Be nice to your maples.

[Justin Turco]

I've read that you don't want to drive your metal taps in too tight because it can split the bark above and below the tap. I'd rather have a bucket fall off a tree than to damage trees the way I've seen in a few places in my woods.

The other thing that I think I have figured out has to do with pulling the tap out: If you pull it in one motion, you risk pulling the bark away from the tree all around the tap hole. I have concluded that it is best to "tunk" the tap side to side & up and down to loosen it up before pulling it out.

I've not seen either of these occurances with the plastic spouts.

And finally, it is important to give your trees a hug once in a while. And also,.... always always...... talk nice to them.

[PA mapler]

I finally got the chance to do some badly-needed thinning around the upper bush this spring. I hated to do it, but in the process I had to remove a few sugar maples because they were just too crowded. Four tightly-crowded 14-inch sugars, or two rapidly growing healthy sugars? Call me weird, but I'll take the 4-wheeler up to the upper bush and look at the gaps in the tree canopy, and almost hear the maples saying "Ahhhh, that's much better. . . . "

[cncaboose]

I spent 2 and half hours in the woods last night thinning, cutting almost 100% young sugars. Thinning the young trees is the only way I'm going to get the keepers big enough to tap in my lifetime, at least while I'm physically able to do it. The young maples make fabulous sugar wood too with no splitting. I also did soil pH testing in the woods finding pH readings between 5.0 and 5.4. Time for some liming in there this year to be started soon. Trees in my yard with lime and fertilizer have been adding at least an inch of diameter every 3 years. I will confess to talking to the trees and patting them at least once in a while. Too much of that though and the guys in the white coats will be taking me away.