climate

"if temperatures fall below freezing at night but climb to the 40°F+ range during the day, the sap will begin to flow and it’s time to get out there and tap your maple trees!"-mapletapper.com_____________________a trip around deep river county park this afternoon we enlightening...the trees say it isn't spring yet ( unlike the ones in my front yard ) but there are signs of spring around...the "maple syrup time" sign for instance...they will be boiling sap down in the sugar shack:

next month...traditional wisdom has it that you begin tapping sugar maples on the first of march...this has been pretty well debunked as fallacious and the timing is more or less based on day/night temperature variations per the opening quote...so some begin tapping in jaunuary...looking back on the temperature history for this area in january there were eight days that fit those parameters...the others were mostly below freezing while three had highs that ranged from 51 to 62 degrees fahrenheit ( in january mind you ) which may or may not impact sap flows ( more research )...this month has had only six day ( so far ) that fell within those boundaries while fifteen days have had highs ranging from 51 to 69 degrees ( fahrenheit )...the buckest i peered into were not brimming with sap...i also do not know what sort of emptying schedule is being observed...i may have just missed it...i will be attending "sugar time" and asking a few questions...one thing that maplertapper did have to say was that anyone tapping trees should stop when the trees "bud out" as this can lead to an unpleasant "buddy" flavor in the finished syrup...i would direct your attention to my last post about the premature budding of the maples in my yard and then i would wonder about that flavor.