Planting a sugar bush?

[Marvel26]

So I now recognize that the maple addiction has taken hold of my logic and reason brain functions. I know this as I am not contemplating planting a sugar bush! I know I may only see a few yrs of production from any trees I plant but the kids may decide to stay in the area and continue the addiction!

I have a large-ish field, approx. 150 yds by 100 yds, which has about a 5% slope. Unfortunately it runs to the north not the south but it gets the sun "almost" all day. I'm thinking that I will start from seed and I may mix in some of the Super sweet maples I have been reading about but I thought I would ask if anybody had any do's or don'ts from their experiences. Oh... and I have a few papers from Cornell that I'm reading as well.

Thanks for any advice

Rob

[BreezyHill]

My dad in the early 1980's planted sugar maples in a small grove below our sap house. The area is shaded by large maples until noon or so. He was around 55 when he transplanted them from the woods. As I recall they were around 6' tall. He got to tap some of them for a few years before passing back in 2010. They are all being tapped now.

I would suggest finding some to transplant and get a good jump on them. My neighbor is a tree and shrub sales man and it is pretty impressive the size trees they transplant. 30" auger on a walk behind bobcat unit puts the hole in the ground and in goes the root ball. I wish I had thought of doing this about 25 years ago. But instead I need to work on an old woods that got clear cut back when we had that Oct 4th snow storm. If is over crowded with loads of 6" trees. Nice an tall and straight but not much for canopy. Good fall project I suppose.

Good Luck!

Ben

[JoeJ]

In 1965, I planted about 40 1/2 diameter 6'-8' sugar maple saplings on my parents 1 acre lot that I got from a lot up the road. I tapped those trees after 30 years in 1995 when the trees were an average 12" diameter. Now 50 years later, my 13 year old nephew is tapping these trees and I am boiling the sap for him. The tree are now between 23" and 24" in diameter. When my nephew brings his sap to the sugar house, he is always reminding me that his sap from "my" trees is 3.6%. Nothing wrong with planting trees for the future, even if you don't get to use them.

[RC Maple]

In the spring of 2014 I planted 20 sugar maples that I got from the Arbor Day Foundation. They all came about 3'-4' tall and it is amazing how they have gotten so much bigger in two seasons. I laid them all out so that they were 21' feet apart and they have tree tubes around them to keep pests away. I need to replace two of them and will try to do that this fall. I know the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago but that is as close as I could come.

[optionguru]

I'll echo what others have said. I have a 3 acre field below my house that is next to the sugar house. I've been transplanting 4' to 5' saplings from the woods a few at a time. I've found much bigger than that and the root system is too big to handle easily. I'm hoping to end up with an additional 100 trees in the field over time.

[Marvel26]

Wild saplings are probably the best way to go and they are free....I like free lol. Is there any difference between roadside saplings and those found in the bush....for hardiness I mean? I transplanted a few oaks about 4 years ago which were about 2" in diameter they are now almost 6" in dia and stand about 12 feet high.

I need to measure my field but assuming its 100ydsX150 yds and using the 21' spacing suggested by RC Maple I should be able to plant 294 trees...ish

Any thoughts on how they should be stuck in the ground? straight lines, staggered, etc? its a flat field that has a downslope slope from south to north so I didn't foresee any tubing issues regardless of their arrangement.

[Big_Eddy]

I'd plant the maples in rows 20' apart aligned with the slope, but 2-3x as tight as desired for final spacing. You will have some loss, and it's a lot easier to cut down the odd ''extra" tree than it is to plant a 20 year old maple to fill a gap in a row. You can then select the better trees and remove the others as the crowns start to compete.

Competition from grass and weeds (and deer / voles) is your primary problem in years 1-10. Straight rows will allow you to mow or bush hog between the rows and keep the grass down. Straight rows will also make tubing easier later.

I've known some people plant a row of poplars or spruce in between the maples to initially give shade, then cut the poplars / spruce out at ~15 years. Spruce can be sold as christmas trees at about the 15yr mark so they make a better choice in my opinion.

Expect a minimum of 20 years before the trees are of tappable size, assuming good soil, moisture and sun. As an alternative - you might consider "topless tapping" the "extra" trees while the best stems mature. You could probably start at about the 8 year mark that way.

[Marvel26]

Thanks Big Eddy

I like the idea of topless tapping at yr 8, is that a multi-year thing or just one year per sapling? Wouldn't the conifers acidify the soil and stunt the growth of the maples? At least that's what a somewhat crazy professor explained to me in a Ecology of the Maritime Provinces class back in university.

Also....why shade?

Thanks

Rob

[Michael Greer]

I'd plant them 10 feet apart and figure on losing some over the years. Who's to say which tree will thrive, and the closer spacing will crowd out the weeds and other species. A 20 foot spacing sounds nice, but i don't want to have to keep it mowed for the next fifteen years.