2020 - 1st year - 13 black walnut taps - 4 bottles syrup
2021 - 50 taps, 22 black walnuts/28 red maples - 4 gallons syrup
2022 - 54 taps, 11 black walnuts/41 red maples, 20 on solar shurflo vacuum - 8.5 gallons syrup
2023 - 47 taps on 45 red maples, 43 on solar shurflo vacuum
Totally up to you.
My neighbour has 330 taps and as soon as he gets 200 litres of syrup he's done. I think he only
gathered sap 4 times last year!
Last year i boiled until the sugar content was lo.After i stopped my trees
ran for another ten days.
Last edited by ir3333; 03-18-2021 at 07:14 PM.
I've never run to the end of the season. We are a boutique, high quality operation. AKA small potatoes. We run between 30-50 taps, and cook until we don't feel like it. Could be 2 batches, could be 4. Just tapped last weekend in far northern WI. We'll start cooking tomorrow. First batch will be about 200 gallons of sap.
Sugar content declines toward the end of the season, and and when it declines to a certain point, do you stop due to the much longer boil / RO times? I’ll using a refractometer this year first time, so I’m testing sap much more frequently, and I’ve noticed some trees / patches are showing <1%, while others are still at or above 2%. I’m considering whether to stop collecting from the low sugar trees, although with RO it’s just more electricity cost. The sugar %s are different enough from patch to patch that I’ve wondered about the reliability of the refractometer. But it’s been consistent in the same patches.
2022 is season 7
2016: 20 taps on buckets, 4 gallons on a borrowed 2x3.
2017: 32 taps on buckets, 8 gallons of syrup, on a "loaner" Lapierre 19x48.
2018: 80 taps. First time tubing. New 10x12 sugar shack, Lapierre 2x5. Made 17 gallons
2019: 100 taps. 22 gallons. Added a small RO 50 gph.
2020: 145 taps, 30 gallons, sold half. Murphy cup is a great addition.
2021: tapped Feb 23, 150 taps, 35 gallons.
2022: 200 taps. I lost 50, added 100. Having fun but short season?
I pulled my buckets last night. My one Red maple had turned sour and the others just dried up a bit after this last warm weekend.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
I end my season due to lack of sap more than anything. I have a north facing sugarbush that thaws out later than many. I've got 108 taps with 90+ of those on 3/16 in lines. This year was strange with many days in the high 60s and even 70s. My sap started to get a little cloudy yesterday but I made 2 gals of real nice amber syrup. Today (3/23) there is no sap running at my sugarbush neither in the buckets or lines on the hill. I didn't make as much as I usually do and I missed the first good run we had here in SW Vt a few weeks ago. Time to pull the taps, clean up and plan for next year...
We end it when we see sap quality diminish, and when I get tired. Did a final boil last night of 120 gallons, walked out of the shack, the peepers were singing and the worms were scurrying.
My wife and I will finish bottling this weekend.
2014 6 Taps Block Arch and momas canning pot, 3 gallons YIKES
2019 100 taps and a new adventure with a home built arch.
2020 90 taps, my wife and I and a Bucket RO...
2021 112 taps and a modified Bucket RO.
2022 120 taps, modified Bucket RO a Wife, Son and Springer
when I fulfill my orders for the family and I have 2 gal for myself.
then if I feel like making more... I do.
yes trout fishing and golf are some motivators to stop.
Trees really tell the story. Once sap goes below 2 brix I don't process or the trees bud.
had a long boil late in the season this year with the usual darker syrup result.Checked the sap in my trees and the sugar content in the smaller trees
was 1% or less but my bigger trees were still 2% and higher.
The next time i collected sap i dumped full pails from the smaller trees and just collected from the big trees. My barrels were above 2% sugar and I
had shorter boils with nice amber syrup.