With frigid temperatures stunting sap runs well into March this year, many local maple producers plan to tap their entire syrup reserve this Maine Maple Sunday, while others may not even open their doors.

Typically, sap starts flowing in late February, leaving sugarhouses well stocked for Maine Maple Sunday, which will take place for its 32nd edition on March 22. This year, unseasonably cold weather has frozen the trees, delaying the first sap runs well into March. Most producers saw their first runs on March 12 or March 13, according to Lyle Merrifield, the president of the Maine Maple Producers Association and owner of Merrifield Farm in Gorham.

“So far the season has been probably about two weeks behind for the southern part of the state,” Merrifield said.

Good sap runs require nighttime temperatures in the mid-20s, and daytime temperatures in the low- to mid-40s. As the frozen maple trees thaw in the daytime, their expansion pushes the sap out of the tap holes.

For Sharon Lloy, the co-owner of the Balsam Ridge Christmas Tree Farm in Raymond, the late start is not an insurmountable problem. Although, as of March 13, Lloy and her husband, Dewey had only produced enough sap to make 10 gallons of syrup, she was confident the 75 gallons held on reserve from last year will meet demand this Sunday. Typically, the Lloys produce 250 gallons of syrup a season.

“We’ll use all of it,” Lloy said.

Similarly, Mark Cooper, co-owner of Coopers Royal Heritage Farm on Chute Road in Windham, said that he “will probably use up everything we have from last year.”

Cooper said he’s produced about 10 percent of the sap expected in an average season.

“Typically, at this point we would probably have a third of our crop by now,” he said. “It needs to freeze at night but not get bitterly cold so it takes all day to thaw out the next day. What we had until last week, we had temperatures in the mornings a lot of days at zero or below and daytime highs only in the teens or 20s.”

For Dennis McIntosh, the owner of Pa’s Sugar Shack in New Gloucester, the season has been even worse. McIntosh, a small producer who does not maintain reserves, deployed sap buckets on Feb. 25 and did not see runs until March 12.

“Normally by now I’ve made 30 to 40 gallons for the season,” McIntosh said. “I’ve only made 3 gallons of syrup.”

“I don’t have any reserves and that’s why I’m not sure if I’m going to be open Maple Sugar Sunday unless I can make enough this week to open up,” McIntosh added. “It doesn’t look like it.”

Cooper, who will open his sugarhouse this Sunday, had a slightly more hopeful take.

“We will squeak through,” Cooper said. “We’ll survive it, and to be honest, the extended forecast looks to be pretty favorable for the next two to three weeks. I’m pretty optimistic that we’re going to end up with a decent season – it will just be later than we’d hoped for.”

Holding a tap line at her Balsam Ridge farm in Raymond, Sharon Lloy plans to sell the entirety of her syrup reserve from last year on Maine Maple Sunday.Staff photo by Ezra SilkMark Cooper, owner of Coopers Maple Products in Windham, taps a tree at his farm on Chute Road. The farm is a busy place on Maine Maple Sunday, which occurs this weekend.File photo