Is it really worth sugaring in the 2023 season??

[TheNamelessPoet]

So it's been 7 days since I tapped and things do not look good. First when I drilled the hole no sap came out. In the past 6 years of tapping trees some sap had always started to flow before the spline was even put in. Temps dropped that night (Friday) from 40 to 19 and the next day only had a high of 27. No Sap probably frozen. By Sunday it warmed up to 40 and the Sap started to flow, YAY! since then the weather has been high of 40's to low of 30. 50 taps and less than 18 gallons of sap in 7 days. Next 7 days looking to be more of the same temps ranging 50 to 32 I am expecting no more sap, Am I wrong in thinking this?. Is this year going to be a bust??

I feel your pain. Yesterday I got 30 out of my 60 or so taps, and 17 the day before. Before that, I don't think i had any since Tuesday or Wednesday last week. What a weird year.

[DaveB]

So it's been 7 days since I tapped and things do not look good. First when I drilled the hole no sap came out. In the past 6 years of tapping trees some sap had always started to flow before the spline was even put in. Temps dropped that night (Friday) from 40 to 19 and the next day only had a high of 27. No Sap probably frozen. By Sunday it warmed up to 40 and the Sap started to flow, YAY! since then the weather has been high of 40's to low of 30. 50 taps and less than 18 gallons of sap in 7 days. Next 7 days looking to be more of the same temps ranging 50 to 32 I am expecting no more sap, Am I wrong in thinking this?. Is this year going to be a bust??

You just tapped 7 days ago so the tap holes should be fine. Next week looks like a great week here except you're thinking your lows will only marginally freeze and that's not good enough. Maybe you'll do better on some of those days?

[Leckster]

Well this season is a bust. The trees are budding and I have 26 gallons of which I do not think will be any good to boil. Its taken 4 weeks to get that much and I believe that 4 week old sap would be not be good to boil, is that correct?? It would only get me maybe a 1/2 gallon anyway.

I guess with having a drought through the summer and into December and then temps in the winter which did not drop below 30 for most of the season is the cause. Not sure about the drought part but maybe someone here knows how a prolonged dry spell affects the trees. It did become very wet in December through the maple season but just not cold.

[Andy VT]

4 weeks is probably too long for the sap to be good, but if you had boiled it as you go and stored each little boiled batch separately in the fridge, you could now boil it all into syrup.

Of course, the worst that can happen is that it will taste bad. You could try boiling now to make sure you kill anything, and give the sap a taste. If it tastes good, you're good and you could finish it to syrup.