Sap sak questions

[Brent]

We use a mixture of bags and buckets and pipeline

I would switch totally to bags if it were not for my wife who likes the traditional buckets. She, at least in part likes to show visitors to the bush, all three methods of collecting and people do seem to relate to the buckets and then get curious about the bags and pipeline as the tour progresses.

In 3 seasons I think we had maybe 5 to 10 develope leaks. Acceptable failure rate out of 100 bags. I think those failures were largely caused by carelessness when pulling a heavy bag off the tree and snagging it on a sharp bit of bark. If you hang them on the lee side of the tree, they stay on better in a big blow, but it is a minor issue. The weather patterns generally have the big blows bringing in a cold front that stops the flow, at least in our area, and you don't lose much when they blow off when it's really cold.

Try a few, I think you'll like them

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Rubbermaid also has 31 gallon containers that don't cost much more and work great for small runs of tubing.

[lightsteve]

I use some sacks and they have worked nicely. Can be a little fussy about how they are hung on the holder, if not done right they will fall off when full of sap. Also have had some issues with leaking if the sap gets frozen. My biggest problem with them is probably the disposable nature of the bags, they don't last all that long and end up going to the dump.

Getting the heavier bags is definitely a good idea.

Steve

[Dave Lister]

How many seasons on average will they last if washed out and left to dry come April? I just hate the idea of single use plastic items that end up going to the incenerator or landfill after a year or two.

[Brent]

Never tried to wash and re-use.

What we do (did ) on trees that have sharp bits of bark sticking out is just knock off the points and the sacks don't get damaged, especially when they get real full or frozen and are more suseptable to punctures.

Might try washing some this year

[RileySugarbush]

We tried washing them reusing them at first. It is a real pain. The big advantage over buckets is not washing them at the end of the year. Now we use them for only one season each.

[ericjeeper]

If you get a sack with a hole in it.. replace with a new sack and poke the old one over the tap to protect the bag from the sharp spot on the tree. I kept getting a leaker a few years ago, finally discovered an old piece of barbed wire poking out of the tree.. Hammered it down. good to go now.

[ryan marquette]

I use a little of everything.
Pros:
Bags are easy to handle (don't have to carry covers & pails in the woods), easy to see whats in them from a distance,when a little sap in them easy to empty(dump them without ever taking them off the spout), no struggling to take pails apart, no washing pails. Don't get me wrong there are some cons I still like to use some pails. I'll sleep on the cons.

[hanson]

Here are some of our homemade sap bag holders. They are made out of a piece pvc the bags are fastened on with strapping tape. The taps we use are the plastic ones for tubing. we leave on corner opened and pour out of that. I know the commercial ones are better but these are a heck of a lot cheaper! As the photo shows these bags are full! The one advantage besides being cheaper is you can use the whole bag. You don't have to fold it over.

[KenWP]

What kind of bags are they. They look like they are real full and all on the same tree. I wouldn't mind bags in one place I tap as it's a pain hauling all that crap way out in the woods.