How many taps in these trees ?

[Leinie]

I just talked to a friend who has two big maples in his front yard.
He's gonna have them cut down in a couple months and told me to go tap them if I wanted to.

They are about 30" diameter trees, Do I just drill holes until I'm out of taps or is there a pointof diminishing return on the # of taps to get the most out of these doomed trees.


The trees are going to end up being destroyed because of a road widening project, He's not just cutting them down on a whim.

Quick replies are appreciated as I'm gonna tap them in an hour or so

Thanks

[Kev]

its all a point of demminishing returns when it comes to multiple taps in a tree. IE 2 taps do not double the sap production over 1 tap. but you do get more than from 1. taken to the extreme I have no idea. As I have never done that. but then I have never tapped a tree I knew was going to be taken down in a couple months. heck put 4 on each and see what happens
or whack a couple big branches off and catch what runs out, might be even greater production.

[maple flats]

In this case I think I might put in 6 if the trees are hidden from the road and 3 if they can be seen from the road. My reasoning, those going by do not know the trees are to be removed and you could get a reputation of over tapping and killing the trees. Things like this are hard to keep from being peoples perception and it could cost you other tapping potential in the future. IMHO

[C.Wilcox]

No matter how many taps you put in you can't do any more harm than is already planned.

[Kev]

In this case I think I might put in 6 if the trees are hidden from the road and 3 if they can be seen from the road. My reasoning, those going by do not know the trees are to be removed and you could get a reputation of over tapping and killing the trees. Things like this are hard to keep from being peoples perception and it could cost you other tapping potential in the future. IMHO

good point, perception management is a real thing.
You could have idiots thinking the tapper killed the trees even after the road gets widened and it is obvious they had to come out

[SilverLeaf]

Or you could put in like 5 taps in one and 10 in the other, and report back to us on your findings of the sap per taphole. Obviously the statistical sample of trees will be too small to derive any "certain" results, but still, this could be a good MapleTrader experiment! :D

[maple sapper]

Im in the same opinion of others perception. As far as reality, if you put to many holes the pressure will be decreased. So you may not really got more sap out of more holes. If you have a modest amount of taps the pressure will be greater hence probably the same amout of sap.

[Kev]

you could put 2 taps in each... 2 inch hose barbs and suck on them with a honeywagon ROF:lol:

[Leinie]

Thanks for the replies

I put 4 in each tree

As It usually goes , it sounded too good to be true.

The trees were in tough shape with large scars and partial deadness.

His neighbor sure had a nice one, but that's not getting removed.

We'll see what happens.

[Backyard Sapman]

I was just curious of how these trees were producing?

[Leinie]

Not very well. I've got a similar sized tree in my back yard that produced 5 times as much in since Sunday with 3 taps as both of these did combined .

[tpatch361]

its all a point of demminishing returns when it comes to multiple taps in a tree. IE 2 taps do not double the sap production over 1 tap. but you do get more than from 1. taken to the extreme I have no idea. As I have never done that. but then I have never tapped a tree I knew was going to be taken down in a couple months. heck put 4 on each and see what happens
or whack a couple big branches off and catch what runs out, might be even greater production.

Wow. Using Economics class when talking sap/syrup. This is why I love this place. The law of diminishing returns. You don't by chance have the graph somewhere with the information on it? : )

[kiegscustoms]

Somewhere on this forum there is a report of someone putting about 50 buckets on a tree from the ground to as high as you could reach from a step ladder, the tree was also doomed to be cut down. Never did hear the results from this experiment, must have looked awful funny though!