Dry tap hole

[Worthy]

Hello all. New to the forum, but I tried many searches, and could not find the answer I'm looking for.

Third year sugaring, just as a suburban backyarder. One tap this year has not produced a single drop through 2 runs. Now, I noted the shavings were a bit darker, and realize now that I've tapped dead wood. My question is this: Should I do anything to this tap hole to reduce the chances of infection/rotting? While normal tap holes with healthy sapwood & cambium will heal themselves, is this true of an wound in dead wood? I pulled the tap this morning, and as the bark looked normal in this location, I am hopeful the tree still has enough vascular cambium to heal the wound. What advice or experiences have you had with the healing of dry tap holes?

Thanks, and good to be here!

[DrTimPerkins]

Should I do anything to this tap hole to reduce the chances of infection/rotting?

No. Just leave it alone. Trees, especially maple trees, have well developed mechanisms to compartmentalize wounds. They've been around a good long time and can have ways to deal with wounds from broken branches and other injuries.

Tapholes themselves will never fill in. They are simply covered over by new growth occurring at the cambial layer. Similarly, the dark wood that occurs around and especially above and below an old taphole will never be functional again for transporting sap. The compartmentalization process has rendered that "stained" area of wood non-conductive. This is why you want to avoid drilling near, and especially avoid drilling about 12" above or below an old taphole. The compartmentalized wood is still good for structure, but not good for sap transport. As an aside, one scientific question we are currently doing research on is whether or not these old non-conductive areas within the stem of tapped maple trees lead to increase resistance to sap flow, or whether they have no effect. Should know a lot more in a few months as we just finished building the apparatus to test this.

Don't put anything like dowels or anything else in old tapholes to plug them or tar to cover them. These will simply be areas that the tree cannot compartmentalize, and they will soak up water and lead to rot. Just let the wound compartmentalize and new wood grow over (outside) the wounded area.

[Worthy]

Ah, so tapping into a dead spot is no different in terms of healing than tapping into good sapwood. Thank you.

[DrTimPerkins]

Ah, so tapping into a dead spot is no different in terms of healing than tapping into good sapwood. Thank you.

Correct. Except that you'll get little or no sap out of it.