Differences in Maple Trees

[Troutman10]

What are the main characteristics of the different types of maple trees? Has anyone found certain ones produce more sap, better sugar content, darker syrup? etc... Any help is appreciated! This is my second year and I'm learning tons so far. Thanks in advance.

[happy thoughts]

The hard maples, sugars and blacks, are the preferred species. They tend to have higher sap sugar content and a fairly long tapping season. But nothing's a given. Any species of maple can be tapped for syrup if it's big enough, including box elder.

After the hard maples, the soft maple reds and silvers are next on the preferred list. They usually don't have as much sugar content as the hard maples so it takes more sap to make a gallon of syrup. From past experience I know that reds tend to produce darker syrup, have a shorter season for tapping because they tend to bud early, and they can be temperamental in giving up sap. I don't know much about silvers. A friend of mine taps Norway maples and makes some good syrup.

[heus]

My smaller one tap reds produce alot of sap on buckets. I also have some huge old healthy reds that wont ever run on buckets.

[adk1]

I have alot of reds mixed in with my sugars that I tap. they are the only trees that have ran so far, not much due to the weather but the sugars havent at all yet. Thinking about goingto a small vac next year cause of the number of reds I have

[SilverLeaf]

Happy Thoughts gave a pretty good summary for you. A couple things I'd like to add to that:

1) In terms of quality/amount of sap over a season, the size of the tree is, I believe, a much more important factor than the species. A big yard or fenceline tree with a huge crown, even if it is of a "less desirable" (red/silver) species, will as a general rule give more sap and sap with higher sugar content than a medium-sized sugar/black maple out in a dense wood. It boils down to: more leaves = more sugar producers. (My experience with silver maples seems to confirm this; I've never tapped a red so can't verify that, but a lot of people who tap reds complain about them being inconsistent.)

2) The species doesn't really affect the taste of the syrup, with one exception: Syrup from boxelder trees. It's not different in a bad way, it's just a little different, almost with a hint of molasses to the flavor. Many of us that tap boxelders keep that sap separate and boil it down as its own batch.

[Octo]

As a newbie last year (well, this year too) I tapped 6 red maples late in the season, and made my first wonderful syrup. This year I tapped 25 trees, all reds, and 99% of my sap has come from 4 trees. I started probably too early, but the sap flow back in mid January, from one tree, especially, was great. The trees which gave me sap last year are doing well, but all of the others are practically dry. The poor performers are closer to a body of water, but the trees are a little larger with slightly better crowns. Should I retap on a different part of those trees; remove the spiles, ream the holes and reinstall; or be patient? At any rate this is addicting!

[happy thoughts]

As a newbie last year (well, this year too) I tapped 6 red maples late in the season, and made my first wonderful syrup. This year I tapped 25 trees, all reds, and 99% of my sap has come from 4 trees. I started probably too early, but the sap flow back in mid January, from one tree, especially, was great. The trees which gave me sap last year are doing well, but all of the others are practically dry. The poor performers are closer to a body of water, but the trees are a little larger with slightly better crowns. Should I retap on a different part of those trees; remove the spiles, ream the holes and reinstall; or be patient? At any rate this is addicting!

You'll probably get a lot of different answers but I'd say first be patient. If they were drilled right and cleaned well before the tap was placed then they'll either drip or they won't eventually. I wouldn't futz with the taps for fear of creating a leaky tap. I personally wouldn't retap in another place just for the sake of tree health and where you can expect to tap in following years though if you have massive trees that may not matter. In my experience in the first 4 out of the 6 years we've been tapping, we tapped just reds because that was all we had. In that time, the trees that ran well were always the same ones year to year, marginal trees stayed marginal, and some were just plain stingy every year. All were backyard trees in good health and at least 14-16 inches in diameter with just one tap/tree.

If you have a lot of trees to choose from then I'd say remember which ones are your real friends :) Try to find others like them in the next years and maybe not bother with any that aren't worth the walk to check the bucket.. unless you're on vacuum in which case you'll probably want to tap all of them anyway.

[Like Minded Farmer]

My smaller one tap reds produce alot of sap on buckets. I also have some huge old healthy reds that wont ever run on buckets.

I had this same thing and it stayed consistant year to year. I usually drill 2 inches deep on a small tree of 10 or 12 inches and 2 1/2 inches deep on bigger ones. On these very large trees that don't produce well I tried drilling 3 inches and it worked on all but one tree. On that one last stubborn tree I decided to tap on a large branch 12 inches in diameter that came out about 4 feet off the ground and now I get good flow from that one tap on the branch. The bucket hangs at a funny angle but as long as the wind isn't bad it's working. I had some other trees of various size that didn't produce well and after experimenting found that some of them produced better when I tapped them at 6 feet. If they don't produce after that and happen to be in an area that I manage primarily for sugaring, they make a warm feeling in my living room.