Hi!

I am hoping to tap trees for the first time and was hoping for a little bit of advice.

I have only about 15 trees, on a steep (north facing) slope and it was recommended to me to use all 5/16 lines, even for mainline. At the end of the line I want to put a 55 gallon plastic barrel. I bought a fitting for the end tree to loop tube around it - but I can't figure out how to attach it to the tree without is sliding down? For this short (100-150') steep run do I need to get steel cable or can I just stretch the 5/16 tubing tight? And how do I do that? I was reading posts mentioning "chinese fingers" and "end rings" but don't know what that means. Does anybody have any photos or diagrams of this?

Thanks so very much for taking the time to help me as I am trying to figure this out, I just bought land and am SO excited about the sugaring but also realize there is a big learning curve...

Thank you!

Yana