Red Maple sugarbush?

[FordHeritageFarm]

Looking for some opinions here, which I'm sure we can generate. It is worth while to run gravity/vacuum lines and setup/invest time and money in a large are of only red maples? I'm in York county Maine and looking for your thoughts.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I would do it on vacuum but not on gravity

[Sunday Rock Maple]

There is a large producer near here that is mostly red maples -- but as Thompson said on high vacuum.

[RollinsOrchards]

I suspect being that close to the coast your red maples will zip through the season and bud out very quickly, but I don't know for sure. Your best answer will come from producers nearest to you.

[Dennis H.]

I am by no means a "BIG" producer but I have tapped Reds and only reds since I started in this maddening hobby!
From my limited experience is that they start early and end early compared to sugar's.
The buds do swell faster than sugars also.

I have about 50/50 vac and buckets and the only thing that I see that vac helps out with besides the obvious less walking is that I get sap in days that the buckets are barely running. Other than that I did not see anything that would say that vac was better than buckets. I run my vac at about 23".

[Redmaple]

I set up 1000 reds on vacuum($5500) this year and recieved about a quart per tree. It would have been more but the lines were frozen most of the time because the hemlock has not been logged out yet. I really wish I would have gone 50/50 buckets and vacuum, I would have produced much more. Some reds put out over a gallon on gravity every day. Put buckets on all the trees on the edge of your woods and vacuum the deep stuff. If you don't plan on thinning out the hemlock I would not go spending life savings thinking that you will at least brake even. I have another 1500 trees to tap this year and half of them are getting buckets so I have sap to boil on those frozen cloudy days when no sun hits the lines. ONE MORE THING. You will be a slave to your vacuum pump also(not to mention gas money) so if you don't have all day to keep an eye on it just do gravity. :lol:

[lpakiz]

I ran a gas engine on an SP11 and Bender releaser-3rd year now. It works very well. Quite dependable. I find I am a slave to the tubing--searching for leaks. Still, in my situation, tubing and vacuum is easier than carrying buckets thru the mud.
Red Maple, you are right about the gas money. This thing will run about 21-22 hours on 2 1/2 gallons gas, but it still does add up by seasons end.