Eastern Wisconsin

[Super Sapper]

I'm glad the 3/16 worked well for you. I could still be making syrup but I ended up with more than I expected and have a lot of work to do on the Sugar Shack. Boiling for 12 straight days played into it also as when it came it came in hard. I had 2200 gallons of sap in 8 days on 300 taps. I could have had more but did not have time to check for leaks and plugged lines. I had an issue with a white growth plugging up the screen on the shurflo pumps and when I pulled taps noticed that I have a few 3/16 Tee's plugged also. On one run I replaced some 3/4 main with about 300 feet of 3/16 and had around 20 taps on a fairly level area and noticed that I only lost 1 or 2 inches of vacuum from the pump to the end of the line. They were cheap gauges and I was not able to get the other portion of the line tight so I was only able to pull about 12 inches when it ran good. I was able to hit 23 to 25 on the other line in that woods.

[RIVERWINDS]

I had an issue with a white growth plugging up the screen on the shurflo pumps

Super Sapper, I also had this issue...even went to a bigger mesh and still no luck...plugged right tight within an hour or so. I eventually just took the strainer out. Never have seen it before but most everyone I talked to around me also had this. I'd like to know what it is.

[littleTapper]

Sugarpop, great numbers! That 3/16 sure is impressive. Wish I could use it here, but I'm pancake flat. Surflo sounds like my future. Sick of scrubbing buckets and need to get the sap out of the silvers during the narrow window I seem to get with them.

I finally wrapped up too but was pretty much done in mid-March. Silvers were done ages ago and barely ran with the warm weather, but 2 sugars kept me going on a tiny scale up until earlier this week. Last sugar maple I pulled the plug on was tapped (tubing dropped to a bucket) for 68 days. On it's last day it pushed out 2 gallons of sap. What a tree!

Made 5.5 gallons of maple and 1.5 gallons of box elder syrup this year. Not great, but I'm not going to complain. It's all delicious and I had fun.

Learned a lot this year too. Tapping early may have helped with my silvers, but tapholes did dry up a bit with the insanely warm stretches we had and may have offset early gains. Very few above/below cycles in March and silvers' flower buds opened on 3/8. Pattern was warm up and stay above freezing for several days, then drop and stay below freezing. Noticed a big difference with Sugars and Norways compared to silvers that when the days would start to cool off (yet still be above freezing), the silvers would stop dripping as soon as the temp went down. Sugars and Norways kept on going until it froze again or got to 2+ days above freezing. This leads me to think I can prolong the runs of the silvers with vacuum. Some monstrous silvers this year gave me only a couple gallons of sap. One (>48" in diameter) gave me about a pint total Only a few ran decently and at least 15 taps didn't do squat. For taps that actually ran, my yield was about a pint of syrup per tap. I suspect more normal weather and vacuum will drown me in sap, and that's ok

My new arch and pan performed wonderfully. Best part of the year for sure. Awesome to watch something I slapped together average north of 12gph from startup to draining each time and on natural draft. That was fun. Friends and neighbors enjoyed standing around and watching firewood disappear, sap turn into syrup and visiting.

Perhaps I should just take a month off of work during maple season and string up 3/16 on the steeper slopes of the family farm in western Jackson county. Sucks it's about a 4-hour drive to get there...but there's thousands of trees there too.

[DuncanFTGC/SS]

Ran good up here, yesterday, was running a little this afternoon, even with the snow and wind. Hoping to collect a little more over the weekend and one more boil next week.

[inthewoods]

I just want to let everyone in northeast Wisconsin know that we started carrying supplies for maple producers. We are not a full-line equipment dealer, but we have a lot of the consumables a maple producer needs. Some of the things we carry are taps, tubing, bags, bag holders, filters, filter aid, glass/plastic bottles, and more. We are located in Manitowoc. If you have questions on products that I carry and pricing info, call or message me (Jesse). (920)242-9050

[gatzow]

Forecast has me getting anxious!! That 15 day for southeast looks like it's almost time to get in the woods!!

[gatzow]

I put 60 taps out. Did I go to early? Maybe. But sap is absolutely pouring out of trees today. I was just going to do a couple test trees, but when I saw it, I couldn't stop... I'm officially open for business.

[gatzow]

.5-1 gallon average per bucket in first 24 hours. Wind did take out 4 buckets. A couple trees filled up my 2 gallon buckets already. Not much in the biggest/oldest trees. I might have gone early, but it's a solid early run that makes me feel better about missing some on the tail end. Just means I can get to spring chores sooner.

[Irish Ridge]

Looking at it the same way as you over by Prairie du Chien. Collecting sap Monday morning early. Checked sap output today - same results as you. Wind was just as wild over here today. I truly believe we are not jumping the gun. Heres to a good season.

[Chemist]

Just tapped near West Bend yesterday. Seems I could have tapped earlier. Trees ran well except for what looks like 2 dead holes. 30/32 were dripping like crazy as soon as tapped them.