Southern States tapping confusion

[Groves]

And by southern I mean southern Missouri.


I've only been sugaring for 5 years. Still figuring it out.

I know that sap exudation needs freezing temps during the night and above freezing temps during the day.

For you northerners that means some time in March or round abouts.

For us here in Missouri, that could mean December!

So, the question becomes: How exactly do you know when to tap?

I don't want to be a fall tapper, as I don't have enough trees to tap both in Fall and in Spring.

Just because we don't have super northern temperatures, our trees still go dormant, lose their leaves, etc.

Is there any other marker for how early one should tap? Tapping in Dec seems a bit weird.

[happy thoughts]

Tapping a month early for my area, in early february, seemed weird to me last year but I'm glad I did. There's not much you can do if the season wants to come early. I'd keep my eye to the 2 week forecasts and a little beyond if you can, then make your best guess. I don't know of any other way to judge when sap flow will start. It's all about the freeze/thaw cycle.

After that I think it depends on the size of your operation. If you're just a hobbyist like me then you have a lot more leeway than commercial operations who HAVE to be ready for the big sap run and where the work of maintaining taps and tubing has to be taken into account. That's not something you can do in a day. If you only have a few trees and your livlihood doesn't depend on it, then you can play around more, maybe throw in a test tap or 2 to see how things go then tap a few more later in the season.

Are there other tappers in your area? They'd be the best place to put your heads together.

[Groves]

I don't know of any other way to judge when sap flow will start. It's all about the freeze/thaw cycle.

Those are good thoughts, and I appreciate them, but it still leaves me wondering about the real answers.

What exactly are we looking for? If I simply went by freeze thaw cycles, I might not ever tap because it might not ever freeze for long down here.

Surely there's more information from the trees because they still do their annual leaf dropping and leaf growing even though it might not seem like winter.

They must use more than temps to decide. Don't maples in Florida (for insysnce) still drop their leaves in the "fall"?

[happy thoughts]

I'm no botanist but guess that even though florida maples might drop their leaves, sugar transport is probably different than seen in maples growing in colder areas with freeze thaw cycles. From the little I know, sugars are not usually found in the xylem of most trees yet that is where the sugar comes from when we tap a maple. And as I understand it, in maples, sugar is transported via the xylem during freeze/thaw cycles. Tapping a maple in florida might produce sap but I'd again guess that it might contain little sugar. Or the sap flow might be weak because there isn't much of a pressure gradient like we see where there's a freeze/thaw cycle.

Let's hope Dr Tim drops by because now you have me curious about maples in Florida:)

[saekeaton64]

I have one test tree tapped right now, the tree is 28" at chest height and has a large open crown. Temps here in southern Ohio have been pretty mild this winter. Avg. 40 high and 30 low.
The tree has been producing approx. 2.5 gallons of sap per day with a sugar content around 3%.
Looking at the forecast I think I will probably start tapping around the last week of Jan.
Hope this helps.

[Groves]

Temps here in southern Ohio have been pretty mild this winter. Avg. 40 high and 30 low.
The tree has been producing approx. 2.5 gallons of sap per day with a sugar content around 3%.

This is good info.

So put what may be the final puzzle piece in:

Why would you not just tap now? I'm guessing the reason is that no matter when you start, the timer starts counting down on the end of your season, right? Those holes will start to close and that bacteria will start to eat sugar, and what we're all trying to do is to make that open time coincide with the greatest sap flow. Is that anywhere close?

[saekeaton64]

The main reason why I am holding off is that the forecast for the next few weeks is gonna be cold, temps not to break freezing most of the time. Plus I still have a few things to get ready.
One of the best ways to prolong your season is to use check valve adapters, it stops the back flow of sap into the tap holes keeping them open and producing longer. But the temperature is everything, once the trees start to bud it's game over for quality syrup.

[Gary R]

Each season is different (last year!), but I'd start with a guide line. When do you typically have no days of regular freezing after winter? Late February? If using buckets I'd back up 4 weeks and tap at that date. With that said, if I was in your location, if you had a week of freezing temperatures anytime after Christmas I'd tap right after that. Good Luck!

[DrTimPerkins]

Those are good thoughts, and I appreciate them, but it still leaves me wondering about the real answers. What exactly are we looking for? If I simply went by freeze thaw cycles, I might not ever tap because it might not ever freeze for long down here. Surely there's more information from the trees because they still do their annual leaf dropping and leaf growing even though it might not seem like winter. They must use more than temps to decide. Don't maples in Florida (for insysnce) still drop their leaves in the "fall"?

The trees aren't "looking" for anything as far as sap flow is concerned. Although some phenomenon (dormancy breaking) arise as a combination of temperature and daylength, the sap flow mechanism (uptake and exudation) is related almost entirely to the physical temperature changes. Temperatures falling from above to below freezing cause uptake. Temperatures rising from below freezing to above freezing cause exudation.

The thing to look for is a string of temperatures falling from below freezing (usually overnight, but not always) to above freezing (usually in the day). These conditions will result in the best sap flows.

Typically, the best flows come from a fresh taphole. Microorganims will enter the taphole and initiate the process of taphole "drying" very quickly, especially in warm temperatures. So if possible, you want to try to tap just prior to the appropriate temperature pattern. If the temperatures stay below freezing for a long time, it isn't such a problem to tap early (very low microbial activity when it is below freezing), which is why the very large producers can tap very early and not suffer much loss in sap production when it eventually gets warm.

Finally, sap sugar content is typically higher in the spring than the fall (which is also somewhat related to higher stem pressure and better sap exudation), so while you might get the same temperature patterns in the fall, most sugarmakers tap in the spring to minimize boiling time.

So the best answer....look at the historical temperature patterns in your area, but be prepared to tap at least a few weeks to a month before that if the long-range (2 week) forecast looks promising.

[DrTimPerkins]

I'm no botanist but guess that even though florida maples might drop their leaves, sugar transport is probably different than seen in maples growing in colder areas with freeze thaw cycles. From the little I know, sugars are not usually found in the xylem of most trees yet that is where the sugar comes from when we tap a maple. And as I understand it, in maples, sugar is transported via the xylem during freeze/thaw cycles. Tapping a maple in florida might produce sap but I'd again guess that it might contain little sugar. Or the sap flow might be weak because there isn't much of a pressure gradient like we see where there's a freeze/thaw cycle.

Let's hope Dr Tim drops by because now you have me curious about maples in Florida:)

You may not be a botanist, but that is a pretty good explanation. :)

[bowtie]

i see a lot of talk about march tapping in ny and northern pa, i think that you would be missing at least 2 weeks of runs. here in wny most big guys are in by feb 10th-15th. the avg temps bear these dates out.
i would think that any maple tree that actually grows will produce sap that is suitable for maple production at some point of the year, if it takes the transfer of sap/sugar for trees to start the growing process it really should not matter where the trees are. you spoke of december tapping, we can laugh about it but it seems every year you hear about the season getting earlier than the last.