Kill Tapping?

[I Luv Stainless]

Sometimes when I have a maple tree that needs to be removed in the sugarbush I will put 5-8 taps in a tight spiral of tubing ringing the tree. My thought is that I'd get 1 year of great sap production before cutting. I have about ten "kill tap" tubing setups I use each year and splice them in where I intend to do some TSI the following summer.

I paint a red ring around the trunk so I don't forget which tree to cut.

I assume that I am actually getting a much higher volume of sap from these trees each but I have no way of verifying if this is actually true.

Does anyone have any experience with this 'pre cutting' practice?

Is it worth doing?

Thanks for any thoughts or ideas you might have.

[DrTimPerkins]

...I will put 5-8 taps in a tight spiral of tubing ringing the tree. My thought is that I'd get 1 year of great sap production before cutting.

It is called (around here at least), "thinning with a tapping bit." Surprisingly, it doesn't actually kill the tree very quickly. Trees will take a fair amount of abuse (unless they are understory trees that aren't getting much sun). The amount of sugar being removed is fairly small, but the impact on the water-conducting system is substantial, so over time you'll see a drop-off in canopy health, and eventually (perhaps) mortality. But it does take some time for trees to die this way.


I assume that I am actually getting a much higher volume of sap from these trees each but I have no way of verifying if this is actually true.
It is going to depend upon the size of the tree, and whether you're using gravity or vacuum, but you're probably not getting as much from that tree as you'd think (especially on vacuum). Two taps on a tree doesn't equal the amount of sap you get from one tap multiplied by 2 -- it is less than that. Each additional tap you add lowers the amount you get from the other taps. Once you get over 3-4 taps (on a moderate-sized tree), you're probably not getting any appreciable amount of additional sap. On really large trees you might. This has more to do with the "reservoir" of sap in the tree. With multiple taps you're collecting sap from the same reservoir and not making it that much larger.

[220 maple]

I have a friend in WV who has for the past several years put a single tap in some sapling about the sizes that are pictured in the article where Dr. Tim and Dr. Abby are cutting the top off to research sap flow.
He has not been able to kill them yet. He has high vacuum.

Mark 220 Maple

[DrTimPerkins]

I have a friend in WV who has for the past several years put a single tap in some sapling about the sizes that are pictured in the article where Dr. Tim and Dr. Abby are cutting the top off to research sap flow.

He is probably not getting a lot of sap from them either.