How does one do a tubing end, with no vacuum?

[lobstafari]

Hello, this was my first year with a run of tubing. I came right off the tap with the line, and noticed it wasnt even running half of what it was with the buckets. I vented the end with a 3-way, and it seemed to run better. Is this the way to do it? What did I do wrong? Is it possible to rig vacuum for cheap on a small operation? (60 trees). I only had 15 trees on the tubing run, but would like to do them all, just for the ease of lugging, but want a good run, too. The tubing was never full-flow (ie gas exchange was close to ok) Any input is welcome and appreciated. Thanks in advance.------Jeremy

Usually the 5/16 lines are not vented. If you have sufficent drop in your liines then as the sap flowa down some natural vacuum should develop. If it is vented then this can not happen. Your lines should drop at least 5 feet in 100 foot of run, more is better. You can add vacuum by using an olded milker pump from a dairy farm, but you need a way to either collect the sap in a tank that has vacuum on it or you need a dumper that will release the sap from the vacuum vessel into the storage tank. You should not plan to put all 60 trees on one line, 10 taps or so is enough for one line.

[pegjam2]

With the small amount of trees you are talking about, you can use a bender milk releaser. This device was used by dairy farmers who milked with buckets, and used a dumping station to transfer the milk to the tank. If you have any dairy suppliers in your area, you can call them and ask if they have any used ones. They cost about 125-150. All you need for a vacuum pump is a delavel model 73. This set up will work for about 250-500 taps. As was posted before, break up the number of taps on one lateral to 10 or less, 5 is much better. Use 3/4" mainline, and don't use lamb turtles, they don't work very well. Saddles are a much better way to go, but you do need to make sure they seal. Also, get your mainlines on wire, don't put them on the ground. Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Maple Hound]

If your looking for a good way to put vacuume on your tubing watch your local auctions for small Zero milk tanks and small vacuume pumps. I was able to purchase 2 zero 300 gallon tanks that can be directly vacuumed and paid less than $50.00 for them I also bought a 1 horse vacuume pump for only $10.00. You might not be as lucky but the point is that this size equipment is to small for a full time dairy operation so they sell cheap. GOOD LUCK.

[Maple Hound]

Also keep in mind that vacuume is not used to move the sap through the lines faster but to lower the BP. at the tap hole thus alowing the tree to give more sap. If you watch your lines and the sap is moving rapidly through it then you have a leak (not a good thing). The sap shouldn't move at a fatst pace just a steady one and the closer to the tap the slower it will seem to move. This may not sound right but it will greatly increase your yield.

[DougM]

Any suggestions for the size of pump?

Here in central Indiana our ground is pretty flat, so any tubing would have to be under vacuum. Dairies are also pretty scarce so finding a Zero pump like you're talking about may not be easy. But, there are a bunch of different pumps on eBay, some fairly cheap.

The Leader catalog lists a 17 cfm pump for 1500 taps, we only have around 100, so I'm guessing we can get away with something a lot smaller.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Doug

[pegjam]

Dougm


As long as it is a vacuum pump, names don't really mean much. I use surge pumps, as well as delaval pumps, which are cheap for the smaller ones. A surge pump that would work very well for you would be a sp-11 model, a delaval pump would be a 73 model. The biggest expense you will have is the shipping cost to get it to you. If you can't find one for a reasonable cost (less than $200) let me know and I can locate one for you. My email address is pegjam@infoblvd.net.