troutsugar
05-12-2015, 01:10 AM
This is my first post/first season sugaring since a science fair exhibit project with a pair of reds and the family woodstove as a kid.
I am ridiculously happy to have stumbled across this forum. My seven year old daughter and I are currently hard at work processing and stacking all the oak branches that in the past would likely have been chipper fodder from this season's cordwood harvest off the back of our lot to fuel a block evap project I am planning/piecing together over the summer.
Daydreaming about a pole pavilion to house it and become a shack eventually out of 4-6 8" diameter black locust currently eating up canopy space near the red maples out back as well...wife pretty much thinks Ive lost my mind.
We had a mostly uncooperative first year here in the Pioneer Valley in western MA weatherwise with only about a dozen days total of really running sap, but the gallon and a quart we ended up making (nice clear mild light syrup, kept hoping for stronger darker that never really arrived before budding) with the turkey fryer were just enough for a dad and daughter to show off to friends and family and to start us on a beautiful adventure down a road that I hope to follow together for a long long time.
So that's me.
Now, as I clean up some of the Red maples nearing maturity that seemed just undersize for the 2014 season I am hoping for some advice and knowledge.
I pruned three or four smallish 1 1/2-21/2"diameter suckers and waterspouts apiece from trees within an inch of the 31.5 inch rope I use to measure circumference just after buds burst. Assuming I get to the recommended diameter this season I am wondering if the trees should get another year to recover from what seems like relatively minor stress, or can I plan on adding them to the team this year?
So happy to have found the resource, apologies for such a long-winded first post...
I am ridiculously happy to have stumbled across this forum. My seven year old daughter and I are currently hard at work processing and stacking all the oak branches that in the past would likely have been chipper fodder from this season's cordwood harvest off the back of our lot to fuel a block evap project I am planning/piecing together over the summer.
Daydreaming about a pole pavilion to house it and become a shack eventually out of 4-6 8" diameter black locust currently eating up canopy space near the red maples out back as well...wife pretty much thinks Ive lost my mind.
We had a mostly uncooperative first year here in the Pioneer Valley in western MA weatherwise with only about a dozen days total of really running sap, but the gallon and a quart we ended up making (nice clear mild light syrup, kept hoping for stronger darker that never really arrived before budding) with the turkey fryer were just enough for a dad and daughter to show off to friends and family and to start us on a beautiful adventure down a road that I hope to follow together for a long long time.
So that's me.
Now, as I clean up some of the Red maples nearing maturity that seemed just undersize for the 2014 season I am hoping for some advice and knowledge.
I pruned three or four smallish 1 1/2-21/2"diameter suckers and waterspouts apiece from trees within an inch of the 31.5 inch rope I use to measure circumference just after buds burst. Assuming I get to the recommended diameter this season I am wondering if the trees should get another year to recover from what seems like relatively minor stress, or can I plan on adding them to the team this year?
So happy to have found the resource, apologies for such a long-winded first post...