

[DrTimPerkins]

On average through the season, if able to calculate based on sugar content measured, how much sap do most feel it's taking to produce a gallon of syrup?

You should do it for each run and keep a running total (we do this quite a lot).

Take your average sugar content for a run and calculate the number of gallons required to make a gallon of syrup. Use the modified Jones Rule of 86 for this.
https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m1013jonesruleof86/

Then divide the total number of gallons of sap in that same run by the value calculated above. That should tell you (ballpark) how many gallons of syrup you will make from that run.

Of course that misses any losses you mention, but you should try to minimize those as much as possible, however there is always at least a 0.5-1% "shrinkage" for each run.

[blissville maples]

You should do it for each run and keep a running total (we do this quite a lot).

Take your average sugar content for a run and calculate the number of gallons required to make a gallon of syrup. Use the modified Jones Rule of 86 for this.
https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m1013jonesruleof86/

Then divide the total number of gallons of sap in that same run by the value calculated above. That should tell you (ballpark) how many gallons of syrup you will make from that run.

Of course that misses any losses you mention, but you should try to minimize those as much as possible, however there is always at least a 0.5-1% "shrinkage" for each run.

"Shrinkage for each run" haha that's good. And true, I've heard others say also, you put so many gallons thru the rig at so and so percent and never end up with what you thought you would!!

I remember when I first started making syrup 10-12 years ago in my woodshed, I actually swore for a day that some sugar was evaporating!! The mind is always willing to toss in a few curve balls!

[blissville maples]

I’m not too far from Ennismaple and my sugar content is similar and I think its fairly average for our part of the continent. Not sure if it’s climate or genetics? I almost never drop below 2 and not uncommon to be over 3. I’m all on vacuum as well and have mainly sugars with a few reds. And a mixture of small and large crowned trees. When I hear people talking about sugar content near one I cringe at the thought!

You guys don't know how lucky you are and I mean that! Wow makes me want to pack up and head north. So last year was horrible down here and I mean bad. Guys right out of the gate started at 1.5 and within a week dropped to 1. By third week of March I was hearing of some at 3/4%

Last year I saw one run of 1.9 , just days later it was down to 1.5 and this was on my better bush. The sugar just wasn't able to hold out. We had a 2-3 day freeze and it bumped up 2/10 for a couple days lol....woo hoo.

But no that's impressive for the sugar to be holding like that. I guess some are coming in at 40/1 after all

[minehart gap]

I need to figure out how to get my "shrinkage" down to 0.5 - 1%.
I'm pretty sure that a lot more of my hard work goes down the drain from washing the drawoff pot every boil and the filter press hoses (I rinse the press with sap but loose syrup when changing hoses around) and the bottler, ect... than 0.5 - 1%.

[ennismaple]

And that 3 brix is on vaccumi I'm assuming? It seems the further north you go the higher sugar content, do others see this also? That's impressive, if I see 1.8-2 I'm happy!! Are these trees larger than average, have great crowns? I suppose juat food genetics is possible. Its hard for me to understand and will likely never know what contribute to these high sugar levels.

Yes that's on vacuum. We generally get a few runs per season that are at or above 3%. We seldom drop below 2%. The older section of our woods is mostly a mono-culture of sugars in a woodlot with a lot of very old trees. Our "New Bush" is mostly 16"-18" trees and has only been tapped for a decade. Our winters can be harsh and long - we've been frozen solid since the start of the year. During the season we'll get several week long freeze-ups, which helps the sugar content.

[DrTimPerkins]

SSC tends to start a tad low, then spike up early in the season, then trend downward for the remaining season, with small, fleeting upticks after freezes. SSC tended to be higher than average in Underhill, Vermont (and surrounding areas) in 2019 and lower than normal in 2020. We had an article about it in the Nov 2020 Maple News. The primary figure from that article is below.

sap sugar pmrc 2019 2020.jpg

[Amber Gold]

Here, all sap gets trucked to the sugarhouse and run through a meter with a sap sample taken. I keep a spreadsheet going with a running total for the season. At the end of the season, I divide the syrup produced by number of taps. Most seasons, I'm 55-60:1 for the season.

Also, based on my spreadsheet, the math never works out...syrup just disappears.