Absolutely wild. It's supposed to be ice fishing season. Where is winter 😭

Something something climate change something something

Yeah something like that

That's messed up. Trees can be injured by coming out of their winter state too early, then getting hit with a hard freeze. That must happen pretty frequently with sugar maples, though. Hopefully they've evolved to tolerate it.

That’s fucked up.

Whelp, look at the bright side. Maple producers are getting a bonus harvest this year. Economic win? Maybe?

Until all the trees die

I'm a maple producer. This actually ruins the season. Trees don't have unlimited sap. And at this time of year it's not viable to put taps in trees for most people, this is because the trees will freeze again and push the taps back out among other issues. So basically people like me just lost ~10% of their yield on top of the fact that thaws like this are detrimental to the health of a tree as all the sap that travels up the tree is going to refreeze now all the rest of winter

That stink. Thank you for the insider knowledge.

New Hampshire used to have 4 distinct seasons. So much for that I guess.

Mud, Blackfly, Tick, and Mosquito?

Must be tiring looking at the negative side of things all the time.

Or you’re a native to Northern New England, where “mud season” doesn’t exist on the Roman calendar, yet everyone can state when it’s time. Same for “tick season” “blackflies” and “mosquito”.

There was a time when “trout season” “deer season” and “hunting season” meant things too, but flatlanders have decided those are anachronisms of a hateful era.

The first sap run is usually garbage. We don't even use it.

Cool, well the rest of use an actual calendar and used to enjoy the real 4 seasons. Which are disappearing thanks to people sticking their head in the sand.

I don't think they have. I've heard it predicted that it will soon be too warm for sugar maples in the southern part of the state.

Got a big enough tank? Must have fucking 5 acres of trees hooked up bleed em till they die?

I've been feathering in higher-zoned saplings here and there in the (increasingly reasonable) chance that we're headed for zone 6a and up here in the NH seacoast area

They might mean that it's too warm to get a good sugar harvest. I don't think the warmth would kill the trees.

So sad.

I was thinking that might not be good for the trees, if you don’t tap does the warm spells still harm them?

Why is that?

It just isn't very good sap. Sugar content is low and it's not enough for us to bother collecting. It's not worth the energy it would take to boil it vs how much syrup we'd get from it.

I saw a dogwood tree the other night with the beginning on blooms on it. Sad it will likely not bloom this spring.

It's my understanding that Ben uses a vacuum system on his trees so they shouldn't reject the taps later.

Yes, I've visited his setup, the vacuum system does wonders! I'll invest in a vacuum system as well some day but man it's costly

It’s a joke, grumpy

I'm slumming it with buckets and tubing on a propane burner haha. Project this year is to convert an old barrel into a proper evaporator/smoker. I would love to have money to invest in an RO system some day

Oh man getting out of propane was the first thing I did. I made a home-made oil drum, restaurant pot style evaporator that worked okay. How many taps do you run? I'm actually getting a leader micro extreme ro to replace my diy 400gpd membranes

I have 20 maple taps and we made about a gallon of sap last year. I think we can do better this year if the weather cooperates

Hence, this is a trash winter.

We've had first mud season yes, but what about second?

The mud is awful yesterday and today

Everyone's head is in the sand.

As someone who knows pretty little about the intricacies of syrup making and the weather it takes what does zone 6a mean?

I've been seeing a lot of trees shedding bark this year. Wonder if the warmth has anything to do with it. I've got a huge silver elm tree that I'm going to need to cut down unfortunately.

there's these bands of 'zones' across the USA, and as the weather gets warmer, the zones drift north. Trees and plants are assigned to a zone, and if you stick to your zone, you should be less disappointed by them dying or underperforming.

You can google a picture up, just search for "USDA Zone Map" and voila, you'll pretty much get 90% of it in 10 seconds or less.

Oh good luck! I've got 700, shooting for 1000 this year

Thanks

Wow! That is a lot. I'm just tapping the dozen or so trees in my backyard. I gave away half of my syrup to friends last year bc we can't use that much. Majority of my syrup consumption is in my morning coffee.

How much syrup did you get from 700 taps last year?

I’ve got buds on my forsythia.

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1. Don't know anything about that. First I'm hearing of it.

2. This isn't advertising? It's a screenshot of a public Facebook post. My post is just about the weather.

It’s like Second Breakfast. We must be in Middle Earth 😉

65ish gallons, definitely want more!

> I've been seeing a lot of trees shedding bark this year.

I don't know if this is what you're seeing, but inconsistent cold can cause the bark on trees to crack and pop off. During the warmth of the day (or if a tree gets a lot of direct sun) the sap can begin to flow but then night falls and the sap freezes and expands, pushing the bark off the wood. This is why you'll often see trees that get direct sun be wrapped in white tape/fabric or painted white from ground level up a foot or two.

It’s a good thing that Ben just buys and rebottles almost all he sells for syrup

Gotcha, I thought maybe sugar fraction was low. But I would be only guessing I never even tapped one tree. Some nearby people do it in very small scale. I am happy to buy from the road stands.