how many taps

[jim finen]

Just a question about # of taps per tree with vacuum. I have a bush that my wife and I have just purshased and have found ALOT of trees that I feel would be "2 tappers" that just have one . This next season should we go and put two in? The reason we are in question is that we heard that if you are on vacuum and use one tap it will work fine but two you will loose production from your tree. I feel that a tree that is 16"-18" is good for two taps. Am I way off on this?

[wiam]

I put 2 if the tree is over 24"

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Jim,
With 2 taps you will increase production but you will not double production and you will be creating scar tissue twice as fast. Under vacuum there is a great deal of lateral motion of sap in the tree. Standards that we used to use for buckets appear to be outdated. I believe UVM is currently doing some research to try to determine at what size a second tap is warranted. Personally, on all my new bushes, I don't put a second tap in unless the tree is 24" DBH.
Doug

[jim finen]

Doug,
That makes sense, however, if you have a tree 18" vs. 24", is it not much younger and able to heal faster than the older (24") tree?
Margaret (&Jim)

[red maples]

You can do what ever you like, it all depends how conservative you are. Some reccommend tapping trees under vaccuum at 12 inches and don't use 2 taps and if they do they don't go less than 22-24 inches per 2 taps.

I am little less conservative and tap anything 10" and above and 20" for 2 taps and don't use anymore than 2 taps under vacuum. buckets on a giant 3 foot dia. trees I do have 3 buckets but less scaring from buckets. but thats just me!

[DrTimPerkins]

... but less scaring from buckets.

The scar formed by tapping is a process of "walling off" the wound. It is not at all related to the amount of sap that comes out of the taphole. Whether you use gravity (buckets or tubing) or tubing on vacuum has no influence on the size of the scar in the tree. Trees, like people, exhibit a large amount of variation in their ability to heal (and in their "sweetness"), so in one tree a scar can be fairly large, whereas in the next one over it might be fairly compact.

[red maples]

I thought if you were on vacuum there is a larger vertical staining scar what ever in both above and below the tap hole but it was limited with the bucket. I didn't know there wasn't much of a difference.

[DrTimPerkins]

I thought if you were on vacuum there is a larger vertical staining scar what ever in both above and below the tap hole but it was limited with the bucket. I didn't know there wasn't much of a difference.

No, vacuum has NO influence on the size of the staining column.

[PATheron]

Jim- When I started I would go two taps if the tree was 15-18" which is by traditional tapping guidelines. Since then Ive taken a lot of the second drops off becouse it seemed to me two use up the tree two much in my estimation. Shouldnt hurt it or anything but I felt after several years it would become difficult to find good spots to tap and I didnt want what I call swiss cheese trees. Now if I can hug it and touch my hands I only put one and if I cant touch I put two. If you want more sap shouldnt hurt anything to put the second tap on the 15-18, tons of people do, you just might decide to cut that back down the road at least to save on the tree. Theron

[Killington Maple]

I agree with PATheron. If you can reach around and touch, just 1 tap.

[waysidemaple]

I also agree with Theron.

Scott

[red maples]

I like that but you may have to adjust that if you are 6'8 and have arms that reach around the trees twice!!! ;)

[ennismaple]

When we replaced our 5/16" spouts with stubbies we did the "hug" test to see if we should cut any drops off. We decreased our tap count between 10-15% by eliminating a lot of 2nd and 3rd taps but our production per tap has increased.

Of course, you can use some discretion based on the size of the guy measuring the tree. I can get my arms around a tree that's 24" dbh but we've decided 20" was the cutoff for 2 taps so I will put the 2nd tap in if my fingers only overlap a few inches.