stopping mid-boil

[bmbmkr]

Still looking around haven’t bought anything yet, looking to stay away from burning wood. I don’t expect a 100+ gallons of sap, almost all the trees except ten have never been touched before, are forest grown and around here it seems forest grown that don’t get too much sun and are surrounded by pines don’t produce as well as the massive ones that thrive in cleared spaces and are 70+ inches around — those handful of large ones near the house give a good amount though.

You may find that those small canopy woods trees will give just as much sap, but that sap will have a lower sugar %, which means even more boiling. You may reduce the number of taps your first year, or even your first week. See how much sap you ge that week, then you can tap the rest of em if need be and time alows. My little rig boils off 20 gallon an hour, and I put 100 taps in and he first few runs I got 2 gallons per tap, my first boil was 20 hours! Second was 18 hours, after that I boiled 8, slept 8, boiled 8 etc.. Bought an RO the next year and doubled my taps. Even for a small producer, RO is the way to go! Welcome to the maple bug addition group.

[buckeye gold]

bmbmkr is right you know what you'll get out of a tree when you tap it. I have a few that have so much damage that the hollow center shows, but they have grown over the edges of the exposed heart. I tap those new growth area and they gush sap. Once I have tapped all the good new growth I cut them down for firewood. I have some that I have tapped for 7-8 years and still get sap, others 2-3 years and down they come.