Amazing difference between Sugars and Reds!!

[Starting Small]

And all this time I thought I was cursed with bad luck! I tapped all reds and was very dissappointed with the production as I posted several times before. I ended up tapping 7 sugars yesterday morning and by this afternoon ended up with almost 15 gallons from them! Turns out I was not cursed with bad luck, just cursed with mostly reds!!
-Dave

[heus]

Reds +vacuum +RO=good
Reds with no RO=lots of boiling (at least in my case)

[Maplebrook]

Cursed???
If it wasn't for reds, I would just be an onlooker.
Red maple is fine syrup too!

[maple flats]

As with any maple, the sugar will be related to the size of the crown. Big top is not just for a circus. A red with a big top beats a sugar with a small top. Some reds get well over 2%, but not likely from woods trees.

[Starting Small]

The reds, at least mine, seem to not want to give up much sap. About 24 gallons from 12 sugars in 24 hours and about 15 gallons from 50 reds in the same 24 hours. Granted the 50 reds are in the woods and the 7 sugars are along a neighbors driveway.
-Dave

[SPILEDRIVER]

as flats said.....the bigger the crown the better........i tap sugars/reds/silvers all roadside big crowned trees with high sugar content.....there all spread out with crowding not a issue.....i havent tested all my trees but i have some sugars that are allways in the high 3% and one that hits 4% on occasion

[Michael Greer]

We tested sap from several different types of maple last year and didn't find as much difference as we expected. The hardest thing to take was that my biggest broadest and most productive sugar maple had the lowest sugar content of them all.

[Michael Greer]

I tap whatever I can find in my neighborhood, and each tree has it's place or purpose. A Sugar Maple won't grow in a flat, flooded lot, but a Silver maple will become a giant.

[Starting Small]

I guess what I am having a hard time understanding is why thee reds are so unpredicctable with the sap flows compared to the sugars?
-Dave

[Ed R]

I tap all reds and one silver at my house. Last year they averaged 1.8-2.0, this year 1.2-1.5. I have noticed that sap flow this year seems to be better, so basically its a wash except I get to spend more time boiling, which I guess is not a bad thing. Ask me at the end of March.

[mantispid]

My reds (as far as I can tell I only have reds) seem to all produce about an average of a gallon of sap per day per tap during a really good sap flow day (say, 25F or lower at night, 45F+ during the day). Some produce more (and overfill their containers by the time I get home from work), while others produce a trickle.

[lyford]

i'm in the same boat, i only have reds and even on good days I have some that barely produced a quart while others overflow their buckets, they have provided enough sap thus far to produce 2.5 gal of finished (gotta love the hydrometer) syrup