Planning on flushing/instilling a Calcium hypochlorite solution to sanitize my 3/16 tubing system. Does anyone have any guidance as to what concentration of solution to use? I have the simple small packets of pool chlorine.
Planning on flushing/instilling a Calcium hypochlorite solution to sanitize my 3/16 tubing system. Does anyone have any guidance as to what concentration of solution to use? I have the simple small packets of pool chlorine.
1990's: Dad ran a buckets and cinder block evaporator, dragged us kids along.
2020: 35 buckets over a cinder block evaporator
2021: Smoky Lake Dauntless with a divided pan. 45 taps on 3/16 tubing and another 45 buckets. Set up in a Lean-to off the side of the shed
I think they have been using 400 ppm or something like 1/4 teaspoon per gallon.
2010 buckets 12 taps
Retired as Bovine veterinarian
Doing maple for the grandson?
Few more each year
2015- SL 2x4 hybrid 100 taps
2019- homemade RO- 150 taps
2020- 190 taps all 3/16 gravity
2021-210 taps understanding wife
2022-12x12 sugarhouse-SL raised flue pans, 250 taps-enough!
Hey… if it works…
I used some expired IV tubing and solution from the local department training supply, and used a harbor freight hand pump to fill the bag via an opening cut in the top. 2441ABA9-0E92-48CB-8693-37CC7AC42311.jpgC0A52684-0D99-4F61-BB6A-B01A1C67F60E.jpg
1990's: Dad ran a buckets and cinder block evaporator, dragged us kids along.
2020: 35 buckets over a cinder block evaporator
2021: Smoky Lake Dauntless with a divided pan. 45 taps on 3/16 tubing and another 45 buckets. Set up in a Lean-to off the side of the shed
Now that's something I never saw before. An iv bag hooked up to a tree. It must have been feeling under the weather.
Last edited by minehart gap; 11-06-2021 at 07:52 PM.
Matt,
Minehart Gap Maple
Future Generations University received a grant to research 3/16 tubing cleaning issues, I’ve turned over a woods that the tubing has been used 4 years now, there plan is one line no cleaning, one 4 year old line cleaned using the method and chemicals that Art Kruger used! And one line with everything brand new! Should be some good info backed up by numbers probably by the middle of April 2022
Mark 220 Maple
1100 taps on low vaccum, 900 on gravity.
900 plus taps leased and on high vacuum
35 cfm Indiana Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump
80% Sugar, 20% Red MAPLES
http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/g...Maple%20Syrup/
Mark, is this all experiment all vacuum provided by gravity? Will there be any with vacuum assisted by a pump? I wonder if the sanitation would be better if a pump would add to the vacuum provided by gravity in that at the end of a run, the laterals would have more sap removed and less sap available to be taken back by the tree.
Matt,
Minehart Gap Maple
Good to hear FGU will be doing this work. It should extend the findings of prior work into the southern production areas of maple.
If you want more info on cleaning 3/16" tubing before 2022, you can see some of the results that UVM PMRC and Cornell have found at:
https://mapleresearch.org/pub/tubingsani2020/
https://mapleresearch.org/pub/1219tubing-2/
https://www.themaplenews.com/story/5...ar-winner/368/
There are other papers out there also, but I don't have links to them at hand. They all pretty much say the same thing: new is best, sanitation is required, replacement strategies used in 5/16" tubing are not entirely adequate (due to the added clogging issues in 3/16" tubing).
Interesting that people seem to think and refer to it as the "Art Kruger" method. The use of calcium hypochlorite in maple tubing was actually developed at UVM PMRC back around 2012 and then tested for many years as a means to reduce animal damage found when using normal bleach (sodium hypochlorite). Art was an early adopter of 3/16" tubing, so hit the issues of clogging/sanitation earlier than most others. He heard about UVM testing of calcium hypochlorite in talking to Dr. Abby van den Berg (UVM PMRC) and ran with it with great success. What didn't transfer as well is that NOT ALL CALCIUM HYPOCHLORITE IS FOOD-GRADE. It is up to maple producers to ensure that what they are using is suitable.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
Minehart Gap Maple
All natural vacuum test
Mark 220 Maple
1100 taps on low vaccum, 900 on gravity.
900 plus taps leased and on high vacuum
35 cfm Indiana Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump
80% Sugar, 20% Red MAPLES
http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/g...Maple%20Syrup/
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