Road Salt and it's effect

[daniel_wentworth]

Was wondering if anyone has any information on roadside trees that are tapped and if salt from the road effects the syrup. Can the tree take up the salt and have it effect the syrup flavor?

[Bricklayer]

I used to tap roadside maples down the road from me. I never really noticed a difference in taste. If you had it analyzed you might find something maybe. I stopped tapping them because they were really old sugars and I would have to drill 10 holes to find good wood. I did have a couple issues with snowplow blasting my buckets all to hell a couple times. Dumped the buckets that time. But other then that they were fine.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

A friend of mine who just graguated from college did a college paper on this a last year. I dont know what his conclusion was but can ask him

[DrTimPerkins]

Was wondering if anyone has any information on roadside trees that are tapped and if salt from the road effects the syrup. Can the tree take up the salt and have it effect the syrup flavor?

Yes, if there is enough road salt used in an area then the sap can be salty and the resulting syrup can have a salty taste. Typically this doesn't happen real long if that much salt is used. Too much salt will kill the maples over time. If you have only a few trees you can lessen the effect of calcium chloride by fertilizing around the trees with gypsum. Go lightly though and repeat every few years -- much better than one big dose.

[daniel_wentworth]

That would be interesting to find out what your friend found out for his report.....Good warning about the snowplow, didn't think of that.
Dr. Tim....What does gypsum do to the calcium chloride?

[DrTimPerkins]

Dr. Tim....What does gypsum do to the calcium chloride?

Road salt (sodium chloride) does two things. The sodium (Na) disrupts soil structure and porosity, which causes drainage issues. The chlorine (Cl, in chloride form), if it accumulates, is toxic to plants. Fortunately chloride leaches out of soils fairly quickly, so most areas with decent drainage and good precipitation don't build up chloride. Problem areas from heavy road salt problems tend to be wetter and shallow or have impaired drainage (exacerbated by the sodium).

Gypsum is CaSO4 (calcium sulfate). When you combine NaCl (road salt) with CaSO4 (gypsum), you get CaCl and NaSO4 (yes, for those chemists out there I realize I didn't balance the equation....that isn't important to the point here). This ties up the sodium a bit more (as sodium sulfate), so that there is less disruption of soil structure (and lower toxicity), allowing the Cl to leach out faster. Calcium chloride (CaCl) is also considerably less toxic to plants....it is marketed as "lawn safe" deicer.

More than you probably ever wanted to know at https://www.dmr.nd.gov/downloads/soilremediationguidel.pdf