tapping

[PerryFamily]

I have been thinking about this for a while and figured is time for an answer.

Tapping too early, is there such a thing ( within reason ) ?

Will taps dry out if too early?

With last season so screwey, say people tend to tap early ( January-ish ), will the holes be any good if it turns out the season is more "normal "?

Just curious

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

Glen Goodrich Said to tap around january fifth in the erie area when he spoke at the Lake Erie Maple Expo in albion. I am quite skeptical myself but He really knows his stuff. I dont plan on tapping until february myself.

[DrTimPerkins]

Tapping too early, is there such a thing ( within reason ) ?



Good question. Not any real good answer at this stage. Once a tree has been tapped, the internal wound walling-off process begins. It happens slowly when it is cold, and faster when it is hot, or when there are lots of microbes present (old spouts, lots of backflow from tubing).

There has been some fairly recent research on timing of tapping http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/tapping.pdf In general, tapping as early as January will still tend to produce decent flows up to near the end of the season, but taps made earlier will slow down sooner than those tapped later. The unknown part comes from the more recent use of better tapping/spout sanitation practices (using new spouts, replacing drops more frequently, or the use of CV adapters). We don't yet know how early is too early, but our work at UVM PMRC has shown that when using a CV adapter, trees tapped as early as late-January out-produced trees tapped later with other spouts (used or new, but non-CV spouts). I know that Leader Evaporator tapped some trees with CV adapters really early for a few years at their plant and they were still running by mid-late April.

There certainly are producers with tens of thousands of taps that NEED to tap starting in January....and they make plenty of syrup. I think if you're using good sanitation practices, and are also prepared to capture and process any sap that comes early, you'll probably do OK most seasons.

In general though, it is still best to tap as close to the "start" of the flow season as you can to ensure that the tapholes are as fresh as possible.

What we probably need to do (maybe starting next year) is to look at tapping in early-November with CVs, to see whether we can span both a fall and a spring season. Now that would be interesting.

[pdr]

Questions for Dr. Perkins: How much sugar does a maple manufacture per season? Is that process ongoing between fall and spring? Would a large number of November runs deplete the trees supply resulting in low sugar content springtime runs? Is there a carry-over supply from year-to-year? If early tapping adds significantly to the annual production, it would be well worth it for many of us. Here in western ny, since the leaves departed, we have had at least thirty days/nights with highs in the forties and fifties and lows in the teens and twenties.

[DrTimPerkins]

Questions for Dr. Perkins:

OK...I'll give it a whirl. Kind of busy, so short versions only (leaving out a lot of the detail).


How much sugar does a maple manufacture per season?

A LOT! Too many variables to give a rough amount (depends upon size of tree, season -- temperature, sun, water availability)


Is that process ongoing between fall and spring?

Not if there aren't any leaves on the trees, however there is a lot of interconversion from sugar to starch (fall) and starch to sugar (spring).


Would a large number of November runs deplete the trees supply resulting in low sugar content springtime runs?

No. Our estimates are that on reasonably sized trees (>12" dbh) with decent crown exposure, that we're removing less than 2% of the soluble sugar reserves in the spring season, and this doesn't count any of the starch (dominant storage form of carbohydrate reserves in trees).


Is there a carry-over supply from year-to-year?

In most cases there is a HUGE carry-over of carbohydrate reserve from year-to-year.


If early tapping adds significantly to the annual production, it would be well worth it for many of us.

That is the real question.....too late to start looking at it this year....maybe next. The real question is whether or not we can keep the tapholes open that long. We have a few ideas.

Interestingly...with climate change, the maple season (spring) has been shifting earlier and earlier in the calendar year, and getting shorter in duration. It is quite likely that the fall season is doing the same (getting closer to the start of the calendar year and shorter). At some point off in the future, it is likely that these two distinct seasons will merge and become one longer season.


Here in western ny, since the leaves departed, we have had at least thirty days/nights with highs in the forties and fifties and lows in the teens and twenties.

This has been a very good year for fall tapping. Typically fall seasons are very short.

[English River Maple]

I tested a bit of fall tapping by tapping a few red and a few sugar maples in November of 2010. The sugar content seemed much lower than the spring coming in at under 2% (typically we are in the 3% range) although I did not take hydrometer tests in the spring of 2011 on the same trees. Interestingly, the tap holes from November 2010 ran again in March of 2011.

[unc23win]

Did you take the taps out? Redrill the holes? Or did you just leave them in?

[English River Maple]

Did you take the taps out? Redrill the holes? Or did you just leave them in?

I pulled the taps after a few weeks of tapping in the fall...there were approx 3 runs in that timeframe, of which each only produced less than a gallon of sap. The tap holes in the trees were exposed to the outside through the winter. The hole dia. was 7/16. It's as if bacteria may have a larger bearing on the stoppage of sap flow and healing of the tap hole than just simply drying and/or healing, although the trees are obviously dormant in the winter. Little or no bacteria, little or no hole closure I guess. I must say, I was quite surprised since I had it in my mind through hear/say (no data) that the hole was going to dry out over a long period of time (by spring). I did not re-tap the fall tap holes. We tapped that year when it was well below 30F and the sap wasn't running when we actually drilled the tap holes in the spring, so I left those tap holes and drilled new in these trees "assuming" the old holes wouldn't run or were dry. It was only during the first collection that season that I could see lots of sap on the bark of the tree from below the old tap holes to the trunk of the tree to the ground. I'm sure if Dr. Tim hasn't put something out yet to answer how this is possible, we will see something related soon...hopefully.