a stupid ??????

[rinert]

Kinda new but i always have lots of questions. This one is not very smart but here it is. Today I was in the wood and saw that some of my trees have buds on them. are they ok to tap or not.
I have one more question how do tell a soft maple and a hard maple i tap any maple that gives me sap.http://www.mapletrader.com/community/images/smilies/surprised.gif

[guppy79]

Yep those trees are fine. Its when the buds start to open is when we stop. You will notice the soft maples will open first. They have huge buds.

[BoarsNest]

The only stupid question is the one you don't ask! Keep asking you will get traders to answer.

[Flat47]

Right now the only way to realy tell maples apart are the buds. Get a good tree book like "Forest Trees of Maine" from the State of Maine.

Link to red maple:http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/pubs/ftm/hw/ftm_hw_red_maple.pdf
Link to index: http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/pubs/ftm/ftm_hw.htm

The whole book is available online. Bark helps too, but young trees can look like others.
Hope that helps.

[v. Deschenes]

i can even tell by the bark witch is solf and hard maples .. my soft maples in the bush are very tall and have no branch untill 20 feet so i take my Binocular and look at the buds and the bark is different from the hard maples .. and the young solfmaples have light gray and hard maples have like a brownish gray collers to the bark, this is only when very young tho.. trees from 20 to 100 the bark is dark gray and rough with ravins... and the hard maples bark is darker and dont peel off unlike soft , the soft peels off... im not a pro idk if i told you right but i can tell easiely a soft and hard maples in winter.. in summer is a lot easier when they have leaves.. hope i helped.. by the way you can tap any tree with the name maple..

[Haynes Forest Products]

Every once in a while I will be adding new trees to the system and will tap a NON maple:emb: I just tell everyone it felt left out and whats the harm NOTHING CAME OUT. Ask anyone here if they didnt get to walking around the woods tapping and you look over at them and the tree is dead and broken from a storm and their drilling into it:o All the bark starts to look the same with moss all over it.

[KenWP]

Even the Quebecious tap the wrong tree they tell me.There is this stupid tree here they call a arbe blanc and it looks like a maple to a lot of people. I tapped a beech once and nothing came out either. I have a maple with bark as smooth as a babys bottom and it pours sap. Someday I have to test it and see what kind of sugar it gives.

[vikingHB]

KenWP

I worked at my uncle`s sugar camp as a kid, and I remember walking over to the neighbours` camp, and my uncle spotting a tap on a beech tree. My uncle left a note on the tree asking the man (which he was friends with) what kind of ``crazy son of beech`` would tap this tree. As a 10 yeard old child, I thought this was hilarious.:lol:
You`ll never see me tap a beech after that experience.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Good to see you back KenW:) SeanD was getting a little sick of me picking on him. We all have done silly stupid things when it comes to taping. I like the time a buddy and I were running a new line and we got to going and tapping pulling line and adding taps and then the next day we noticed that we never hooked it into the mainline it was a big circle:emb: But hey we didnt lose any sap:lol:

[3fires]

Right now the only way to realy tell maples apart are the buds. Get a good tree book like "Forest Trees of Maine" from the State of Maine.

Link to red maple:http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/pubs/ftm/hw/ftm_hw_red_maple.pdf
Link to index: http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/pubs/ftm/ftm_hw.htm

The whole book is available online. Bark helps too, but young trees can look like others.
Hope that helps.

Just had to say, that's a great book, thanks!