Tapping flooded trees

[hospadar]

Hi!
I'm tapping on a friend's property that I've never tapped before. A bunch of the trees I marked are apparently in areas that flood pretty thoroughly in the spring (oops!). It's only 2-3 feet of water, and it'll be no problem (albeit probably a little chilly for a while yet) to get to the trees with waders and tap them a little higher with hanging jugs.

Question is, Will these trees (that are now in the middle of a pond) still run well? Has anyone ever tapped trees in flooded areas like this before? I'm probably going to tap them either way and see what happens, I've got the taps and jugs, may as well use them.

Luke

[Ed R]

We used to tap a section of our woods that was in a creek bottom and would flood from time to time. All red maples that ran well even when flooded. Gathering in muddy, running water is a nightmare, don't miss it at all. We no longer tap that section of woods, if I did I'd have a mutiny on my hands. The only way I would contemplate doing it again is with tubing on vac. We've logged that section of the woods so there would not be that many taps there anyway.

[Mr. Red Maple]

I would like to here more on this because I want to tap a section of about 40 trees in a swamp. I'm hopin they with still run.
Good. Thanks Mr. red Maple

[NW Ohio]

Red Maple, our area is pretty flat, part of what used to be known as the Great Black Swamp before ditches and tile drained most of the land. Most of the woodlots exist because there are "holes" or some other topographical feature that makes farming impractical. In the woods that we tap there are several of these depressions. We have tapped a couple of trees next to the ponds (a foot or less deep and will dry up given enough time), occasionally having to stand in water to empty buckets. The results from those trees has typically been pretty poor. This past season on days when the other trees would give 3 gallons, the "wet" ones might have given a pint.

Not saying yours would have the same results, it could be a genetics thing or something else I suppose.

[Loch Muller]

I would guess that they would not run as well if there is a seasonally high water table. Trees with wet feet generally have shallow roots due to the lack of oxygen deeper into the soil. Might be worth trying at least a few of them to see what happens though.

[Mr. Red Maple]

Some of the trees I want to tap are above water a few feet around but then it goes down into water. It's normally dryer in the summer. I don't know if that matters. Then some of the other trees are just above and next to water and a swampy area. I don't know if that will effect it either. If anyone knows anything on this please let me know. Thanks

[rayi]

I tap some silvers with tubing that are wet in the spring. I tap them when it's frozen enough to walk on because when spring comes it can get deep. Mixed results. I only tapped them because I had left over tubing. If it's a real wet spring like this year I sometimes have to wait until may to take the taps out. Some years they run real good some years not so good. I think when the main lines fall apart I will not replace them. Never high sugar content usually less than 2

[RC Maple]

I have some trees I tap that are in the flood plain. There was no high water the last two years but this year there was. About a foot below the buckets. It was only that high because the ice kept damming up and plugging the crick so I didn't know how high it would get. I put on waders and took all the buckets down and hung them back up after a couple days. After that though, even when the trees at my other woods would run well these just seemed "stunned" and after I felt I missed a run because of that I moved the buckets. This high water may be different than what yours would be as there was two feet of water flowing through the woods but I didn't think those trees were the same afterwards. They may have run normally after some time to settle down but I didn't think I could chance that.

[Mr. Red Maple]

My trees are in a swamp sometimes a bit under water but mainly surround by water and 3-4 inches above water