Thinning to raise sap sugar content

[milligkl]

Hello,

I have had fairly low sugar content (ranging from 1.4-1.8 with tapping approx 1,000 sugar maples) and was going to thin the beach trees in the area after the production season. I have a fairly dense maple area and a fair amount of big beach trees. I wanted to know if anyone has done a similar initiative, and what their increase in sugar content was.


Thanks,
Kevin

[Maple Man 85]

I am not sure it will raise your sugar content but it will defiantly help to open up the woods therefore letting the maples increase in crown size which will get you more sap volume. I did some logging on our property and the maples that receive more sun out perform my other trees further in the woods.

Maple Man 85

[Russell Lampron]

I think with thinning over time you may see an increase in sugar content as the trees crown out. I had my woods logged 11 years ago and average 2% or better from red maples. The trees have crowned out nicely and are thriving now with less competition for water and nutrients.

Can't say the words I want to to describe my feelings towards beech trees. I hate them because of the way the branches always whack me in the face or knock the hat off of my head. They are an invasive species, get rid of them!

[Bucket Head]

Thinning will help the crowns on the remaining tree's. Increased crown's equal increased sugar content. As it was put to me years ago, "more leaves means more sugar".

If you can test for sugar content, go test a tree in the woods that has grown with competition (small crown) and then go test the sap from that large, mature, no competition maple in your front yard, back yard, neighbors yard, hedge row, etc. Very eye opening!

[bill m]

There a lot of factors that come into play as to how your trees respond to the thinning. Younger trees generally respond better than larger/older trees. Larger crowns contribute to more leaf area which produces more sugar. Some trees are genetically sweeter than others and will never be real sweet. Go ahead and try it, get rid of the Beech.

[Bucket Head]

Another eye opener was when I saw what thinning does for tree growth. Years ago I saw some "cookies"- cross section cuts of maple stems- that Cornell displayed on one of the New York maple tours. They showed growth rings of non-thinned and thinned trees. The growth rings were much larger after thining! They actually had ones from a 90 year old tree and ones from a much younger tree and the younger one was much bigger! That really drove the point home about opening up crown growth space.

[Cedar Eater]

Be very careful about running heavy equipment near your maple trees when thinning other trees to promote them. Their development can't be knocked back by that.

[Michael Greer]

Get a real forester to come in and mark trees. There is always more than one idea going on in the forest, and it takes some real education and study to keep things in a productive balance. You have short term objectives (higher sugar content), but there are longer term goals like forest health, wildlife, timber, and firewood, and a balanced approach can achieve all of these goals.

[DrTimPerkins]

Thinning will help the crowns on the remaining tree's. Increased crown's equal increased sugar content. As it was put to me years ago, "more leaves means more sugar".

This is exactly right. More light means more leaves which means more photosynthesis which means more sugar which means more growth and higher sugar content which ultimately means happier maple producer.

[Dill]

Can't say the words I want to to describe my feelings towards beech trees. I hate them because of the way the branches always whack me in the face or knock the hat off of my head. They are an invasive species, get rid of them!
I thought I was the only one that hated beech trees cause of that. They suck when you are driving in the woods.

[Hop Kiln Road]

The real bane of American beech is its ability to root sprout.

[GeneralStark]

Thinning will increase sap sugar content though over thinning can have the reverse impact according to at least one Cornell study. The trees will often recover, but ssc can drop after thinning.

[TRAILGUY]

when you cut beach you will have so many root sprouts you have a hard time walking. I did stump spraying and it killed all the sucker but it was not in my sugar bush and don't know how that would work.

[maple flats]

Do some studying on beech removal before you start. Dr. Peter Smallage of Cornell has covered that topic well. Beech can be a huge problem. Cutting it makes the root structure make more by sending up hundreds if not thosands of sprouts. Some can be much farther away from the original stump than you would ever guess. Getting rid of beech in a maple sugar bush is both very difficult and if bone right, very rewarding.