Soft maples that budded early

[VTnewguy]

All, so we have some soft maples that have budded with crazy weather we have had this winter. They have been locked up solid for the last couple of weeks. My question is are these trees still worth tapping? Will the chemical processes in the tree make for buddy syrup too quick to make it worth it?

[psparr]

Red maple buds will swell a good bit before they pop.
Seems way early for VT
Are they on buckets or tubing? If your really worried, boil a little of the sap and see if it smells like dirty socks.

[VTnewguy]

We haven't tapped yet. These will be on 3/16 line. Thanks for the advice.

[rhwells2003]

Tap'em they'll be fine. Reds bud first and will shut off first, but we're still 2 months away from that.

[DrTimPerkins]

All, so we have some soft maples that have budded with crazy weather we have had this winter.

It is quite unlikely that the buds are doing much of anything right now. They might have swollen up a tiny (and I mean tiny) amount, but the process of budbreak means water moving into the buds. When that happens, the next time it freezes hard all those buds are basically dead. Trees have been around a really long time and aren't so easily fooled by warm spells as people are, so unless something really unusual is happening (somebody spread a ton of fertilizer in that area or you have streetlights that activated the buds), then the trees are not budding.

[BAP]

This time of year, soft maple buds are more noticeable than sugar maples.

[VTnewguy]

Ok thanks, for the advice. We setup to tap them.