Red maple tree tapping

[blissville maples]

Curious if anyone has any sugar Bush on vacuum that is strictly red maple?? If so what is your average yield per tap?? Or average run volume? I have 4 bushes and the two with red maple I have hard time seeing more Than .3 per tap, wondering if that's typical of red/sugar mix or straight red's. Syrup always excellent quality with the mix.

[GeneralStark]

Are these swamp red maples or upland red maples?

[Drew Pond Maple]

I have 230 reds and 20 sugars on guzzler vacuum (19-20") and get 130-150gallons average run. My best run was 330 gallons in 12hrs. Most of the trees are 10"-14" dbh. These trees are all within 150' of a stream that runs all year.

[blissville maples]

That's darn good, some seem to really run good under vac when look thru clear spouts, but I can't tell overall since I have a heavy mixture

[blissville maples]

Upland reds, soft maple.....Not the real shaggy silver/ swamp maple

[Wanabe1972]

I have a couple of lines with reds and never did much running until i added vacuum to them. Mine run like a bugger early in the year but dry up quicker than my sugars. These are all yard trees and get full sun. They are usually around 1.8 to 2.0 sugar and i get a gallon or better per tap early on and .5 gallons a day at the end of the season.

[bagpiper]

I have all Reds. I hooked up 85 taps/trees to vacuum this year and surprisingly pulled out about 15 gals/tap. I put 50 trees on buckets and only emptied them three times; probably averaged 3 gals/tap. I'm sold on using vac. for Reds.

[blissville maples]

Wanabe- similar experience little to nothing on gravity pouring on vac.

[Russell Lampron]

I have 700 taps and 90% of them are reds. I typically get around a quart per tap. I have them all on vacuum and have been able to maintain 27" this season. I haven't reached the quart per tap yet but am real close.

If you've got reds and can put them on vacuum tap them they make great tasting syrup. If you don't have vacuum don't bother. They are too finicky on gravity.

[DrTimPerkins]

Years ago PMRC didn't tap red maples at all. We really don't discriminate any longer. Currently about 20+% of our taps are red maple and our production is fine. They do well on high vacuum with good sanitation.

[GeneralStark]

The best things you can do to improve production from upland red maples are 1. put them on vacuum and 2. thin them out to get lots of sunlight to the crowns. They will produce, likely not as well as a sugar maple, but they will produce. Swamp trees are stressed, so will never produce real well...

[Russell Lampron]

The best things you can do to improve production from upland red maples are 1. put them on vacuum and 2. thin them out to get lots of sunlight to the crowns. They will produce, likely not as well as a sugar maple, but they will produce. Swamp trees are stressed, so will never produce real well...

It's about 50/50 here I've got some big reds with big crowns on dry ground and I've got some swamp maples with wet feet. There aren't many that are truly in the swamp but a lot are close to the swampy areas. I think that I do good to get a quart per tap while the guys with all sugars are getting a half gallon per tap.

Reds are what I've got so reds are what I tap. They are all on my own land so I don't owe anything to anybody to make my syrup.

[GeneralStark]

Russ - Tap them if ya got em. If you have swamp maples, that's what you have. An upland red will definitely produce better though...

802Maple says hi...

[Russell Lampron]

Russ - Tap them if ya got em. If you have swamp maples, that's what you have. An upland red will definitely produce better though...

802Maple says hi...

Say hi to Jerry for me. I sure could use one of his arches.

[GeneralStark]

Say hi to Jerry for me. I sure could use one of his arches.

Will do. Yes the 802Maple Arch does not disappoint...

[GV2]

The best things you can do to improve production from upland red maples are 1. put them on vacuum and 2. thin them out to get lots of sunlight to the crowns. They will produce, likely not as well as a sugar maple, but they will produce. Swamp trees are stressed, so will never produce real well...

I agree 100% with the thinning recommendation. I did that 6 years ago in 2 stands and saw more sap each season and a bit dryer soil.

[tcross]

of my 225 taps, 2/3 rds are red maples. last year I made .4 gals per tap (my best year so far) but I had to quite a week early to start building my house. had a couple of good runs after I had to call it quits. in the 5 years I've been sugaring I've averaged .3 gpt. my bush is fairly young. I've been thinning it each fall and have been getting improved results. if i get a couple more good runs this year, I'm on track to be above the .3gpt. I have a mix of swamp and upland reds.

[sapman]

I have around 900 sugar and 1800 red/silver mix, on high vacuum. Probably over 50-70% silver in that mix, actually. Maybe half are in water, or are at times. This year averaged 27 gpt sap, .4 gpt syrup. But I do know the sugars really carry a lot, as last year I shut off the softs on March 17, and through mid-April the sugars averaged 45gpt sap total, realistically more because that's averaging everything together til mid-March.

This last week or so I didn't see much sap coming into the releaser from any of the soft maples. Interestingly, I quit Tuesday, and collected 10,000 gal. less sap this year. But syrup production was almost identical. Can't really believe it. I thought sugar was worse this year!

[blissville maples]

Do you isolate the sugars from reds?? What's your hi and low sugar for the soft and silver​? Good info

[sapman]

They can be isolated, and I did go just sugars last year from mid March. But that was graded processing, so I shoulda just left them all on and made more syrup.

The very first year I checked sugar from the soft maples, and from the sugar maples (was mechanical releaser then so easy to check). Sugars were only .2% higher. Should probably compare again sometime but more difficult with electric releaser. Best I've had altogether is 1.7, usually 1.5 and down.

[Russell Lampron]

They can be isolated, and I did go just sugars last year from mid March. But that was graded processing, so I shoulda just left them all on and made more syrup.

The very first year I checked sugar from the soft maples, and from the sugar maples (was mechanical releaser then so easy to check). Sugars were only .2% higher. Should probably compare again sometime but more difficult with electric releaser. Best I've had altogether is 1.7, usually 1.5 and down.

A lot of my reds are big trees with big crowns on high ground. My sugar on a good season is usually around 2% even with the swamp maples mixed in. I can't isolate my sugars but if I could that would only be about 75 taps.

[VTnewguy]

I have all Reds. I hooked up 85 taps/trees to vacuum this year and surprisingly pulled out about 15 gals/tap. I put 50 trees on buckets and only emptied them three times; probably averaged 3 gals/tap. I'm sold on using vac. for Reds.

Do you know what the average sugar content ran?

[mspina14]

Tapped 79 red maples this year on vacuum for the 1st time.

Some are in dry soil, some wet.

it was my first year installing vacuum. So spent about 1/3 of the season with downtime chasing leaks and getting everything to work properly.

I collected about 400 gallons of sap and made about 5 gallons of syrup. Sugar content of the sap was between 0.9%-1.4%.

Makes a very red syrup:

16410

Tastes delicious!

I was pleased with the results, even with the low sap volume. I only have red maples on my property. I have tried tapping them with buckets over the last 4 years or so with zero success. Had to get my sap from other sugar maples around town before this year.

I'm hoping to increase to 100 taps on the Reds next season. Hopefully, I'll be faster at finding leaks and get more sap. ;)


Mark

[Russell Lampron]

Do you know what the average sugar content ran?

I have 720 taps on high vacuum. 90% of those are red maples the other 10% are sugars. I averaged 1.4% sugar for the season.