tapping heights question.

[Hkb82]

Just wondering if I can tap my trees at higher positions to gain some extra drop in my lines? Is there a height that is to high. My bush the trees reach way up before they branch out so I was thinking I could gain some slope by placing taps higher up on my trees. I plan on running lines down to the shack this year.

[Russell Lampron]

In places where I need to tap high to get some slope I tap the end trees as high as I can reach and still be able to pull the tap at the end of the season.

[Sinzibuckwud]

Ran 450' of 3\16ths for the first time this year (also right to the shack) and going from the back hill to the woods I had to cross a small gully and plan on tapping two maples about 6 1\2 foot up. It's not ideal for an individual tap, I feel the gain in vacuum on the 12 trees further down the line that do very poorly on buckets, will more than make up for the loss in those two maples in my case. I just left the ladder out there for repairs and pulling taps.
I wouldn't want to go too much higher myself but have seen pictures and video of lines tapped 8 and 9 foot up the tree.

[Mark B]

I remember reading a paper on tapping heights, sometime in the last year, and it seemed to me that according to the paper six to eight feet was the sweet spot for sweetness volume, and pressure, but the paper talked about the fact that they had tapped trees all the way to 14 feet I believe.

[sugarsand]

We have a line coming off a side hill that crosses our driveway, the trees are tapped high enough that the gas truck can pass beneath. May not be ideal, but nessesary and they always produce with 3/16. I dont like to tap off a ladder, especially when its icy, but we do what we have to do.

[maple flats]

While I have tapped a few trees high to gain slope, it is not an idea that helps get more sap total. As you tap higher in the tree the internal pressure drops, thus less sap will be gotten from that tap than if the tap was at 4-6' off the ground. But then, especially those on gravity need to gain some slope just to make collection possible or faster or simpler, there you need to balance the facts with your situation to decide what to do. Even with 3/16, the gain from natural vacuum does not quite make up for the pressure loss inside the tree, but it does help.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I have taps as high as I can reach at my end lines and I think as lone as its a maple that has sap in it then its going on line. I have tapped with 2 feet of snow on the ground and wanting good tap height come tap pulling time I needed a ladder. Now I have a nice CDL 32" aluminum tap puller works great.

[eagle lake sugar]

We typically have 3' of snow when we tap, so many of my taps are 8' to 9' from the ground. It can be a challenge when we pull taps after the snow leaves. I put an extension pipe on my tap puller so I can reach them all.

[blissville maples]

While I have tapped a few trees high to gain slope, it is not an idea that helps get more sap total. As you tap higher in the tree the internal pressure drops, thus less sap will be gotten from that tap than if the tap was at 4-6' off the ground. But then, especially those on gravity need to gain some slope just to make collection possible or faster or simpler, there you need to balance the facts with your situation to decide what to do. Even with 3/16, the gain from natural vacuum does not quite make up for the pressure loss inside the tree, but it does help.


However keep in mind that you also get sweeter sap higher up since it has to travel thru more wood tissue from the ground up. It's not necessarily about how much sap, but how much sugar is in that sap. Considering the higher up you go less varmits can reach the lines also..