Tree Size

[billdean]

I am confused as to the size of the tree you can tap. Quite a few of my maples come out of one root ball that is 12 to 18 inches in diameter with 2 or more trunks. The trucks as in the picture may be 10 in diameter or less. Can you tap these trees?

[psparr]

Tap as if they were individual trees.

[Too Tall]

I would tap the tree on the right.

[Cedar Eater]

I use circumference at breast height and tap only those stems that exceed 30 inches, unless I want to risk killing the whole stem. Any that are less than 30 but close to 30 will be tappable within a few years.

[Russell Lampron]

Put a tap in each one, they are culls anyway. If I consider the tree a cull, which trees with more than 1 stem in the same root ball are, I start tapping them when the stem is 8" across at breast height. I know others will say to wait until the trees are 12" across at breast height and I follow that guideline if the tree is a nice sugar maple with it's own root ball.

[Cedar Eater]

Put a tap in each one, they are culls anyway. If I consider the tree a cull, which trees with more than 1 stem in the same root ball are, I start tapping them when the stem is 8" across at breast height. I know others will say to wait until the trees are 12" across at breast height and I follow that guideline if the tree is a nice sugar maple with it's own root ball.

That's a reasonable attitude toward clump maples if you don't mind killing a stem, which can be a reasonable thing to do. The smaller stems make great firewood and the remaining stems can benefit from the decreased competition for stump resources. It can be part of your sugarbush management plan to tap a stem to death.