How many hours can a tree run ???

[TerryEspo]

How many hours can sap run if temps don't go below freezing?

I ask due to my weather forecast tomorrow.

Freezing outside right now and will continue freezing all through tonight, ( trees just starting to wake up for the season) , temps and sunny tomorrow are perfect.
The problem is no freezing temps tomorrow night.

Will sap run all day and all through tomorrow night also? How many hours straight can a tree run ?

Thanks.

[mountainvan]

I've had runs of three days with buckets, but that's rare. 48 hrs is probably the max. A couple days with no flow will give you a chance to wash stuff and spent time with your family before it gets cold again.

[happy thoughts]

I've had runs close to 48 hours usually during rainy spells when night temps are above freezing and the air pressure is low. If I remember correctly, I think Dr Tim said the sugar content drops the longer the tree runs so long runs may not be as productive as they seem at first.

[Sue @ Battel's Sugar Bush]

We had an extremely unusual run here in early March where it ran continuously 4-5 days in freakishly warm weather. Usually it's 1-2.


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[michiganphil]

With my trees, it makes a big difference on how big the tree is. The smaller, 1 tap trees stop after the 1st day. The huge trees flow for at least 2 days, and sometimes 3 without a freeze cycle.

[Sinzibuckwud]

Our biggest tree ran 4 days straight this year with no freeze.
There was still an ice pack the first 3 days and the ground was still frozen 1 inch down on the 4th, I believe this contributed to the long run.

[Cedar Eater]

On gravity, my longest run dried up by about 8 PM the second day after running all through one night. That was last year during a more normal season. It was only my larger trees that ran that long. All my trees are reds.

[RC Maple]

I pulled all my taps yesterday. The last freeze was Monday morning and every tap was still dripping about once every 3 seconds. Most of those trees were >24". Like Michiganphil said one tap trees would stop much sooner.

[DrTimPerkins]

Like most things, the answer is -- it depends. As others have noted, tree size is an important variable, mostly because they have a larger internal reservoir of sap, but also because some parts of the tree will take longer to thaw out during a warm period, so sap may continue to dribble out for a period of time. The second important factor is temperature. If the temperature increases, you get more gas bubble expansion in the lumen (the hollow space inside the cell), which pushes more sap out of the fiber area into the vessels where it can come out the taphole. So if a one day is warmer than the next, more sap will come out. Typically though, after 2-4 days, sap flow under gravity conditions is pretty much done -- at least until there is another freeze/recharge.