What a year! Average sap per tap so far is 20.22 gallons all on buckets!! Pretty average sugar as well, hovering around 2.2 to 2.4%. A few trees (Silvers) today started the flowering stage and I expect more the next day or so. Another short reminder on Tuesday night & Wednesday morning that winter is still around. Temps not looking favorable for me after that, figure a couple more collection days left. Best wishes for the rest of you on a bountiful season!!
SDdave
It's not the size of the tree...it's what inside that counts!
Only 3 gallon per tap in Central MN, last Sunday-Saturday. Crazy flow on a few today 2-2.5 gallons in about 16 hours. Lower than I usually get 2-2.5% sugar.Originally Posted by buck3m
Made a little over 2 gallons of syrup on Saturday from early sap. Trees are taking a nap for now, but hope for another run later this week.
I have been experiencing lower than normal sugar content as well. The flow has been great! 6.5 gallons so far.
Yesterday I decided to call it, mainly because of time. It was a good sap year! 12 gallons of finished sap. My final ratios were up from usual 38.6:1 for sap to syrup ratios. Normally I get anywhere from 33:1 to 35:1. I am not complaining though especially after how last year went for me. Hopefully those of you still going can get through this warm up and the sap is still good! Now the clean-up begins!!
Pull Taps?
This is my second year tapping trees (first full season). I have no confidence in gauging the buds on the trees and trying to figure out when I should be calling it quits. I'm in the Saint Michael area...anyone else around here pulling there taps due to "buddy" syrup?
Thanks,
Jeremiah
Pulling Taps
Hi Jeremiah,
I'm in Chaska behind the Arboretum. I've been tapping Maple & Black Walnut for about 40 years now. I tapped maples 0n Jan 28th this year and black walnuts on Jan 30th. I pulled my taps on both on the 3rd of March this year. Most years I have not even tapped by this time. With the weather being what it is, I feel we are in uncharted territory and I do not feel qualified to make any guesses on what the remainder (if any) of the season is left.
My advice would be to taste the sap or to have several people taste the sap. If it tastes sour or "green", I would not waste the time boiling it. Some folks will continue processing sap even if it is still a bit cloudy as this can still make rather decent dark syrup. The sugar concentrations are definitely dropping now so it will take a bit more sap to make good syrup. Hope this helps.
All the very best,
Johnny
Thanks for the feedback Jonny. It was an afterthought last year when I thought I'd try tapping 5 sugar maples on our new home/property in late March and I quit when I hit 50 gallons which happened to correlate to all the bucket space I had.
I loved it so I tapped 10 trees this year the same date you did when I saw some promising (and really abnormal) temps and have been boiling each weekend. I boiled all the sap collected as of Saturday and am at about 4 gallons of finished syrup. I think I'll just let it roll until Friday and call it quits unless I get any tips otherwise.
It's just so much fun I don't want to stop!
Don't worry about the buds, let the smell/taste of the sap tell you when you should be done. Both taste and/or smell will be off and recognizable when you collect from the pails.
On point advice here. I'll add cloudy sap as a sign, but cloudy sap just makes me taste it to be sure.
I'm just a bit north of Princeton, I have not checked sap since Sunday but my feeling is the silvers/reds might be nearing the end while the sugar maples are just getting started really. We'll see what this warm snap does here. The next few weeks look nice.
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