North facing slope

[palmer4th]

I was talking with someone who offered a large (for me) bush to tap, However its north facing. Just wondering who has north facing slopes in NH and how it has gone for them? is it worth the investment?

[adironmaple]

Not from NH but had the same question last May when we had an opportunity fall into ours laps. The bush for the most part is north facing and we worried that it wouldnt produce as well as our other bushes. We ran high vac(27 in) and the bush is still producing as I write. Our other bushes were done 10 days ago. The new north facing bush has yielded almost exactly the same gpt of syrup as our other locations and I think will go 2 or 3 more days.
I know its only one year so who knows if it will yeild as well going forward but if the bush you have had offered to you has other positive points like location, slope, easy access, cheap lease than go for it.

[Russell Lampron]

Most of my woods are north and west facing and I also have a lot of evergreens scattered through it. It generally starts to run a little later in the day than my east facing trees but does produce well. The cold woods also helps when the freezes are marginal. I will get a freeze in the woods when it is either a light frost or no frost at all at the house. That can be a curse in the early part of the season and a blessing near the end of the season. I get sap runs here when others near me don't. There are positives and negatives to any situation and if everything else about the location looks good go for it.

[nymapleguy607]

I have a north facing woods and what everyone else is saying is true. The early season will drive you crazy waiting for the sap to start flowing but the end of season will kick into over drive and produce. This year with high vacuum I made close to 55 gallons before my wood supply ran out, if I had the wood to continue I have no doubt I could have made another 10 gallons as the buds didn't break for about another week there. I would say that you might be more prone to making dark syrup because they run later in the season but most people seem to prefer that anyway.

[Mark]

I have a north facing bush that takes a long time to get going. The problem is when the season comes to an abrupt end because of non freezing nights. I would rather have a south facing slope that produces early in the season when there are freezing nights. This year worked out good because we had very high temps at the beginning of the season that got things going early. Last year we were just a little too cold and could never get going until the end and did not do very well. Every once in a while the north is better but I sure wish mine was south facing.

[ennismaple]

Our new bush is almost all north facing. On a per tap basis it takes a few weeks to catch up to the south facing woods but it really outperforms late in the season. Our south facing woods will yield cloudy sap on the same day the sap in the north woods is crystal clear. I'm certain the north facing woods helps us keep lighter colour for longer.

[sjdoyon]

We have a North/NE facing slope located near the Connecticut river. Sugarbush is at 1650 - 2430ft elevation. We normally start 3-5 days after the south facing slope. We are still producing so we tend to go into the first week of May. We have the luxury of normally having cold nights in late April. We're pretty happy with our production numbers.

We faced the same issue when we started out, is it worth the investment. For us, the answer has turned out to be yes.

As others have said, there are positives and negatives. With high vacuum, probably is not a hinderance having a north facing slope but maybe UVM Proctor will do a study on the issue someday so we aren't guessing. :)


I was talking with someone who offered a large (for me) bush to tap, However its north facing. Just wondering who has north facing slopes in NH and how it has gone for them? is it worth the investment?

[palmer4th]

Thank you! We are a ways out from making It happen but this was a big help!

[Shiftman]

We are mostly north and west facing, same experience. We ran for 8 extra days after other guys in our area, Lows were above freezing at 0-4 and we still got flows. a really nice surprise.