Southwest PA Tapping 2024

[DRoseum]

Happy new year - hope this year and syrup season are great for all of you!

Starting the 2024 tapping thread for our area.

Hung my tubing this weekend and getting everything ready over the next couple weeks. Looks like this week will have a lot of days above freezing followed by a week of freezing temps. Depending what it looks like I'll probably tap as we come out of that. Last year's weather in February has me anxious.

[DRoseum]

Next week might be go-time here.

[sbedilion]

Not ideal weather but I might be tapping 1/2 my trees Sunday.

[DRoseum]

I pulled the trigger. 112 taps. It's the earliest I've ever tapped, but on vacuum, and after last year I hope this season is a bit longer/better.

I won't have time in upcoming weekends to tap and I enjoy tapping in the snow far better than the rain and mud.

[SRM]

Wow, I haven't even cleaned my pan yet. I'm heading to CDL in Somerset for additional jars and supplies today or tomorrow. I feel like I'm missing the boat and way behind. My RTV and quad are both under repair too. I don't know how I'm going to get the sap out of the woods when I do start tapping. Anyone have a working Kubota RTV900w they want to sell or trade for a JD backhoe?

[sbedilion]

80ish taps done since last wkend. Have about 60 gallons of sap waiting to boil. I have 1 more line to tap but I might skip it this year.

SRM....I'm pretty close to you. Lone Pine. Shipe Run Road.

[SRM]

That **** groundhog better see his shadow because I finally got 110 taps in so far and haven't had sap flow yet. I am working on a solar vacuum for 35 more taps, but I'm still waiting for delivery of needed parts. Fixed the Kubota and took the 6x6 to get fixed. Haven't checked my buckets yet, so there is hope something is in them. It's been 3 days and nothing is flowing on gravity. Next year I'm getting a vacuum on everything, no more walking up and down hills with buckets. Come on Phil, I want 6 more weeks of Winter!

[DRoseum]

Vacuum is the way to go! I switched to shurflo vacuum pumps on 3/16 lines from buckets 3 years ago (this is my 4th season on it) and would never go back. I easily get double or quadruple the sap thanks to vacuum. I have a little over 100 taps and have gathered over 750 gallons in past week or so.

I am predominately red maples which can be really finicky on gravity, but run great on vacuum.

If any of you ever need any help/advice on shurflo vacuum setups, just ping me. Glad to help.

[SRM]

Well my vacuum idea went bust. I put together the solar vacuum setup but couldn't get power to the temp controller. Well after a while I figured I had a bad negative slot on the solar controller's load area. I am going to scrap the idea of vacuum this year and have everything set up for next year.
So far with 118 taps or so, I boiled 255 gallons of sap. This week looks good. The taps on the steep hills seem to be doing the best this year. The low lying taps are not producing much at all.

sbedilion....stop by if you are around this week, Condit Crossing on any US map. Look for smoke and steam on the hill.....

[HowardR]

Due to a blood clot in my calf, I wasn't able to start tapping until February 16, so I missed the first half of this year's season. I don't know what to expect now: My red maples (most of my sugar bush) are already starting to bud, but the forecast looks good for the next two weeks. If I get about half of my usual amount of syrup, I'll be pleased.