How Many People Tap Reds?

[treehugger]

I have 200 taps, all sugars except 1 (mistake). I can easily double that with reds on my property but have been told i the past, unless you have an RO one should stay away from them. My deal is i have have this new evaporator which "may" evaporate 60-70 gal/hr. I may need more sap. So my original question is how many of you use reds, and any real drawbacks. I am on the cold side of the hill and typically my reds don't bud early.

[tcross]

I tap 60% reds and the syrup I made with them last year was great! I was getting 40:1 with the reds... I've heard people say they have less sugar % in their reds but mine seem to be pretty darn close to the sugars! They will all make syrup!

[mountainvan]

I tap lots of red and sugar maples. Reds may have a lower sugar content, but sap is sap.

[treehugger]

I tap 60% reds and the syrup I made with them last year was great! I was getting 40:1 with the reds... I've heard people say they have less sugar % in their reds but mine seem to be pretty darn close to the sugars! They will all make syrup!

Thats impressive!

[treehugger]

Do either of you run your reds on separate lines in case of early budding? To allow those trees to be isolated?

[mapleack]

I tap 70% reds. Sugar content is low but they make great syrup. I don't have a problem with budding, they usually quit running anyway before they make bud syrup.

[tcross]

no I don't have separate lines! this is my first year on vacuum so we shall see! last year on buckets my reds ran just as long as my sugars did... for the most part. and I had 1 tree that got a buddy flavor to the sap before I was all done!

[Cabin]

I have 3 sugar maples and 75+ tap able reds. None of my trees are in great shape and it takes over 70 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. If I let the sap freeze I use less fire wood. But then I figure my season ends if the trees stop producing or I run out of wood to burn.

[DaveB]

I tap mostly reds and I think it produces a better syrup, IMHO. I've never had sugar content issues either - usually about 2%. Yes, it's slightly less than sugar maples but I don't think it's that significant. As others have said, I also don't have to worry about buddy sap because the trees stop running before that happens.

[steam maker]

Tap them all !!!!! Reds love vaccum also!

[Biz]

I tap sugar maples only but have a ton of reds on my property which I have been ignoring because they are not sugars. They aren't the beautiful, majestic trees that sugars are. Maybe I'm a sugar maple snob? :) Now, based on this discussion, I'm thinking of tapping some of my reds! I could probably double my bucket count, and overload the capacity of my brand new evaporator in no time! Something to look at for next year. I'll try a few this year to see how it goes. Nobody thinks tapping reds is a bad idea? It's still a hobby for me so I don't care much about sugar content.

Dave

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Mostly Reds for me. I did buy a sap hydrometer and noticed a 1.5 to 1.7% at the start and a 1% near the end. Usually the holes shut down (in my vast experience) before the buds pop. A few sugars give me 2% that I mix in no separate lines all drop lines to five gallon buckets. 60 to 1 seems to be the norm. I will be tapping Tomorrow, Saturday the 22nd, to get my season underway. I needed the rain in my area today to melt snow so I can get into the woods. I'm too old for snow shoes and the four wheeler needs to be run!

[Loch Muller]

I tap both reds and sugars and have no RO yet. Last year my reds varied between 1.5% and 3% and that could be different this year from what I understand. I agree that sap is sap. As long as you can collect and process it at an acceptable profit, or have fun doing it as a hobby I'd go for it.

[treehugger]

With all of the positive feedback on reds, i guess the genaral sentiment is tap'em if you gott'em. Based on this i will too add at least 50 taps of reds. Thanks for the info guys.

[Russell Lampron]

I tap sugar maples only but have a ton of reds on my property which I have been ignoring because they are not sugars. They aren't the beautiful, majestic trees that sugars are. Maybe I'm a sugar maple snob? :) Now, based on this discussion, I'm thinking of tapping some of my reds! I could probably double my bucket count, and overload the capacity of my brand new evaporator in no time! Something to look at for next year. I'll try a few this year to see how it goes. Nobody thinks tapping reds is a bad idea? It's still a hobby for me so I don't care much about sugar content.

Dave

What I have found is that reds are finicky if you are using buckets. Tap a few and you will see that some will run and some won't. I have about 600 reds on vacuum and get about a qt per tap of syrup from them. Not great when compared to what sugar maples would do but if it's what you've got tap them. The syrup taste great and that's what keeps the customers coming back.

[Vermont Creation Hardwood]

Red maples produce syrup that tastes a little different than sugars. Personally I think a mix of sugars and reds has the best taste of all. You're wasting fine tasting maple syrup if you don't tap reds.

[treehugger]

Red maples produce syrup that tastes a little different than sugars. Personally I think a mix of sugars and reds has the best taste of all. You're wasting fine tasting maple syrup if you don't tap reds.

Point taken.

[Biz]

I just tapped 3 trees, waiting a couple weeks for the rest. Two sugar maples, one red maple, two taps per tree. The sugars are all running, but reds are dry as a bone despite temps in the 40s for tha past few days. Weird. I'll give it some more time once the season really gets going, but it may get pulled if it doesn't start producing!

Dave

[happy thoughts]

I just tapped 3 trees, waiting a couple weeks for the rest. Two sugar maples, one red maple, two taps per tree. The sugars are all running, but reds are dry as a bone despite temps in the 40s for tha past few days. Weird. I'll give it some more time once the season really gets going, but it may get pulled if it doesn't start producing!

Dave

Patience :) Reds can be finicky. When I used to tap them (on buckets) some would run well and some not so well and none ran as well as sugars. Reds tend to start later and stop sooner than sugars. The larger operations run them on vacuum which makes them less temperamental.

[Maplebrook]

100% red maple. If I don't tap reds, I don't sugar. Makes delicious syrup. Ratio 70:1. Some trees run more in a day than others in a week. Boil it all until it doesn't run anymore. Bud run is not an issue.

[bcarpenter]

I am in the same boat, 100% reds for me too. I am probably somewhere in that same ratio, so at times I wonder what it would be like to have all sugars with a much lower sap to syrup ratio. I will have to keep dreaming I guess, but people really seem to enjoy the taste of syrup made from all reds.

[Drew Pond Maple]

Reds didn't do well for me last year on gravity so I'm adding a small vacuum pump this year.
I have 75% reds and 25% sugars. Syrup tastes great.

[seclark]

Hope I'm not infringing but at this time of year how do you tell a Red from a Silver Maple.I've always tapped only sugars but now will tap others to make up for lost woods.I know they both make syrup but I am just curious as to how to tell the difference.Thanks for any help and good luck to all.

[Biz]

Silver maples have shaggy park, very pointy leaves, and tend to crown out lower to the ground.

[Ittiz]

I'm tapping reds, I don't have any sugars that I've found yet. It's about 40 right now and they all seem to be flowing pretty great at the moment. Something I do before I tap a tree for the first time is prick it with an ice pick to see if it's flowing and to taste how sweet the sap is. Some make sap that is very sweet and some have almost no sweetness at all.

I was thinking of experimentally tapping a striped maple this year just to see if it flows well and if it does how the syrup is.

[tendermason]

The buds on sugars are pointed and on reds they are blunt.

[BigAl'sSapShack@WBM]

tappem all....just watch for some to bud earlier than otherss

[Michael Greer]

Silvers often grow in wet conditions. They often have multiple trunks, and so, can be five feet wide sometimes. They run like mad on a sunny day, and their sugar content isn't that bad.

[DrTimPerkins]

They did not tap red maple here at UVM PMRC for decades. When we retubed in 2004, we did start tapping them, and they now make up about 25% of our taps, but everything is on high vacuum. No problem with early bud that we've noticed. When the reds are done, the sugars are pretty much done too.

[Brian Ryther]

I am in the process of installing a new to me sugar bush. It is 90% reds. It ran 1.5 gpt last Saturday when other areas ran only 1 gpt. Sugar was low but it more than made up for it in volume. It also faces north. I feel bad for producers who pass up reds and bushes that face north. Lots of un tapped potential out there.

[heus]

My reds in the open run 2-2.5 sugar compared to a lot of telephone pole sugars deep in the woods that run 1-1.5