Lots of seeds this year!

[blissville maples]

I've noticed alot of seed this year, interested to see, as I've never kept track, how this affects sugar...

Alot of masting for others this spring??

[heus]

Lots of seeds on my sugar maples this year.

[Ed R]

Full of seeds and they seem on the small size.

[DrTimPerkins]

Seed production does take a good bit of carbohydrate from trees, but whether masting has significant effects on sap sugar content (SSC) the following year is still debated. The one peer-reviewed study published so far (Raap and Crone 2015) has some very serious methodological flaws, the primary one being they used maple syrup production as a proxy for sap sugar content. It is likely there is some effect of masting on SSC, but probably not nearly as large as the original paper suggested.

Of course, while there are seeds on the trees now, there is no knowing until later whether they will become filled (requiring a good deal bit more carbohydrate to do) and viable or are aborted for some reason, or how widespread a phenomenon it will be this year.

The following paper might be of some interest http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/Does%20Masting%20Really%20Lead%20to%20Lower%20Sap% 20Sugar%20Concentrations.pdf

[blissville maples]

I did notice they were small also, maybe they will drop some prematurely like fruit trees.....

So the trees make carbs as Soon as leaves unfold??

I've heard or the way I understand it is that larger say hundred year old tree has ample reserves of carb and or sugar for utilization in following years. For example a 30" diameter tree may hold enough carbs and or sugar to produce say 10-15 gallons of syrup if there was a man made way to make water convect through the tree to release all the sugar it contains at that given time- of course there would maybe be a carb to sugar conversion issue without the tree being in a natural process- but in theory there could be say 10-15 gallons worth of sugar In that tree at any time

[Michael Greer]

Here in Potsdam, NY I'm seeing trees that are covered with seeds and way short on leaves. The leaves make the sugar...

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Michael,
Are you seeing eastern forest tent caterpillars? This end of the county has an over abundance.

[maple maniac65]

No science here, research or a degree. Old sugar maker told me once that maples seed every seven years. The years just before they seed are good sugar runs. The year after they seed is not because the spent their energy on seed production. All I keep track of here is sap, weather, sugar content and total syrup production. It maybe a coincidence but I have been here long enough to see heavy seed years and the following season it seems I would be better off working than sugaring.

[blissville maples]

Michael,
Are you seeing eastern forest tent caterpillars? This end of the county has an over abundance.

Definitely seeing more of those than last couple years,. They seem to be eating the nettles beside one of my maple, I torched them anyway.......

Maple maniac- I am going to be paying attention this spring, but time tells all, always has always will, and if you've documented this decrease in past then.......do you have any numbers, like sugar down a .5 or less GPT syrup?

[Wanabe1972]

I have a dozen maples in the back yard by my sugar House. They are all the same size and variety and Heath. Three of them are loaded with seeds and the rest are not. What is the difference in them. I should mention they are also in a row with equal sun and soil and moisture. The one tree had some many seeds that the ground is literally carpeted with them.

[DrTimPerkins]

Three of them are loaded with seeds and the rest are not. What is the difference in them.

The species is dioecious, meaning that some sugar maple trees are male, some are female....but just to keep you on your toes, every now and then a tree is both.

[DrTimPerkins]

I did notice they were small also, maybe they will drop some prematurely like fruit trees.....

So the trees make carbs as Soon as leaves unfold??

Not all seeds will be filled and viable. Some or all will be naturally aborted. Interestingly, of those that do make it to seed, only a very small number will actually germinate and live more than a few months. From those, only a very small number will make it to maturity. Think of the millions of seeds a tree produces, but only one needs to live a full life cycle to replace the original tree. Pretty poor odds.


I've heard or the way I understand it is that larger say hundred year old tree has ample reserves of carb and or sugar for utilization in following years. For example a 30" diameter tree may hold enough carbs and or sugar to produce say 10-15 gallons of syrup if there was a man made way to make water convect through the tree to release all the sugar it contains at that given time- of course there would maybe be a carb to sugar conversion issue without the tree being in a natural process- but in theory there could be say 10-15 gallons worth of sugar In that tree at any time

Complicated questions, but yes (in a way)....a large tree does have a huge amount of carbohydrate (sugar) stored in its tissues. Even when it dies, there is a lot of sugar left. We can't get all of it out....the tree probably can't even get all of it out (for example, carbs that are trapped in "heartwood" are no longer accessible to the tree). There is much left to be learned about how trees sequester and partition carbohydrates to various functions or storage.

[blissville maples]

Really, wow even in the Heartwood?? So that sugar could literally be tens of years old?? I am so intrigued of the fact that some of the older trees could have quite possibly had Abraham Lincoln or George Washington walk by one of them. Hate seeing them come down by power company on some folks yard!

[blissville maples]

I wonder if that is why hard maple firewood seems to grow mold on the ends as it dries or mildew rather