Good to hear from you spud. How many taps you got in this year?
Good to hear from you spud. How many taps you got in this year?
305 taps on 2 Shurflo's, 31 taps on 3/16" and 229 taps on gravity. 565 in all
Mountain Maple S3 controller for 145 of the vacuum taps
2x6 Darveau Mystique Oil Fired Evaporator w/ Smoky Lake Simplicity Auto Draw
Wesfab 7” filter press
I have 3500 taps in my new woods. There is another 300 I will add for next season.
Spud
Sap is still running 100 gph. I should hit 7000 gallons by freeze up tonight. Sugar went down to 1.3%. This two day run was nice, it helped me find and fix most of my leaks.
Spud
I’ve gotten about 2 gallons of sap per tap over this run as well. Testing quite low at 1.2 and 1.0. Looking like we’ll have a nice long freeze over the next 2 weeks. Agree with spud; this was a good opportunity to go hunting for leaks. I was able to tighten up to 28 inches of vacuum over this run.
825 Taps
CDL Rotary Vane Vacuum Pump
H2O Electric Releaser
2024- 825 taps 17725 gallons of sap
2023- 825 taps 17325 gallons of sap
2022- 800 taps 12375 gallons of sap
2021- 350 taps 3815 gallons of sap
Still working on getting the taps in. Work was very busy last week, and I was not able to get free to work in the woods until well after dark. CDL was down today to install the pump control for the vacuum pump. It's a neat system and I look forward to not having to keep watch on temps and going to the sugarhouse at late hours to turn off the vacuum. The system can also reduce vacuum to levels to decrease ice issues at lower temps. We have a few deer and squirrel chews which were missed in December when new taps were put on or happened since then.
Mike
Tapping since 1985 (four generations back to early to mid 1900s). 200-250 taps on buckets and then tubing in the mid 90s. 2013- 275 taps w/sap puller 25 gal. 2014-295 taps w/sap puller 55 ga. (re-tapped to vacuum theory) 2015-330 taps full vac. 65 gal, 2016-400 taps 105 gal, 2017-400 taps 95 gal. 2018-additional 800' mainline and maybe 400 new taps for a total near 800 taps. 2x6 Leader WSE (last year on it) supported by a 250 gph RO.
Turning off the pump for the next two weeks. Back to bitter winter
825 Taps
CDL Rotary Vane Vacuum Pump
H2O Electric Releaser
2024- 825 taps 17725 gallons of sap
2023- 825 taps 17325 gallons of sap
2022- 800 taps 12375 gallons of sap
2021- 350 taps 3815 gallons of sap
Some sap was dripping into the tank this afternoon but not enough for me to turn the pump on. I was able to wash my tank today and have it ready for the next run.
Spud
I got about 1000 gallons yesterday. Sap ran a little all night. Sugar has gone up to 1.7%.
Spud
A little over 1 gal of sap/tap at 1.5%
825 Taps
CDL Rotary Vane Vacuum Pump
H2O Electric Releaser
2024- 825 taps 17725 gallons of sap
2023- 825 taps 17325 gallons of sap
2022- 800 taps 12375 gallons of sap
2021- 350 taps 3815 gallons of sap
I think I'm going to tap for buckets this coming Monday or Tuesday, February 26 or 27. I was aiming for March 1, now adjusting slightly due to really warm temperatures in the 10 day forecast. However, I'm going to hold off maybe a week after that for the norway maples. My neighbor tapped norway about a week later than me last year and got 4 times the yield. I think the norways may heal faster.
Right now it feels like its just going to shoot up to 70 degrees any moment, but we really don't know, do we?
2024: 28 taps, 7 gallons. RB5 purchased but not opened :-(
2023: 30 taps, 17 trees, 11 properties, Sugar Maple & Norway. 2x3 flat over propane & kitchen finish. ~11(!) gallons.
2022: 9 taps, 5 trees, 4 properties. 3 hotel pans on 3 Coleman 2-burner stoves burning gasoline; kitchen finish. ~3 gallons.
2021: 2 taps, 1 sugar maple. Propane grill then kitchen finish. ~Pint.
All years: mainly 5/16" drops into free supermarket frosting buckets. Some plastic sap buckets hanging on 5/16 sap-meister.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
