Drought stress. Reduce tapping or ignore it?

[FameFlower]

Lots of literature I am reading says that you should reduce tapping under various conditions. One of those conditions is DROUGHT STRESS. But none of this literature gives any guidelines as to when your sugarbush might be in drought stress and how much to reduce tapping by.

Most of Minnesota is in a drought now and my county (Scott) is listed as being in severe drought (http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/drought_2012.htm).

We just invested in a large vaccuum tubing system to expand our operation (changing from a plastic bucket system). I love maple sugaring, but I have hestitation I can't shake about tapping this year.

What do you think.

[SilverLeaf]

This isn't a scientific response, but my gut tells me we're not at the point where we need to worry yet. Even though we are considered to be in a drought now, keep in mind that the first half of 2011 (thru mid-July) was extremely wet throughout most of MN (I had flooding issues to contend with as I sugared last year). So the trees had a good start to the year, even if the fall was extremely dry.

Now if we are still talking drought a year from now then there probably is good reason to be cautious.

[SDdave]

I asked a similar question a few weeks back. It's in the bucket and brixs section. Dr. Tim answered it with a pretty good explanation. If I knew how to post that link I would. sorry. I am not going to paraphrase it either, wouldn't give the answer any justice. Hope it helps. We just picked up a couple more inches of snow today...so since June 22 we are at 6" of precip. :o

SDdave

[sjdoyon]

Here's the Dr's response:

Drought impacts tree health by reducing radial growth. In very severe instances, leaves may be somewhat stunted. If you get a severe drought, or 2-3 years of moderate drought, you can start seeing branch dieback. At that point, stop tapping those trees. Oftentimes people will notice that they have a hard time finding nice white wood when they tap, especially if they're still using 7/16" spouts. That's a good indicator of slow growth and/or overtapping. Let up for a bit, cut back on the number of taps, and if you can, don't tap the trees in that section for a few years then try again and see if it's gotten any better.

Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc

[FameFlower]

Thanks. I haven't seen anything like that, yet, so I'll tap as I normally would. Hoping for more moisture soon!