when to cull

[TRAILGUY]

was out thinning all morning and filling the wood shed all afternoon. found another 20 or so good looking sugars and probably 25 reds. my guess is a total of 250 sugars and 150 reds close to sugar shack to put on vacuum some day and a few 100 more mostly reds of the wood road that could be buckets. so I have around 600 taps 250 sugar and 250 reds. plan to start testing to see if red are worth the work. 240 taps this year. My question is there a great improvement in sugar content after thinning? Do I wait 5 year after thinning before I cull low sugar trees.

[adk1]

I ahve been thinning for the past month. really opening up the woods trees. How to get good growth out of them this summer.

[brookledge]

My expierience is to test them when they are small and then cut them based on the lowest sugar content. As long as you test and compare all the trees the same time and same day the comparison will be good. Also take into account of the physical look of the trees. Some times a tree with slightly lower content is a better tree with less future problems like a bad fork etc.
keith