sugar and red maples ?

[v. Deschenes]

every one knows how old a suger maple reaches a tappable size i think about 35-45 years but does any one how old a red maple reach tappable size ? maybe 15-30 years ?

[WHTTLHNTR]

I would be interested in this information as. All I tap is reds.

[happy thoughts]

It probably depends on where they're growing- dry ground or wet. I think they'd grow faster where moisture is plentiful. That said, all I ever used to tap was reds, the ones I planted myself at our old place 35 years ago.

When I started tapping about 5 years ago, my largest red was about 16 inches across and the smallest 12-14". All big enough for one tap but they were never heavy producers- maybe 2 qts or so on a good day when the trees were running good.

[Kev]

it really depends. the trees we planted on my place are growing much faster than the trees we planted at dads 3/4 of a mile away(same trees from the same source) planted within 3 days of each other. he is farther up a moraine than I am. I have about 3 feet of some of the best soil in the world, that is over glacial till gravel and a close water table. the 200 maples we planted here are 3 times the size of the ones at dads. Dads place has a lot more clay and all of the trees took longer to get established and the growth rate is equally slower.
One of the maple branches(soft) I stuck in the ground in about 98 or 97 close to the creek going though my place would now be big enough to tap by the "old" standards of 12 inches across. if the beavers had not taken it. it is now a maple bush:(
a different factor is what zone you are in.
the longer the growing season the bigger a tree can get each year.
rain... if you cut down a tree and look at the growth rings it is easy to see that the growth rate each year varies greatly. this is due to seasonal variations.
There are people that claim that old growth timber made better musical instuments than modern growth wood due to the mini ice age during the "dark age" the growth rings were tiny compared to now. due to colder temps and less growth per year. that is the main reason why old growth logs lost in rivers and lakes are so valuable when recovered today.
I think that pretty well sums up my knowlege(or the lack of)IE opinion when it comes to tree growth LOL
now maybe a forrestry person will pipe up and tell us both the facts

[Revi]

I think reds grow a little quicker than sugars, but it depends on the site. If they are in full sun and are in good soil, they probably grow much quicker. Reds are very sensitive to root damage, and I've noticed that when you cut everything around them they usually die also. Best to leave them in the woods. They grow a lot of trunks, so snipping off a couple of them helps them out a lot. We have reds in the lower, wetter part of our lot and sugars up in the drier better soil part. Reds are maples too. A lot of them are getting to be tapable size now, 10 years after we bought the lot.