When?

[Jay]

I have 3 sap bushes 1 my uncle taps and sells the sap (about 1000 taps but only does 500) another one with 700 or so (has not been taped since 1960) and the newest one that has 200 taps that I put tubbing on this year but in 10 years or so will have about 275, on the newest one I have about 2 acres that have about 600 or more maples about 1" in diameter mixed in with a few ash trees. These maples are not in the sap bush but coming in right next to it. At what point (or do I) thin those out, or do I wait a while a let mother nature do her thing and in 5 or 6 years see what I have? :? Thanks,Jay

[Parker]

The sooner you start to thin the sooner you will have the bush you want,,one goal of thinning is to have a tall crown (live branches covering the trunk of the tree) if a tree is not under intense competition for light and racing straight up and shedding lower branches,, it can grow out..bigger crown=sweeter sap

[maple flats]

Parker is right on. Do it ASAP. Start by removing all deformed saplings, then look for the straightest ones with good limb angles. The angle is best when it starts at or near 90 degrees with the trunk. You may not find many but take the best to leave. You do not want forks in the trunk. Now, do not overthin too fast, remove any whose crown touch the one you want to save on all 4 sides. leave any in between this and the next saver but thin around the next saver and so on. You will start to see results by the second year after the improvement cutting, as soon as the canopy starts to touch the save trees again, repeat. In the beginning you will likely want a growing room of 1 saver for every 15', as they grow you will likely end up with one every 30' in each direction. These numbers are not cast in stone, if you have 2 real nice ones about 15' apart so be it, but on those leave growing room on the other 3 sides. The important thing is to thin so as to develope the biggest and tallest crowns. If you were doing it for timber instead of syrup you would cut slightly later in the crown crowding process so as not to get epicormic branching (the process of branches growing from dormant buds on the trunk, that respond to new sun and develope them) but epicormic branching is not a bad thing for sugar production. The more leaves a tree has the more sugar it makes.
Good luck. As you see the progress of what you do it is very gratifying, but realize that a 1" sapling if on good soil, good water and no other problems is still about 30 years from tapping size. This is usually done for yourself if you are young enough but more often for the next generation. Your kids hopefully will appreciate the forsight you had and the labor of love you gave.

[Jay]

Parker & Maple flats

Thanks for the info, I will start on that this year. During the next week I will take some photos and post them. Again, Thank You. Jay