Sap

[tattoo dave]

I drove by a place yesterday around the corner from my house, and the owner already has his maple trees tapped for making syrup. It was in the sixties last week, but sap isn't running yet is it??? Seems way early.

Tattoo Dave

[PatM]

Pretty typical when the weather is right.

[upstatenybowyer]

I tapped mine about 5 days ago. It ran for about 2.5 days then quit. It got cold again today so when it gets back up in the 40s again, game on!

[DC]

Freezing at night and warm in the day, isn't it? I tried tapping our Big Leafed Maples a few years back. I got lots of sap but there isn't much sugar in it. I think I used $20 worth of propane to boil down about $3 worth of kinda bitterish syrop Drinking the sap was good though.

[upstatenybowyer]

^Yup. We look for 20s at night and 40s during the day. The cold restarts the cycle of sap running again. Last year we put in 60 or so taps. At 2% sugar it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. It's a ton of work, especially with a homemade evaporator and no RO machine.

[PatM]

The sap of Maple trees flows by a different mechanism than is typical for most trees. That's why the freeze thaw cycle is a key rather than  time of year.

[upstatenybowyer]

The sap of Maple trees flows by a different mechanism than is typical for most trees. That's why the freeze thaw cycle is a key rather than  time of year.

This is true and perhaps it has something to do with how sugar maple bark has never just slipped off easily for me, regardless of the time of year.

[PatM]

I haven't noticed that. Might be the texture of the bark that makes it harder to manually peel.

[DC]

This is true and perhaps it has something to do with how sugar maple bark has never just slipped off easily for me, regardless of the time of year.

That's because syrup is sticky, doncha know

[tattoo dave]

Good to know. Thanks fellas. I've never been into tapping for syrup. I was just thinking of cutting staves, and peeling bark.

Tattoo Dave