Tapping guidelines

[J. R. Dodge]

How many taps would you set in healthy 30'' sugar maples?

[325abn]

I think 2-4. Is this correct? or should it be kept to 2?

[maplehound]

When I look at a tree in the woods, if i spread my hand as wide as I can and set it up to the tree. If I can see the trunk on both sides of my hand, it is big enough to tap with one tap. If I can reach around a tree and barely touch my fingers it gets 2 taps. If I don't come close to touching my fingers I may put in 3 depending on the health of the tree and how open the crown is. I never go more than 3.

[H. Walker]

My guidelines have always been 10"> 1 tap, 15"> 2 taps, 20"> 3 taps, 25"> 4 taps maximum. If any tree isn't 100% healthy then divide by 2.

[Russell Lampron]

With 7/16" taps the tree has to be 12" across at chest height and an additional 12" for a second tap. At 36" it may get 3 taps if the tree is healthy and another tap per 12" to a max of 4 for a healthy tree. I don't drill any deeper than 2" for the 7/16" spouts.

With 5/16" taps the tree has to be 8" across at chest height and an additional 8" for a second tap. At 24" it may get 3 taps depending on tree health up to a max of 4 taps at 32" if the tree is healthy. I drill 5/16" taps no deeper than 1-1/4".

To determine tree health other than the obvious dead limbs I look at old taps holes to see how well they have healed from the previous year. If they close up good in a year the tree is healthy.

Russ

[325abn]

How much should one expect a 7/16 tap hole to close up in a year?

[Russell Lampron]

A 7/16" tap hole will be pretty much closed up after a year but may take 2 years before it is completely closed. If it takes longer than that the tree health isn't good and should be tapped accordingly.

Russ

[maple flats]

For healthy looking trees I go 1 tap/26" circumfrance and when I was new at it I actually made up a piece of about 1/8" line with 1 knot at 26", 2@52" and so forth up to 4 knots. I would walk up to a tree I wanted to tap and swing the line around the tree and I held the unknoted end up to see where it came. I did not put the second tap until it actually reached the next designation.I only had 1 tree I felt good with 4 taps. Now I just look at it and come real close without using that gauge.

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

I don't know the #'s off the top of my head, But I know that the Proctor Maple Research center doesn't put any more than 2 taps/tree and they get real good production/tap. and I remember that they did do a study one year and only put 1 tap/tree and their per tap ratio stayed right up there.

[maple flats]

I have heard that many on vacumn go the lighter tapping. I am on gravity (and according to some I have too much gravity [personal problem]) and with gravity or buckets I believe the higher tapping quidelines prevail. Chuck Winship [on the Cornell advisory board] reduced his taps to 1 or 2/ tree and says he got a lot more/tap doing so, but then he is on vac.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Like some have said according to research= Well i'll let you do some searching reading or whatever and find some answers on test that they conducted.

Myself i go 1 tap 10-18+ inch using the rule if i can reach around the tree and hug it(treehugger) and not tuch my fingers then i'll put in the 2nd. tap and no more. I do have a few that i have 3 taps on but alternate the drop on certain years so there is still only 2 taps at the max. per tree. I do have a couple of handfulls of 8" trees but they are coming out in a thin cut a few years from now=so if they die o-well/They probably won't but your sap ratio per tap will be down.

I've seen a tree before with like 13 buckets on it and they almost touched each other about 10 miles from me and never got a picture of it(Think i'm going to see if they are still doing it/IF it hasn't died).

I have seen a picture with about the same amount or like 15 on it.

Do what you gotta do i guess.

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

I go with the appx. 8"+ =1 tap. and if I can't touch around it=2 taps also. I think that it's and easy/quick way to tell and you don't have to carry any extra measuring tools or anything. boy, you'd think with that many buckets around a tree it would girdle it!

[super sappy]

I like the reach around method. When I line up the troops on tapping day I'll have my 7 year old measure trees. i do have some trees that are around 3'-4-0'in diameter I have alwayse tapped 4 in those But I have aquired more trees this year and was going to give them the year off. If I reduce the # of taps in half it is not worth the drive to them.Do you think that this is overtapping?

[mountainvan]

I made a diameter measurer out of a curtain rod which I use when putting up new tubing. Trees I hang buckets on I'm on a first name basis with them. I put 1 tap in for 10"-20" in diameter, 2 for 20"-30", and 3 for 30"+. I used to use the 10-15, 15-20, 20-25, and 25+, but found that less taps get the same amount of sap, even on gravity.

[802maple]

This is getting scary Maple hill and I agreeing on another subject. I used to let the tapper go crazy when i took over our sugarbush from my dad and Grandfather and the trees as Ryan said started showing the effects of basically being girdled,so I cut back and did not tap any tree more than twice and all trees under 16 inches only got 1. The trees over 16 only got one also unless it was very healthy and my production per tap and health of the trees was significant after that.

[maple flats]

Where I had a chance to hunt this past year there was a sugar maple that according to the owner used to get 15 buckets. This tree is still rather healthy looking however they got TOO OLD? to do mapling anymore. I should have gotten a picture of the tree and will next year if I get to hunt it again. The tree had to be the absolute biggest I have ever seen, I think it was somewhere in the neighbor hood of 10 FEET in diameter. The owner said they tried at one time to get it registered as the largest in the state but one somewhere a little south of there won out. I had never heard of registering such a thing before this. The tree must have been fully grown when GOD was a boy.

[mapleman3]

My arms are too long for the old reach around.... ;) but on big big trees I still do only 3 buckets.