Trees starting to bud

[diesel79james]

I'm in western N.Y. and I have noticed that a lot of the maples in my area are starting to bud. What does this mean for the upcoming sugar season? Has anyone seen this before?

[jimsudz]

Are they sugars or reds? Reds look like they are about to bud all the time.

[diesel79james]

Sugar maple they are in my sugar bush

[buckeye gold]

My bet is they will remain dormant. They may swell, but I doubt they actually bud out. If they do they will freeze off and the trees will recover in spring. I don't think there is enough day light to actually trigger a systemic change enough to tell the trees it's time to make leaves. Let's hope that we seem some cool weather.

[Newbie18]

Will this warm weather and lack of snow have much effect on this years sap?

[DrTimPerkins]

... I have noticed that a lot of the maples in my area are starting to bud. What does this mean for the upcoming sugar season? Has anyone seen this before?

Trees always have buds....unless they are dead. Although the buds on some ornamentals may swell and even start to open during unusually warm weather because they cannot adapted to local conditions well, maple trees are extremely well adapted to cold weather. These trees have been around for a really long time, and it is highly unlikely they will break bud and be injured at this time of year due to the deep level of dormancy they acquire. It takes a good amount of cold weather to break the dormancy and then a combination of long daylength and warm temperatures for the buds to open. We're not even close to this yet.

[DrTimPerkins]

Will this warm weather and lack of snow have much effect on this years sap?

No. Sap flow is dictated by the weather conditions DURING the sap flow season. Little of what happens before the season has much of any influence on the sap yield or sugar content of the sap.