Reds or Sugars.

[Dale Sparrow]

Which do ya'll think will produce more syrup? Reds on vacuum or Sugars on gravity? Wondering which to go after next year.

[psparr]

Sugars on vacuum.

[Dale Sparrow]

Sugars on vacuum. The sugars are big trees scattered around, can't get vacuum to them.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

I assume you have 2 different bushes to choose from or something? Why not tap the sugars and put those on vacuum?
But back to your original question..........tree for tree I would opt for reds on vacuum. Likely to get runs with vacuum on days when gravity does nothing regardless of what the tree type is. Big issue for us this past season and many others.

[motowbrowne]

I think it's gonna depend on the year. Should be able to make what a quart per tap on a red on high vacuum in a average year right? A bucket on a big sugar maple might make more during some years, but there will be a couple years where you don't get squat if you time the weather wrong. At least that's been my experience. My buckets on big sugar maples this year each gave me about 5 gallons of sap. :(

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Reds on vacuum. If you hook reds to high vacuum (over 25") they will run just as well as sugars on high vacuum. We have over 3000 reds tapped( about 40 percent of our taps) and we regularly get over 40 gallons sap per tap. Sugar is just a couple tenths of a percent less in reds in my experience.
Neil

[Russell Lampron]

I tap 90% reds and have them on high vacuum. This season I made just over 1qt per tap. My friends on gravity didn't make enough syrup to meke it worth tapping this year. Every year since I have been on vacuum I see the same thing. Not as drastic as this year but vacuum always does better even on reds.

[PerryFamily]

They all bleed