Dark wood

[Jacob]

I only have one tree so I tap alot of neighbors trees one of the holes I drilled had dark wood shavings it does have sap coming out I have thought of drilling a different hole what are your thoughts

[psparr]

Is the sap clear? If so I would just leave it. If the sap is off color, you hit a rotten spot and I would move the tap.

[Jacob]

Thanks for your reply I will check big warm up coming this week being on someone else property I hate to pull tap and have sap running down tree
QUOTE=psparr;342949]Is the sap clear? If so I would just leave it. If the sap is off color, you hit a rotten spot and I would move the tap.[/QUOTE]

[maple flats]

If you do pull the tap, do not try to plug the hole. It's far better for the tree to seal itself off. Being a neighbor's tree you might want to explain what happened, or just keep collecting the sap from it, and when back home, dump that sap, it depends on the neighbor and if they would understand the explanation or not. Also, did you drill into old tapwood? That also gives dark shavings, but any sap flow would be short lived.

[Jacob]

I believe why I hit dark wood it was close to erea that kind of looked like it was split years ago , and I knew not to plug hole with anything just not sure what I will do the tree is one of my best

If you do pull the tap do not try to plug the hole. It's far better for the tree to seal itself off. Being a neighbor's tree you might want to explain what happened, or just keep collecting the sap from it, and when back home, dump that sap, it depends on the neighbor and if they would understand the explanation or not. Also, did you drill into old tapwood? That also gives dark shavings, but any sap flow would be short lived.