Red buds on Red Maples

[mspina14]

These started appearing on my Red Maples about a week ago:

16024 16025 16026

The buds are still tight, and have been so since we started this latest round of deep freeze weather on Friday in S. Connecticut.

I'm wondering if I will still get one more sap run out of these Red Maples when it warms up again.

Or are they done producing sap for the season?

Mark

[Scm]

..........

[red gate maple]

In NW Pennsylvania our red maple buds have been swelling for over three weeks. We have been collecting beautiful crystal clear sap through 3/9 then the deep freeze set in. I expect to collect sap again when the thaw comes in a week or so. It's not over yet! I am expecting at least one more good sap run.

Just an observation...I downhill ski and the chair lift passes by lots of red and sugar maples and provides me with an up close view of buds. The red maple buds were swelled a bit in January. The poor trees must be so confused this year with the variation in temperatures.

[stoweski]

I have a few reds that I tapped that look just like those buds. They've been producing sap and it has been crystal clear. I've boiled it off and have no buddy syrup taste so I'm keeping my taps in at least until they swell some more.

[lyford]

My experience has been that the reds will stop running before the sap gets buddy.

[Wanabe1972]

I'm with Lyford. I have a bunch of reds and have never made buddy syrup. They just dry up and don't run anymore. My reds are mixed in through out my lines so when they quit so do I. Jeff

[mspina14]

In NW Pennsylvania our red maple buds have been swelling for over three weeks. We have been collecting beautiful crystal clear sap through 3/9 then the deep freeze set in. I expect to collect sap again when the thaw comes in a week or so. It's not over yet! I am expecting at least one more good sap run.

Just an observation...I downhill ski and the chair lift passes by lots of red and sugar maples and provides me with an up close view of buds. The red maple buds were swelled a bit in January. The poor trees must be so confused this year with the variation in temperatures.

Thanks.

Well, let's hope we get at least another sap run after this Arctic weather passes in a week or so.

Mak

[Cedar Eater]

I put my reds on natural (gravity) vacuum last year and they kept running until I got buddy syrup. Those are flowers, not leaf buds, and they may or may not appear before the sap turns buddy. They don't guarantee that the sap is buddy, but if I had a sapline with multiple reds, I would pull those first in a probably futile attempt to hold off on getting buddy sap.

[slammer3364]

I have almost all reds and have yet to get buddy sap in 10 years. I think we will get 2or 3 weeks of runs after this artic weather.We will see I guess

[DrTimPerkins]

As has already been said, those are flower buds, which are not a good indicator that the sap will be buddy. However if you do see them, the end is probably not real far off. The only RELIABLE way to know whether the sap is buddy is to boil sap and smell/taste the result -- people spend far too much time (IMO) looking at and worrying over buds. There's not much you can do about it, so why worry about it?

You may not want to send suspect sap to your evaporator though to avoid contaminating the sweet in there, so people will sometimes boil a small amount of sap/concentrate in a pot and check that way.

People have asked in other posts whether the sap will come back after turning buddy. Generally it does not, however if the buddy flavor was only very mild, and the sap runs hard afterward, you might get a very short reprieve and the flavor will lessen somewhat. Don't count on it though. Also there is the tendency for people to taste it at first and think yuck....then later think "it's not horrible", then "it isn't that bad", then "it's OK." Kind of a taste-creep thing as you get used to it. Just keep in mind that syrup that is not "that bad" is certainly not syrup that is "good."

With all that.....for those still making syrup, best wishes that your sap doesn't go buddy anytime soon!

[tcross]

Dr Tim... to tag along on your post, I have a questions about buddy tasting sap. i untapped about 60 taps on red maples where the buds were very much swollen and left about 40 that had very minor or no swelling. i still have 100 sugar maples tapped so i'll collect from those till the end. would it take a few red's to produce buddy sap to ruin the sap from the sugar maples, or would it take quite a bit of buddy sap to ruin a good run? i plan on taking out the remaining reds once the buds get more pronounced. i have 3 red maple trees in various parts of my property on a bucket that i plan on testing each time it runs in the hops of catching it, however i hope to un tap them before that happens. in previous years I've gone till the middle of April without any issues... not too sure about this year.

[DrTimPerkins]

...would it take a few red's to produce buddy sap to ruin the sap from the sugar maples, or would it take quite a bit of buddy sap to ruin a good run?

A little goes a long ways towards imparting a poor flavor, but again, the only way to know is to boil it and taste.

[bowtie]

I would guess half of trees available to me tap are reds. I really don't look at the buds that much as they are generally to high up to notice any swelling. Making buddy syrup is a bad experience, but my nose is jammed with maple smells, good and bad , that I often have my wife do the smell or taste test for me. As I have posted before when I smell any steam off from evap, I often get what I consider a bad smell, then my wife and, or kids come out and say it smell delicious.thats why I leave it to the " experts".

[bprifle01]

Whenever I am finishing syrup (in the house), my wife says "Aren't you done yet? I hate that smell". But she loves the syrup! Go figure!