Just a follow-up to this since the point of getting my escarpment lines set up was to access the trees up top. I started tapping from the crest of the ridge and worked my way down the line of trees which slopes down and away from the crest. I was hoping once the lines filled with sap, natural vacuum due to gravity would take over and success! My first 25 taps on 3/16” started running with no trouble at all. I went back for round two which was starting to get more difficult and added 25 more taps, hooking them up to a 5/16” line. Using line of sight my tubing was nearly ground level near the ridge and head height farthest from the edge but it still worked just fine which brought me up to 50 taps. ��

I had an arbitrary goal of 75 taps this year and was scratching my head at bit for the next section of trees. At this point there was a decent drop and my line was already at head level so I wasn’t sure what to do. I decided to try a combination of gravity feed and a sap ladder I’d seen on a video for a vacuum system for my third part. I started my tubing at head height, following the trees down the hill until I got past ~15 trees and then looped back towards my starting point. As I doubled back I kept bringing my line down to work with gravity and ended up at the same tree I started from with about 6’ of height difference. At this spot, I crafted a sap ladder and ran four 5/16” lines directly up the tree, attaching it to the end of my second section and held my breath. I got to work on the new line and put in 25 taps, all of which feed the sap ladder using gravity.

I can’t even tell you how thrilled I was when the ladder immediately filled with sap, started pulling it up the tree and then continued on down the line! I just watched those bubbles float right up carrying the sap along with them. I really didn’t know if it was actually going to *work* and to see it in action is so satisfying! I’m sure I could get more volume using a vacuum pump, or by collecting to a main tank and transferring the sap to my sugar shack but for a gravity fed system this is pretty cool. We got over 10’ of snow this year on the Bruce Peninsula so I carried everything in by hand and was not looking forward to dragging a pump, battery, tank etc. over to get my 75 taps total. If I’m honest it’s working quite a bit better than expected, the sap was just pouring out of the lines into my tank today. Now I have a new problem, worrying if my new pan for boiling is going to keep up! ��. I think an RO will be on the list for next year.

I think I should stick a vacuum gauge on the farthest end to get an idea of what’s going on. That might tell me if I could do the same thing next year by adding another sap ladder to get more taps in. I could still experiment this year but I’d have to buy more tubing and I’m getting so very tired of snowshoeing across a huge field.